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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Was-salatu was-salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen, Muhammadin Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajmain. Tasliman kathiran kathira.
My brothers and sisters, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, “Wadhakir inna dhikra tanfa’u al-mu’mineen.” Allah said, which means, remember; make *dhikr*, remember. Remembrance is beneficial for the believers.
The question to ask ourselves is: Remember what? If we say “remember,” what are we remembering? So *dhikr*. Of course, one of the meanings of *dhikr* is *Tilawatul Quran*. *Dhikr* means *ibadat*, so *salah*. *Dhikr* means mentioning the names and attributes of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah, Allahu Akbar, La ilaha illallah, La hawla wa la quwwata illa billah—all of these are things which are *dhikr*. But if you look at the deep meaning of *dhikr*, remembrance refers to something which reminds us. Through remembrance. The example of this is, for example, if you are going to some destination, say from here you are going to Bangalore, you start off and on the way you take a detour, you turn somewhere, then the GPS reminds you, “Take this turn, go back to the main road,” because your destination is Bangalore. You have taken a turn which is taking you to some other place. So this way you get back on track. So the purpose of remembrance is to get back on track. We started with a goal, and if we find that we are deviating from this goal, we are going away from the goal, then get back on track, get back to the goal.
The goal we started off with is what Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala told us: where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentioned the very purpose of our creation, where He said, “I have not created the jinn and the human for anything other than My worship.” So the purpose of creation is the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Everything else we do is something which helps us to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala better. There is no other reason for us to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Everything else—scientific discovery, all economic effort, all political effort—must go towards eventually the worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. The worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala; we understand the first and foremost is *abudiyyat*, which is *ibadat*, which is *salah*. The first and foremost, the most important of it is *namaz*, is *salah* itself. And then the *arkan* of Islam. Which is *sawm*, which is fasting, which is *zakat*, which is *hajj*. *Umrah* is part of that. So all of these, the *ibadat* are the *ibadat* of Allah, the worship of Allah.
The worship of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is also understood as meant in the verse: *”Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un”* (inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un). Except to know Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. So to reflect on the glory and majesty of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, to see the signs of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala in His character, in His creation, to discover, to research, to go deep into how the creation has been created. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, “Inna fee khalqis samawati wal ardi wa inna lil-aynati li’ulil albab.” Allah said that in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alternation of the day and the night, there are signs for people of intelligence. So therefore, in terms of knowing Allah, we don’t know Allah bi-dhatihi directly by His person, but we know Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala bi-sifatihi, through His *sifat*. We know Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala through His attributes and through His *bi-khilqatihi* also, through what He has created, His *makhluq*, of which we ourselves are part of the same *makhluq*. So we reflect on this and we understand Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. We don’t understand in the sense of understanding anything else, but as getting close to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. This is the *irfan* of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
And then also, *ibadat* is to obey. And therefore, we mould our lives completely and totally on the obedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, in every aspect of our life. So therefore, in our life we operate from this single criterion: right and wrong, good and bad—does it please Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala? So we are afraid of displeasing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. And this is the meaning of *taqwa*. *Taqwa* is to live your life in a way where all our actions are for the purpose of pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala only. There is no other secondary purpose. Everything I do, I am doing it for the pleasure of Allah because I know it pleases Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. If I smile at my brother, it has a direct effect; I feel nice, he feels nice, he smiles back at me. But that’s not the reason I’m doing it. I’m doing it because this pleases Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, and I know this is true.
If I’m meeting my brother with the intention of pleasing Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala forgives my sins and forgives the sins of the brother also. Just meeting, just saying *salamu alaykum*. We have the hadith; there’s dalil of this. We have the hadith of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: He said a man set out from his place to go and meet his brother in some other town. And on the way Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent an angel. The angel came to the man in the form of another human being. And he asked him, “Where are you going?” He said, “I’m going to some other place.” He said, “Why are you going there?” He said, “Because to meet so-and-so.” Who is he? He’s a Muslim brother. He’s my friend. I’m going to meet him. He said, “Why are you going to meet him? Is there some deal you are doing? Is some business for something like that? Or does he owe you money? Are you going there to collect money, your sum of money you lent him? Going to collect it back? Or what is the purpose?”
The man said, “There is no purpose. I’m not going for any business. I did not lend him any money. I’m not going for collections. Nothing. I’m just going to meet him because he is a brother of mine. Just to say *salam*. Nothing else. Just to meet him and say *salam*.” So the angel then revealed himself in his real form and he said, “I have been sent by Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to tell you that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is pleased with you; therefore Allah has forgiven you. He has forgiven your sins and Allah will forgive the sins of your brother when you meet him, and Allah has purified this whole road that you are walking on. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has made this also a place of barakah.”
Now imagine this is just to go and meet. We have to ask ourselves: The purpose of all these reminders is for us to remind ourselves and do whatever we need to do. So how long does it take just to pick up the phone and say *salamu alaykum*, “How are you? I hope all is well”? That’s it. There is no ulterior motive behind it. It’s not as if you want to get some work out. Just *salamu alaykum*, “I hope you are well. Everything is fine. Alhamdulillah, just remembered you, missed you, whatever.” So the beauty of Islam is this.
So therefore, when we remind ourselves, we say that *ibadat* is to bring the obedience of Allah into our lives. We have the incident in the Seerah regarding Uday bin Hatim before he became Muslim. He came to the Nabi and he was wearing a cross. He was a Christian. So he was wearing a big cross around his neck. So the Nabi saw that; obviously he did not like it. And he recited the ayat of the Quran where Allah said, “They have taken their rabbis and their monks and their priests as their lords instead of Allah.” (*Min Dhuunillah*). So instead of Allah they have taken their priests as gods. So Uday bin Hatim said, “Ya Rasulullah, we do not worship our priests.”
So Rasulullah ﷺ said, “Is it not true that Allah permitted some things but your priests and your religious leaders prohibited them? Allah permitted it, but they prohibited.” For example, in Catholicism, priests are not allowed to marry. Nuns and priests are not allowed to marry. Allah made marriage halal. Allah permitted marriage. But they introduced this thing and said, no, they are married to God. *Naudhu Billah*. They are married to Jesus. *Naudhu Billah*. And so they are not married. You can say the nuns are married to Jesus. What about the priests? Who are they married to? The point is that this is all creation, human creation. People have created these theories. So they prohibited that. Then the Nabi said, “Is it not true that Allah prohibited some things, but your priests have permitted them?” For example, eating of pork. Isa never ate pork. It is haram in the Sharia; in their Sharia to eat pork. Isa came for the Bani Israel; in the Bani Israel Sharia, in the Torah, it is prohibited to eat pork. But they said, no, Peter came and Peter permitted. Who is Peter? Peter is not a prophet of Allah.
So the point is, the Nabi said: Is it not true that Allah has permitted some things and your priests have prohibited? Uday bin Hatim said, yes. Is it not true that Allah has prohibited some things and your priests have permitted? Uday bin Hatim said, yes, that is true. Rasool ﷺ said, “That is worship.” So worship is not only to make *sajdah* to something. Worship is to obey anyone in the *makhluq* in opposition to Allah.
For example, if your imam says, “Please come for salah” and you go for salah, you are not worshipping the imam because he is telling you to do what Allah has told us to do. So we are not doing salah. But supposing somebody says, “Don’t go to the salah, don’t go to the masjid,” and you follow that. Then you are worshipping that person instead of Allah. Because he is ordering you and commanding you to do something which goes against Allah’s order and hukum. So this amounts to worship of that *makhluq* in *bin dhuunillah* instead of worshipping Allah. And that was the point the Nabi made.
So I remind myself and you when we say, Allah said, “Remember,” because remembrance is beneficial for the believer. So what are we remembering? We are remembering the purpose of our creation. Why was I created? I was created to worship Allah. Am I worshipping Allah? And then I must check myself: Am I worshipping Allah in the context of actual actions of worship, formal actions of worship? And am I worshipping Allah in the context of my entire life? My economic transactions, my business transactions, my political transactions, my familial transactions, my transactions with my family, my transactions regarding raising my children, my social transactions—right? Who do I meet? Where do I go? What do I do?
My transactions with regard to taqareeb and functions that we do in life: death ceremonies, birth ceremonies, marriage ceremonies, and so on. So in all of these, whatever I have mentioned and whatever I have not mentioned—in all of these, am I subservient to Allah? Am I obedient to Allah to His ahkam, to His orders and on the sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ or not? This is something for us to reflect on, think about, and bring our lives on that line.
Now if you are doing that, then *alhamdulillah* this is *dhikr*. Then for our *Mumineen*, Allah said this is beneficial for the believers because it brings us back to the path. So like I said, GPS will bring you back on track. But if you turn off the GPS, then we are gone; Shaytan takes us. And then Allah said, “La tatabi’u khutagati shaytan”—don’t follow the footsteps of Shaytan. You have been given a path; follow that path which is called *Siratul Mustaqeem*: the path of the Anbiya wa Siddiqeen wa Shuhada wa Saliheen.
*”Hasbunallah”* (﷽) *”wa ni’mal-wakil.”*
And: *”Fa’fu lana dh