How To Find Allah

How To Find Allah

"

"

Opening

I always remind myself and you of TaqwaAllah (عَزَّ وَجَلٌ - azza wa jal) and I pray that Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) makes that which is private with us, that which is hidden within us, of a greater capacity and merit than that which we seek to show others publicly and dramatically in our public life.

"

I wish for you to excuse me, Wallahi subhanallah, I'm not feeling very well today and had I not been forced to have a nap after Asr by my wife, I might not have made it.

But I ask Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) to give us the strength today, inshallah, and may Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala) make it a fruitful night. It is a wonderful joy to see so many people here, so many young people here, and I wish to acknowledge our brothers at Al-Salam who have invited me. I know it's been difficult, subhanallah, to coordinate the times with (جَزاهُمُ اللهُ خَيْرًا - jazahumullahu khairan) for making an effort to get myself, our brother Wahaj, and our brother Wa'il to be part of this wonderful night.

The Topic - Finding Allah

The topic that I would like to speak to you about for the next 20 minutes, inshallah, is about finding Allah, and it's really more a question than a statement. The questions that really you would want to ask yourself is, you know, have I lost Allah? Do I not know where Allah is? And do I need to be reminded how to find a sabeel, a pathway, to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى - subhanahu wa ta'ala)?

See, one of the things, especially for my young brothers and sisters, one of the things that I struggled with when I was sitting where you're sitting, when I was your age. I'm not that old, by the way. Yeah, I'm just saying. I'm almost 40, but not 40 yet, right? Alhamdulillah, soon, inshallah.

You know, I remember I would hear the Imams, and I would read in the books, and when I was your age, I was studying the deen. I was studying it a little bit, maybe more seriously than some of you are able to today. And I remember sitting with some of my teachers, whether in Egypt or Saudi Arabia or wherever, I remember sitting and I'd hear these stories of the people of the Salaf.

You'd hear about, you know, Abu Bakr (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ - radi Allahu anhu) or Umar, or Uthman or Ali (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ - radi Allahu anhum ajma'een). You'd hear about Ummahatul Mu'mineen, you'd hear about Sahabiyyat, Umm Amara, you'd hear about these people, and you'd hear about the sincerity and the feats that they would perform.

You'd hear that Al-Imam Abu Hanifa, you know, he would finish the whole Qur'an in one night in prayer. You'd hear Al-Imam Al-Shaafi'i (رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ، رَحْمَةُ اللهِ عَلَيْهِمْ - radi Allahu anhu, rahmatullahi alayhim) that he would recite the Qur'an 60 times in Ramadan.

You'd hear that Sufyan Ibn Uyayna made 60 hajj, and every day, every time in Arafah, he would make dua'a to Allah. He would say, Oh Allah, bring me back next year. Until the final year, the 60th year, he didn't make that dua'a, and he died the month before hajj.

And when they asked him, why didn't you make that dua'a? He said, I'm shy from Allah. 60 years is too much. Abdullah Ibn Umar did 60. I didn't want to exceed him. اللهُ أَكْبَرُ. You hear these things.

The Struggle of Comparison

And I remember thinking to myself, man, I'm not even gonna make it to Jannah. Look what these guys are doing. When they pray, they cry. When they read the Qur'an, it softens their heart. Abu Bakr came, gave all of his money to the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and to Allah. Abu Dahdah gave 400 trees for one tree in Jannah.

(رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُمْ - radi Allahu anhum). What are we doing? Where are we going? And you read these things, you hear this all the time in Jum'ahs and Khutbahs. And it would stun me.

And I would think to myself, man, I'm a hypocrite. I like to watch TV. I'm memorizing. Alhamdulillah, I had finished the Qur'an. I was studying tafsir. I'm studying the hadith of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). Yeah, but I like to watch something. I like to watch some sports. I like to play basketball. I like to go out with my friends.

Where am I going? Where is Allah in my life? And that's what I want to talk to you today about. Because sometimes people can trick you into thinking that you're worse than you are. And sometimes you can trick yourself into thinking you're better than you are.

Listen to what I just said. Sometimes, it could be even your parents, could be your teachers. They might make you think you're worse than you are. They put you down. They make you feel like not even the rubbish is good enough for you. You're not even worthy to be put in the rubbish.

Sometimes the way we talk to each other makes us feel low. And sometimes you make yourself think you're better than you are. And in between that is the balance. In between that is the sunnah of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). In between that is finding Allah.

The Search for Allah

And Allah tells you to search for Him. Every single Prophet, every single Messenger of Allah searched. They went out and looked. They'd look up into the heavens. You know Allah says at the end of Surah

"Oh Allah, you didn't create this for no reason. Oh Allah, I don't know enough to know the reason. Oh Allah, I'm not special" Quran 3:191

Look at the words of the pious that Allah records their du'a. They say, oh Allah, we heard someone calling. Calling us to iman. I didn't understand everything.

"Oh Allah, I just believed." Quran 3:193

I believed in what you sent.

"We hear, we obey. Oh Allah, forgive us." Quran 3:193

"Oh Allah, I'm gonna make mistakes. Don't hold it against me if I make a mistake. Or even if I did it on purpose, if I made a mistake." Quran 2:286

Knowledge as the Path to Finding Allah

Finding Allah. So there's a search. And that search begins with ʿilm. Knowledge. See, it's one thing to say, Oh I know brother, I know. I mean I know enough. No, you don't know. Here's what you don't know. The moment you think you know, you don't know.

The moment you think I have enough, you have nothing. The moment you think, Oh I know how to read the Qur'an, it's enough. You don't know how to read the Qur'an. The moment you think I've memorized enough, you've done nothing. You've lost your way to Allah. Because the first of commands to our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) was Iqra'.

The first command of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) is Allah (جَلَّ جَلَالُهُ - jalla jalaluhu) says to him Fa'lam. Come to a certainty of knowledge.

"

"That none is worthy of worship but Me. Ask Allah, ask Me for forgiveness and also for the believers. For yourself and then the believers." Quran 47:19

Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) for yourself, for Muhammad and the believers (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)

So how do you find Allah? Knowledge. And knowledge begins by shifa'a. Curing. Look at that word. Shifa'a Curing your ignorance. My ignorance.

The Disease of Ignorance

The only ailment the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) describes as being an illness and it's an infective, infectious illness is ignorance of our deen. The Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam), he talks about lacking an understanding of our deen as a disease.

One day there were some sahabi, the hadith is in Bukhari. And there's a riwayat in Muslim with abridged versions. One sahabi, he was riding with his companions, they were out on a journey, he fell off the camel. His head was split open, he hit a rock when he fell down.

And his companions, they got off the camels, they wrapped his turban tight, they saved his life, he came back to consciousness. This is near the end of the life of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). And when he woke up, you know they said, Alhamdulillah, you're fine now. He began to get stressed, drinking and eating fine.

Time of salah comes. Alright, make wudu. He goes, what do you mean make wudu? Can't I make tayammum? They say, what are you talking about? What, you think you're gonna invent your own deen? What do you mean make tayammum?

He said, look man, look my head. If I take the turban off, if I put water, I'm gonna die. They said, Allah says in the Qur'an, look, sometimes we're so ignorant. We think we know what we're talking about, but we're fools. We have no ilm.

They use the Qur'an, they say, no, no, no, Allah said, Allah said:

"If you don't have water, make tayammum. Then you can use earth to make a ritual cleansing." Quran 4:43

But we have water. What, you're gonna make your own madhab? You're gonna think for yourself? This is what Allah said. This is what Rasulullah (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) said. This is sunnah. He said, you sure? They said, yeah.

Took his turban off, made wudu, died. Got infected, died. They buried him in the desert. They came home a few days later, they see the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - sallallahu alayhi wa sallam)

Prophet asked, where is he? They told him the story.

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

"They murdered him. They killed him." Sahih al-Bukhari

(Sunan Abu Dawud)

"How dare they not come and ask me? How dare they think that they know enough just because they read a verse of the Qur'an? The cure for ignorance is to ask a question." Sunan Abu Dawud

The Importance of Asking Questions

See, sometimes you get these young people, they read a little bit of Qur'an, memorize the Qur'an, mashallah. They speak Arabic, mashallah. Tabarakallah. Oh no, no, Allah said. The Prophet said. The sunnah is this. And wallahi, they are further away from the sunnah although they claim it.

"

But it's an infectious illness.

"

"Don't they ask those who are kibar, senior to them in life experience, in knowledge, in behavior, in opportunity, in struggle, in da'wah."

"

"How dare they not ask?"

See, sometimes we have these questions, they're in here, in our chest. And we're too shy. You know, you might be shy to ask your father. I get a lot of my students, many of them, mashallah, alhamdulillah, it's beautiful to see all of you here. What's up Ibrahim? How you doing brother? You good? Alhamdulillah.

You get a lot of students, they ask questions. I don't mean Ibrahim does, but I'm just saying. They ask questions that they wouldn't ask their father. Ask about homosexuality. Ask about drugs. They ask about terrorism, extremism, khawarij, ISIS.

Sometimes you can't ask everyone. And not everyone who dresses like this has knowledge. يغني | dress like this because (أَنَا عَرَبِيٌّ يَعْنِي - ana arabiyun ya'ni) I'm an Arab. So (أَنَا عَرَبِيٌّ - ana arabiyun). It's easy.

I don't, you know, Shaykh Wa'il can get away with Chinese. I can't get away with the Chinese, brother. You look good in the Chinese. I've seen that get up, bro. I can't get away with that. I can't do that one.

أَنَا عَرَبِيٌّ . I can't get away with (كَمِيصٌ شَرْوَالٌ). I can't do that. So أَنَا عَرَبِيٌّ . This is what I wear back home in Egypt. This is my clothes.

I can get away with a suit as well because I'm Canadian. Baseball hat and all. It's not by the clothes. It's not someone who sits in the masjid a lot that that means they have knowledge. Not because they speak Arabic. It means they have knowledge.

You have to ask someone who knows:

"They're the ones who point you to Allah."

So people ask questions. Don't ever have a question in your heart where you think you can just search for an answer and come up with it on your own. Oh, I saw a YouTube video about it, brother. Oh yeah, I read. I googled. It's actually not Sheikh Google. It's Uncle Google.

Why is it Uncle Google? Because all of us have that one crazy uncle who knows everything, kind of. And he kind of fakes you out. You'll be like, man, how do you know how far the moon is? It's like Uncle Google. But not everything he says is right. You got to verify it with truth. With a reliable corroborating evidence, the Prophets of Allah did the same.

Examples of Prophets Asking Questions

And I want to end with this. I'm gonna give you just three examples from the Prophets of Allah asking questions that you and I would not ever dare ask Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى)

Musa (Peace be upon him)

Musa asks Allah. You know, Musa speaks to Allah با حجاب no barrier. Jibreel doesn't need to come and deliver a message. He speaks to Allah direct.

"Allah speaks to him direct, Moses."

After he speaks to Allah, Musa says, as is in Surah Al-A'raaf:

"I want to see you."

Allah says:

"You can never see me in this life. Waking up like the way you are, as you are, living like this, you will never see me."

"But look, Allah doesn't just say, you can't see me. Allah gives him evidence why. Look to that distant mountain."

"If it remains as you see it, I'll let you see me."

"When Allah's magnificence became known to the mountain in part, it was destroyed, and he fell down dead."

Allah brought him back to life to prove a point. He asks the question, I wanna know.

Ibrahim (Peace be upon him)

Ibrahim asks Allah as is in Surah Al-Baqarah. Because I'm telling you, if you have a question, you can't just keep it. You gotta ask. Ibrahim says to Allah:

"O Allah, show me how you bring the dead to life."

Allah says:

"Is it because you doubt? You don't believe? You don't believe I can do it, Ibrahim?"

"No, Allah, I believe in you, O Allah. But my heart, I just wanted to be at ease, meaning there's something here in my chest."

So Allah says, Allah doesn't say if you believe, خلاص forget it. Allah says, you believe? I'll still show you.

"Take four birds, different shapes and colors and sizes and feathers. Cut them into small pieces. Mix them up."

"Put some on every distant mountain."

"And then call them to you. They will come putting themselves back together and fly back to you."

اللهُ أَكْبَرُ

Isa (Peace be upon him)

Isa (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام). The Hawariyeen, the believers, the Sahaba of Jesus (عَلَيْهِ السَّلام). They believe in him. They saw him with their own eyes by the power of Allah. Bring the dead to life. Breathe into a clay model of a bird. With the power of Allah came into life. They saw him with the power of Allah cure the blind, and the deaf, and the mute.

All of this. And they still ask. They say:

"Ask Allah to bring down a table spread from the heaven. Something we can eat from." Quran 5:112

"We'll take it as a day of celebration."

And so it's a day that we will be proud of knowing Allah brought heavenly food down to us.

"Fear Allah. What's wrong with you people? Everything you saw, you want more?"

They have a question. Allah says, I will answer:

"I will bring it down to you."

But the one who eats from it and then disbelieves:

Quran 5:115

Allah gives them the answer to the question.

Three Questions for Self-Reflection

So that brings us back to you. Who do you ask? And what do you ask about? Do you even know what questions to ask? Have you taken it serious, this deen you have with Allah? This ahd, this amanah that is on your shoulders, the shoulders of humanity? That the heavens and the earth said, we don't want it. We can't bear it. The mountains said, Oh Allah, we can't bear it.

Three questions that I want you to begin with.

First Question: Do I Love Allah?

The first question is, do I love Allah? Have I chosen Allah? Do I... See, you might think that you're just a Muslim just because you were born Muslim. Wallahi, it's not that easy. You're not a Muslim just because you were born Muslim.

You're a Muslim because you made a choice.

"You have to give yourself to Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى)."

There are things that are conditional to your belief in Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى)

Second Question: Have I Taken Steps on the Path?

Number two, so do I love Allah? Have I chosen Allah? Have I submitted to Allah? That's the first step towards Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى). Number two, have I walked and taken the first step on His Sirat al- Mustaqeem? Have I planned to take the steps that will lead me to Jannah? Or am I just living life by accident?

Whatever happens, happens. If my parents take me to the masjid, I go to the masjid. If they don't, I'm not gonna go. If my father tells me, did you pray? I pray. If he doesn't, I don't. If my mother doesn't take me to dugsi, yes, I know, waria brothers. Inshallah, waria. My mother takes me to dugsi, I go. If she doesn't, I don't.

Wallahi, my father might even be watching. When I first came to memorize the Qur'an, I was 15 years old, 16 years old maybe. And I said to my father, it was Ramadan. I said, I want to memorize. He goes, you can't do it. I said, why? He said, I don't think you can do it. I said, no, I can. My brother said, I can do it. He said, okay, do it. I said, can you drive me to the masjid?

He goes, why? Do I drive you to school? How do you go to school? He said, take the bus. Six months in the snow, brothers. You know Canada? You don't know Canada. Minus 20, man. You want it? You want it? You want the Qur'an or you don't? You gonna go or you gonna stay home? What do you want? You wanna be spoon-fed like a baby? Or you gonna get up and cook it? That's what you gotta do.

So are you walking the straight path? Or is people carrying you every step of the way?

Third Question: What Am I Willing to Give Up for Allah?

And third and finally, and I leave you with this question, is what am I willing to give up for Allah? What are you willing to give up? Because nothing you're ever gonna be successful in life, except you have to give up something to achieve it. Doesn't matter what it is.

You wanna be the greatest football player in the world? You gotta give something up to kick goals. You gotta train, you gotta eat right, you gotta have this and that. All of that has to be done. And it's the same with Allah.

What are you going to give up to be successful in finding Allah?

Conclusion

And if you find Allah, it is as the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) says to Abdullah ibn Abbas, a young man like you, a young Muslim like you, my brothers and sisters:

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

"Guard Allah, He will guard you."

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

"Guard Allah, you will find Him in front of you, always with you, always leading you in success in life."

And I pray that Allah (جَلّ جلاله) gives you and I success in life.

Closing Dua

May Allah (جَلَّ جَلَالُهُ) bless all of your homes, all of your families. May Allah (جَلَّ جَلالة) honor all of your steps in this life. May Allah (جَلٌ جَلالة) forgive us our sins and our mistakes. May Allah (جَلٌ جَلَالُهُ) bring us closer to the sunnah and the ideal of the Nabi Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم).

May Allah (جَلٌ جَلَالُهُ) allow us to love him with our actions, not just the words of our tongue and the emotions of our heart. May Allah (جَلَّ جَلَالُهُ) who has joined us in this blessed day to join us and in this

blessed gathering to join us all once again in Jannatul Firdaus with Nabi Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم)

I say this and I ask Allah (جَلٌ جَلالة) to forgive me and you, so forgive him. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Glory be to You, O Allah, and all praise be to You. I bear witness that there is no god but You. I seek Your forgiveness and repent to You.

وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ