Between two worlds Sheikh
By Yahya Ibrahim | 2026-01-12T20:52:45.818152+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Between Two Worlds - Quest for Success
بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
Opening
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
Always and forever we begin with the praise of God.
We send our prayers of peace upon our Nabi Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم). We begin by sending the choicest benedictions upon him and all of those who preceded him in the call of that which is just and truth. We pray that our Lord Allah Almighty leads our hearts to taqwa.
And that is a conscious awareness. That is a voluntary process that we choose to love of God and be of fearing of God and of course in equal measure having hope in his mercy in this life and in the life to come.
It is a great honor and a distinct privilege that I have an opportunity for the next 20 minutes or so to stand before you and speak about faith. Speak about that which is dear to my heart and I pray is something that is of importance and value inshallah to you and your loved ones.
Of the greatest privileges of course is whenever we connect together that we make our theme the word of God and the scripture. Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى) tells us in the Qur'an that this scripture that was given as a final testament to humanity the last word of God has preconditions to its receiving its benefit and blessing.
The Topic Between Two Worlds
And today my discussion will be confined to the topic that was chosen for me between two worlds. And honestly as I was sitting there thinking about what the topic meant to me and what I wanted to share with you I asked some of the brothers what do you think the two worlds that are you know that's asked for me to discuss how do you perceive that?
And one brother said you know dunya versus akhira. You know the worldly life compared to the grandeur of the next life. Another brother he said no no it's the dunya but the struggle to not go too far in this worldly life that you ruin the next life. And another one he said no it's you know the dunya it's not just about this life but it's about what you want and your ambition in it and not to lose other aspects that are also of importance. And the overall arching theme is the quest for success.
Surah Al-Fatiha and Success
And I want to begin with Surah Al-Fatiha. And I want you to kind of think about the gravity of why it is the opening chapter of Islam. See the book of Allah the Quran which is the source for us as Muslims as the stepping stone the cornerstone of all success.
So whenever you and I want to measure success and success is something metric you can measure it. How successful are you financially? I can measure what do you have in your bank account? What kind of car do you drive? What's your postcode? It's measurable. How successful are you academically? What are your credentials? What are your qualifications? And not just what they are but where did you earn them? Which university rather than which? But one of the things that is not measurable is the effect of success in your life.
And there's many people who have and live between those two worlds and that's where I want to confine my discussion. The pursuit of this worldly success but not at losing the contentment of heart and satisfaction of love and family.
Allah begins the Quran as a kitab. You know the concept of a book is a very sacred concept for us as Muslims. At the time of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) there wasn't one volume. There wasn't one mushaf where all of the Quran was in one place.
Every verse was written, gathered and collected in the hearts of people and on leaf, on bark, on deer skin, on many places. But it wasn't kitab in the concept of kitab you and I have as one volume. But it had a coherence.
And the coherence is not chronological. The Quran, unlike the Bible, does not begin in the beginning and end at the end. The Quran begins with Al-Fatiha, the opening.
And you begin with the name of God:
"In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful."
And you acknowledge Allah as the Lord of mercy, the giver of all mercy, who is especially merciful to those who distinguish themselves.
There's an excelling, cascading effect of mercy that you have between you and Allah that you can attain. You begin by acknowledging God and then recognizing that you are bound to what He seeks of you:
"I'm thankful to the opportunity to be able to worship you and recognize you."
An opportunity that many are denied. And of the greatest ni'mah, of the greatest blessings, graces, and the concept of ni'mah is something you are given that you haven't earned.
You didn't do anything really to earn it. Had you not been given iman and led to it, you would not have come to it. We ask Allah to increase our hidayah and of our children and children's children.
So you praise the Almighty:
The Lord of all existence. Because He is:
You know that word Ar-Rahman, it's the only name of Allah that's used unilaterally. All of the other names and attributes of Allah are used in combination. But that word Ar-Rahman is the only one that on its own is meaningful.
That whether you invoke Allah as Allah in all of His might, or you single out the conceptualization in your heart, that He is the giver, the Lord of all mercy. Whichever name you choose of Him, you will find Him the one who answers those who turn to Him in invocation.
I recognize that your mercy in this life must be thanked. And I understand that on the Day of Judgment I'll stand before you and be questioned about my existence and my being, my life.
The same word, the Lord of all existence. To Him alone is my devotions and prayers, my sacrifice and slaughter, my whole existence and my life and death. For Him alone, the Lord of all existence.
And you come to that recognition that He is the Malik, the dominant on the Day of Judgment, the one you are accountable to for the little and the small:
"Take possession of your book."
"You'll be enough sufficient of a judge for or against yourself on that day."
The Central Request
So it's at that moment, in my salah, in your salah, 17 times a day, I begin to ask Allah for something. And I want to sign a contract after recognizing the one I'm obligated to. I ask for my first request:
"Lead all of us."
Look at the wording, it's not اهْدِنِي. Every other aspect of this surah, it's very personal, you and Allah.
الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ | acknowledge God. (الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ - unilaterally, me, myself).
But then you come and ask for something that you want to give universal as a value:
اهْدِنَا Not اهْدِنِي. All of us. Everyone I've met and haven't met. Those who are near and those who are far. Those who hear and those who can't. Those who read and those who are unlettered.
"Lead all of us to a straight path." Quran 1:6
A path between two worlds. (سُبْحَانَ اللهِ) A path that isn't innovated and new.
I don't want to walk a road that nobody's ever walked before. And I want you to understand the imagery of our laws as Muslims. Because some of these terms are very contentious.
Understanding Sharia and Sunnah
The concept of sharia. You hear that word, it's almost like it's a dirty word to be spoken in an English sounding context. The word sharia in Arabic simply means a path you walk to water.
And if you look at it in the context of people who lived in a desert, that meant it's the path you take to life. The word sunnah means the exact same thing as sharia. It is a path.
سَن طَرِيقًا A path you walk. Footsteps that you travel before you.
أَثَرْ The footsteps of those who you recognize and seek to model.
وزد The path that leads you to a well. Because if you go somewhere else, you're dead and destroyed. Without the replenishment.
And therefore the concept of sharia and sunnah. And the word of your reading of the Quran on every day. It just simply means revisit your relationship with Allah.
It is all a sirat. It is all that straight path. And that straight path doesn't meander. It doesn't go up and down and left and right. It's a path that leads you if you follow it. If you put your step where he stepped (صلى الله عليه وسلم). It will lead you to where your destination is.
But recognize that where he stepped was not a new step. He stepped where Abraham stepped. And he stepped where Moses stepped. And he stepped where Adam stepped. And therefore you say, God, O
Allah Almighty, lead me to a path that others who were favored before me followed.
"Not a path that has been tread upon by those who angered you."
You know that word مَغْضُوبٌ عَلَيْهِمْ. Those who earned your anger. Those who you showed your wrath to. In this life and in the next life.
Who are those who anger Allah? They are those who know the path and choose to walk off it.
See there's two types of us. There's those who know and choose obstinately, willfully, intentionally to meander. To sidestep. To take a detour. And therefore because of that choice, conscious, aware, voluntary, they say, I know this is the path, but I'm going that way. And no one will tell me how to live my life but me.
I'm not a submitter. I'm not a surrenderer, which is the correct meaning and translation of the word Islam. It's not correctly translated as simply peace.
Islam gives you peace because you are a Muslim. You surrender your will over to a dictate of that which will give you peace, even if at a time you don't yet understand that that is the source of peace.
Many people find it difficult. Really? Fasting? You know I have non-Muslim friends that say, so by being hungry that's going to give you peace? By waking up every day before the sun rises, 5 in the morning, 4 in the morning in the summer, that gives you peace? Doesn't that make you grumpy and tired? By giving from your wealth that you worked so hard to earn and you're making ends meet and you share it with others, that's going to give you peace?
Allah, don't close our heart and our sight to the path that makes us angry, angering to you.
The other world is not just simply that you anger God because you know what you should do, but the other path is that you don't seek. Misguidance,ضلال is that you don't know which way you're going.
But even though I know I don't know where I'm going, and I know who I should ask to find the direction, I intentionally go it alone. I intentionally go blind to the signs of God, to what my heart recognizes as truth. That my heart tells me, this is where you should be, these are the people you should be with.
Everything indicates to a truth and a submission to God, but I say if I know that I'm obligated, I'd rather be dumb, deaf, and blind.
"Deaf, dumb, and blind, so they do not understand." Quran 2:171
There's many people who are really clear sighted, able to see everything that surrounds:
"For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded." Quran 22:46
"But the heart is darkened to such a degree that it purposefully chooses to become unaware of its relationship with its Lord Almighty." Quran 22:46
And the moment you make that dua, you and those who hear it from you say, Ameen.
Which means, Oh my Lord, give me what He asked. Even if I didn't speak those words, and you're standing behind me in Salah, and I recite it aloud, you say, Ameen. Oh Allah, I didn't read it, but give me what that man asked for.
The Comprehensive Nature of Al-Fatiha
It is the most comprehensive seven verses السَّبْعُ الْمَثَانِي Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, he says that all of Islam is the Qur'an. And everything in the Qur'an is that opening chapter of Al-Fatiha. And everything in that chapter is that one ayah:
"You alone we worship, and You alone we ask for help." Quran 1:5
So if you were genuine, and you were truly of those who ask Allah for that success, to be guided to a path that you won't discover unless He turns your heart to it, unless you seek to be from those who limit your anger of Allah, and those who seek to have an enlightenment that you know you can find and need to search for, that requires effort and energy, Allah says, you want it? Turn the page.
The Mystery of Disjointed Letters
الم Alif Lam Meem, with these letters. Subhanallah. You know, a lot of people, they try to shake faith.
They'll come and they'll say, do you know everything that's in the Qur'an? You'll be like, no. Have you read the whole Qur'an? You understand it all? And you say, no. Well, how could you believe in something you haven't read completely, understand completely?
And I want you to know, it is okay for you to say, I don't know.
I say to you, that there is no human being on the surface of the earth who can say to you, I know the minute details of the Qur'an. Ask them, الم, or كهيعص. What does it mean? All of the Sahaba had different opinions.
Could you imagine if I walked in a church as a pastor, and I stood in front of the congregation and I began by saying, X, Q, B, Y, C. I'm reading to you the word of God. They'd be like, this man has lost his mind. What do you mean the word of God? And you as a Muslim, you have no problem with that.
You have no problem knowing that these Huruf, disjointed letters, are words, are letters, that are confined in the speech of God. That the Qur'an to us is not just the meaning of the word of God.
See, if I ask our cousins in faith, if I come to a pastor and I say, Reverend, did God say, in the beginning, to begin the Bible, to begin the Torah? He'll say, no. That's the writing of man. Giving you the meaning, the intent of the message of God. So the Bible is God's word in meaning, but not literal.
And I say, well, that's a difference between you and I. I actually, as a Muslim, I believe that the letter, ل, is from God. Sent. And because I don't know it, there's many other things that I don't know in the Qur'an, and I'm comfortable with my faith that I don't need to know every single detail about it.
So Allah begins:
الم
"Alif, Laam, Meem."
With these letters, I'm going to give you this final scripture:
"It will make up a book."
"You will find in it no contradiction." Quran 2:2
And one that is not open for you to question if you seek its blessing. (لَا رَيْبَ فِيهِ) Don't approach it with an insincerity of heart. Don't approach it with fact finding, with mistake finding. Don't approach it where your intent is I'm going to disprove it.
Approach it with a piety of heart where you seek to read it in its entirety, understand its coherence. You will then find it is a guidance, but not for everyone.
exclusively لِلْمُتَّقِينَ
"To those who come to it with a piety of heart."
In surah Qaaf, Allah makes it even clearer:
"This book, it is the reminder that mankind needs."
Meaning it's things you already know that has been sent to people who came before you. It's things that your fitrah, your natural inclination and human disposition calls you to. It is a dhikr:
"For the one who possesses a heart." Quran 50:37
Subhanallah. The first condition for you to benefit from the word of God is that you need a heart that's alive. You need a compassionate heart. One that wants to know and care and feel for yourself and others.
For the one who searched for their heart.
"And gives it their full hearing, full attention."
They threw their complete hearing at it.
"And they come to it hoping to bear witness to its trueness." Quran 50:37
And therefore you find that what galvanizes faith is not just simply the word of God but the preparedness for you to surrender yourself to the will of Allah. And therefore we exist between two worlds.
Between Two Worlds in Modern Context
A world at times for Muslims and non-Muslims that seeks to lure us away from the word of God. Not just the scripture that Muslims have but the very essence and principles what we refer to as qiyam that are of the Judeo-Christian doctrine and the doctrines that are unanimously agreed to as universal values.
Today you find a world where the very underpinnings of what is moral is shifting and changing. Where there's a cloudiness and a murkiness between what is ethical and what is not. Where it's okay to speak
half-truths to represent one side and not the other. Where it's okay to prejudice and prejudge and stereotype.
Where it's okay to characterize and hold accountable a person who has nothing to do with the crimes of others.
Last weekend I was in Christchurch and we performed the Janazah prayers and one of the most amazing experiences that I had was the outpouring of love that was expressed in the empathy of the New Zealander Kiwi people. I had men, women, children who would say I'm sorry.
And I would say this wonderful, lovely woman who draped a fabric over her head to honor me somehow and she would say I'm sorry with tears in her eyes and I would say to her why are you apologizing? You've done nothing wrong. And she says I just want you to know this is not us. And it hurt me.
Do you know why it hurt me? Because as Muslims and I was mentioning this earlier to some of our brothers as we were sitting in the room I said what hurt me was that at times I misunderstood. You know I misunderstood some really good people who would say things like Yahya, I really wish your community would come out and condemn some of the things that happen in the name of your religion. And I misunderstood in the sense that I thought they wanted me to take ownership.
And it's not me. I'm not the one who did that. I'm not the one who committed that terrorist act.
Just like that beautiful elderly Kiwi lady she was not the one who did that but she stood there with empathy with concern with an open heart and she said I'm sorry for something she didn't do not because she owned a crime but she wanted me to know that that's not us.
And one of the things that I say as Muslims that we fail at is that we don't express our revulsion although we do. It's in my heart in your home in our masjid in our imams in our statements from ANIC and mashallah the grand mufti all of us we denounce the atrocious actions but it's not that that's only important it's just that moment of someone feeling in your eyes in your heart in your embrace that this is abhorrent and it's something as Muslims I believe we can improve in.
It's not about what you put on your Facebook page and changing your profile picture to a flag but it's about letting people feel that genuineness of what we feel. I know it's in your heart but sometimes we're not as expressive as we could be and that really changed me wallahi it was such an amazing experience to be able to resonate with people on that level.
There are people who will try to hold us as Muslims as hostages. Sometimes the media onslaught will become so ferocious against everyone that I'll even send my wife a text and I'll say just be careful. I know you're out just be careful just don't have your phone in your hand and if you're sitting at a cafe and you're talking with friends don't put your back to the street and those kind of things and I know there's
other communities but really you feel that? Yes. And I know there's sisters who will feel that they feel that tension when they're outside a local community area that they feel more comfortable in.
It's a world that our faith doesn't call to and it's a failure on our part as Australians if we don't learn that lesson of what occurred in our neighboring country of New Zealand. Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( commands us to be from those who are upright and who speak a word of truth:
"even if it's against yourself" Quran 4:135
even if it's something that you see as a fault within us. I have four minutes left I wish I had longer because I don't want the message to be incomplete.
The Command for Excellence
The Quran commands:
"Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving [help] to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression." Quran 16:90
Our Quran calls us to that which is best in all things. The summary of the ayah - what's right but to do the best of what is right.
That's a very strange concept in the type of world that we live in today. It's something you don't see. It's not just I'm gonna do what's right well that's right you know I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna do the least of what's right. Well I didn't lie. I didn't cheat. I didn't take it all. I didn't need it all. I didn't move. I didn't...
In fact, your faith compels you to do the best of what is right:
And it asks you not just to stay away from what's wrong but to stay as far away as you can from what is wrong. To be as transparent as clear and as abhorrent as whatever it is you find is something that is sinful practice to be as clear of it as you can.
I'm going to leave you with one final verse from the Qur'an. Allah )سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى( says:
"That worldly next life the life that we all seek you know that place in paradise"
"Allah says because I have dedicated it prepared it for those who do not seek ascendancy in this life"
If your only claim to happiness if your only claim to success is material is temporal is in the here and now if your only success is in the things that you can hold things that you can make use of and you haven't had savings for that which is beyond this life know that there is an imbalance and you preferred one life over the next.
Not just that they don't want to have supremacy in this earth but they don't want to cause any trouble or havoc for others.
Live with this maxim of our law:
لا لِي وَلَا عَلَيَّ
I want to leave this life you, your aim to leave this life where nobody owes you anything and more importantly that you owe nobody anything that you leave a soft footprint that not even a tree has been cut down unnecessarily by you.
The Prophet of Islam (صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) says:
(Sunan Abu Dawud)
"Don't ever kill unnecessarily an ant or a bee"
(صَلَّى اللهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ) that a heart of someone who is a believer who is compassionate is a person who shows charity even to the ants that crawl one of my teachers in Al Medina I remember we were eating and every night we'd eat and the last few scraps of breadcrumbs you know you break bread on a table and there's a few breadcrumbs he would take out his handkerchief and he would pull them into that little handkerchief and I thought that's a very strange thing to do like what are you going to do with these breadcrumbs off the table it's a small amount, you can't even pick them up with your fingers and he'd put them in his handkerchief and he'd put his handkerchief in his pocket and we'd walk out and maybe about the 5th or 6th night I said to him, Sheikh what are you doing? why are you taking these breadcrumbs? He said, Sadaqah it's a charity who are you going to feed breadcrumbs to? and then I noticed as we were walking he would take out discreetly all of his students around him he would take out discreetly his handkerchief and just empty it out on the ground where he saw ants or little insects that were roaming it was his act of charity even in that compassion that's the ideal of a Muslim that's the heart of someone who submitted their affair to Allah who understands that Allah is the greatest Allah is the greatest when
you say soon mean it mean it by showing it that there's nothing greater in your life than what he's asked and there's no great worry that you have that's greater than him that he can't assist you in and there's no success that you've ever accomplished that wasn't because of what he helped you and determined for you in your fate to achieve.
Closing Dua
May Allah grant me and you longevity faithfulness and commitment may Allah open our hearts to others and may that be reason for us to join with each other in the almighty paradise. I leave you with a final dua of one of the great Imams Al-Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi he was a great scholar of faith and he was teaching his students by the banks of the Euphrates river and on the other side of the banks there were people who were committing sinful behavior they were getting drunk and messing around and this is 8-900 years ago and his students who were committed to the study of faith, the sacred knowledge they said to him, Sheikh, just ask God to get rid of these people, look at them, they're ruining everything, they were here to study were enjoying the creation of God and their, you know, their lewdness and sinfulness.
Al-Imam Ibn Al-Jawzi, he said:
"Oh Allah, as you gave them happiness in this life, even though it was in a sinful way, make their greatest happiness in the next life meaning, let them come towards you, change their life so that they understand that true happiness is not the here and now alone but in the days to come"
May we be all joined in the company of al-Nabiyeen, al-Siddiqeen, al-Shuhada' al-Saliheen, al-Rafiqah
وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ
وَصَلَّى اللهُ وَسَلَّمَ عَلَى نَبِيِّنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا