Adoring the Creator and Serving the Creation

Adoring the Creator and Serving the Creation

Imam Zaid Shakir - 15th MAS ICNA Convention

Opening Remarks and Prayer for Unity

First of all, let me say what a great honor and pleasure it is to be here with all of you, so many wonderful Muslims from so many wonderful places around North America, even outside of the country. And we pray that as we move forward, we can remain a united community. We pray that we can face the challenges that we inevitably will face, that we can face them with unity, with love in our hearts for each other, and with a spirit of mercy, adorning the Creator, serving the creation.

The Essence of Our Religion: Worship

This is really the essence of our religion. Allah reminds us, and we're all familiar with the verse:

"I have only created the jinn and the humans to worship Me."

That's our purpose. Philosophers reflect on the question, ponder on the question. The question drives some people mad. What is the purpose of life? We've been given the answer in just a succinct, brief, but profound statement.

Our purpose in this world is to worship our Lord. That's our purpose. In the good times, the bad times, the hard times, the easy times, the sunny days, the rainy days, snowy days, cloudy days, you name it, whatever the weather brings, we worship Allah.

Facing Tests and Overcoming Fear

And we understand that we're being tested in that regard. Will we slacken during the difficult times? Will we allow the fear of the creation to remove the fear and reverence of the Creator from our hearts? We see a lot of evil designs being expressed against the Muslims. And I say evil because at the end of the day, they emanate from the Awliya of Shaitaan.

"That is Satan. He wants to instill the fear of his dupes into you. Don't fear them. Fear Me, if indeed you are believers."

إِن كُنتُم مُّؤْمِنِينَ - We are believers, brothers and sisters. And as believers, our first love, and our last love, and our ultimate love, and the ultimate object of our adoration is Allah.

The Intensity of Love for Allah

Allah reminds us that we should love Him more than anyone or anything else:

"Those who believe are more intense in their love of Allah, in their love for Allah, than their love for anyone or anything else."

We love Allah.

Two Great Blessings from Allah

We love Allah because we realize, amongst other things, that there are two great blessings that we have received only from Allah. And every other blessing that we enjoy is predicated on those two blessings: نِعْمَةُ الْإِيجَادِ وَنِعْمَةُ الْإِمْدَادِ - The blessing of being brought into existence and the blessing of being sustained in existence.

And it is a blessing. I don't care how much difficulty you might have in your life. I don't care how much struggle we might be wrapped up in. I don't care how much disease or illness afflicts us, because the fact that we've been brought into this existence has given us an opportunity for eternal bliss. For eternal bliss. Eternal bliss.

Understanding Eternity

That opportunity would not exist were we not brought into existence. And eternity is a long, long, long, long time. The great Muhammad Ali, and some of you might have seen this on YouTube, he was talking about eternity.

Eternal bliss or eternal torment. And he said, if you want to get an idea of eternity, and what we're talking about, imagine yourself in the Sahara Desert, surrounded by sand. And every 1,000 years, you picked up one grain of sand, and you put it aside.

And then after 1,000 years, you picked up another grain of sand. Imagine how long it would take you to pick up every drop of sand in the Sahara Desert. At that rate, eternity renders that length of time, the time it would take to pick up every drop of sand in the Sahara Desert, one drop at a time, every 1,000 years, pales when compared to eternity.

Brothers and sisters, you and I have an opportunity for eternal bliss based on what we do in this world, based on our adoration and our service to Allah.

The Story of Love and Focus

But in addition to loving and adoring and looking forward to meeting - if you love someone, you look forward to meeting them. If you love your wife, you can't wait to go home. You're counting the minutes, like this clock here is counting my minutes. Like 10 o'clock break, looking at your watch. 10:30, can't wait to go home. 10:45, you shoot her a text. Yeah, I love you. I can't wait to get home to see you and get some of your cooking.

12 o'clock, looking at the watch. 1 o'clock, send another text. I love you, baby. I can't wait to get home. You can't wait to meet your beloved. Those who love Allah, can't wait to meet Allah.

مَنْ أَحَبَّ لِقَاءَ اللَّهِ أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ لِقَاءَهُ

"The one who loves to meet Allah, Allah loves to meet them." (Sahih Bukhari 6507, Sahih Muslim 2683)

But that love has to be our greatest love. I'm going to tell you a story now about love. I don't want you to ever forget it. Are you guys ready? You have your notebooks out?

There was a guy, right? He was walking in the souk, the old souk, the kind they used to have in Morocco or Damascus or Quds. In the wintertime, it's muddy. And before cars, you had the animals and horse carts, and they're dropping the dung and the manure in the mud. It's really sloppy. But anyway, so he's walking in the mud in the souk, and he sees a beautiful woman.

She's more beautiful than any woman he's ever seen in his life. And so he calls out, Salaam alaikum, sister. Salaam alaikum, sister. And he gets her attention, and she waits, and he comes sloshing up in the mud. He says, Sister, salaam alaikum. Walaikum salaam, brother.

Sister, you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. It was love at first sight. I have to marry you. She says, no problem. I'll marry you, brother. Yes, Allah is good. Allah is good.

Then she said, but if you saw my sister, you wouldn't think twice about me. Really? You mean she's more beautiful than you? She said, I look like a potato sack compared to my sister. Where's she at? Where's she at? She says, she's over there. And when he turned around, she clobbered him. And he fell in the mud and the manure and the dung.

And he looked at her, and he said, why'd you do that, sister? And she said, because a lover never takes his eye off of his beloved. Brothers and sisters, never take your eye off of Allah.

Expressing Love Through Service

But understand, an expression of our love for Allah is our service to our fellow creatures. Allah mentions in the Quran, He's addressing us, believers. O you believers, whoever turns back on their religion. And here, as the exegetes make clear, it's not in terms of apostasy.

Whoever turns back from helping and assisting the religion. And helping and assisting the religion is serving other people. It's assisting other people. It's bringing, allowing the light of faith and the light of love for our Creator to reflect in our actions towards His creation.

And so Allah says, whoever turns back from serving the religion, from working for My creatures, from teaching good to people, uplifting the poor, assisting the downtrodden, entering happiness into the hearts of the believers, and all of the other wonderful things. Working for the environment, that is one of the foundations of our life in this world. Working to assist those who are oppressed in various parts of the world. That's all part of our service.

Serving the elderly and assisting them. Serving the children and helping to pave the way for a brighter future for them. This is part of our service to our deen. Whoever fails to do that, Allah says, He will bring another people.

In other words, merely loving Allah is not enough. That love has to translate into action. And He says what? He will bring another people, whom He will love and they will love Him. Whom He will love and they will love Him.

Following the Prophet as the Key to Allah's Love

In other words, just as following our Prophet is one of the keys to the love of Allah. Say to them, oh Muhammad, if indeed you love Allah, then follow me, then Allah will love you.

So what is the key to Allah's love in this context? Following the Messenger. And what is the key to the love of Allah in the context we began with? Assisting the religion, serving people, assisting people, uplifting people, visiting the sick.

The Hadith of Abu Bakr's Service

One of the many, many instances when the Prophet testified that a person will be in Paradise. What was the foundation of that testimony of the Prophet? A group of his companions gathered around him:

مَنْ أَصْبَحَ مِنْكُمُ الْيَوْمَ صَائِمًا؟ قَالَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ: أَنَا

"Who amongst you woke up this day and committed himself or herself to fasting? Abu Bakr said, I did. I did."

مَنْ تَبِعَ مِنْكُمُ الْيَوْمَ جَنَازَةً؟

"Who amongst you followed a funeral procession today?" Abu Bakr said, I did.

مَنْ عَادَ مِنْكُمُ الْيَوْمَ مَرِيضًا؟

"Who of you visited a sick person today?"

قَالَ أَبُو بَكْرٍ: أَنَا

"Abu Bakr said, I did."

مَنْ أَطْعَمَ مِنْكُمُ الْيَوْمَ مِسْكِينًا؟

"Who of you fed a hungry person today?"

Abu Bakr said, I did.

فَقَالَ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ: مَا اجْتَمَعْنَ فِي امْرِئٍ إِلَّا دَخَلَ الْجَنَّةَ

"Then the Prophet ﷺ said: These characteristics gathering in a person will certainly enter them into Paradise." (Sahih Muslim 1028)

These characteristics, all of them involving - except the first which is service to our soul - involve serving others: burying the deceased, following the janazah, visiting the sick, feeding the hungry. These are the things that invite the love of Allah and that enter us into Paradise.

So Allah says, those who work and assist this cause, they will be the people whom I love and they will love Me, whom I love and they will love Me. Brothers and sisters, this is our call, this is our mission, to serve our Creator and to serve His creation.

The Two Great Blessings Revisited

The second quality we mentioned نِعْمَةُ الْإِيجَادِ - the blessing of being brought into existence, وَنِعْمَةُ الْإِمْدَادِ - the blessing of being sustained in existence. These are things we cannot do for ourselves. These are things that Allah has given to us and these are things we should cherish and these are things we should love Allah for, based on the opportunity that they afford us for eternal bliss.

Being a Charitable and Loving Community

Brothers and sisters, we must be a charitable community, reflecting those values and virtues of Abu Bakr. We must be a loving community, loving not only our Lord, but understanding a function of our love for our Lord is our love for each other. If we love Allah, just as any other beloved that might exist in our life, we want to meet our beloved and to meet our beloved we have to succeed on the last day, to meet our beloved in the best of manners.

What is one of the conditions for meeting our Lord? You will not enter Paradise until you truly believe. So, the meeting with Allah in the best of circumstances is the meeting of Allah in Jannah. The greatest delight in Jannah is the Ru'yah, where we meet our Lord and behold our Lord in the full splendor of our Lord.

That incomparable meeting, when the Creator meets the created, when the Absolute meets the contingent. But for that to occur, you will not enter Jannah. And therefore, meet Allah in the best of days, in the best of ways, before the Hisab, until you truly believe.

The Hadith on Loving One Another

And you will not truly believe until you love one another, until you love one another. Brothers and sisters, loving one another means exactly that, loving one another. Loving one another means we try to build each other up, not tear each other down.

Loving one another means when we err, we work to correct that mistake in the best of ways so that in the process of correcting the mistake, we do not tear down the bonds of love that should exist between us. You will not truly believe until you love one another. Shall I direct you to something, were you to do it, you would truly love one another? Spread peace amongst yourselves.

The greeting of peace and the spirit of peace. Greet each other, hug each other, but the spirit of peace, salam. So we say, assalamu alaikum, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah to all of the beloveds to my right, assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullah to all of the beloveds to my left.

The True Meaning of Salam

That's half of the job. Salam comes from salima, yaslamu - to ensure the safety and security of someone. So my

salam has to make sure that I don't render you imperfect. Allah As-Salam - Some of us are converts. I'm a convert. Let me tell you a convert story. This is a convert story.

Most converts, 99 percent of us, we try to be clever people. So when we learn assalamu alaikum, one of the first things any Muslim learns, we learn the translation, peace upon you. And then eventually we start learning the 99 names of Allah.

So we start working through Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim, Al-Malik, Al-Quddus, As-Salam. I know that one, the peace, Allah is the peace. That's not what it means, brothers and sisters.

Allah As-Salam means one, man salima, one who is safe from any imperfections or defects. So when we say assalamu alaikum, we're saying, I'm not going to render you defective in any way. I'm not going to harm you or lessen you in any way. That's what As-Salam means.

Closing Remarks: A Call to Love

So brothers and sisters, we have to be a people of love. Love for Allah, that love for Allah translated into service for His creation and that love for Allah translating into a desire to meet Allah and that desire to meet Allah translating into a love for each other.

Brothers and sisters, I love you and my time is up. May Allah bless you. May He bless us to be a loving, nurturing community that is a source of benefit to each other, a source of benefit to this land we live in and a source of benefit to the world.