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Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wasallatu wasallamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen. Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ wa ala alihi wa sahbihi sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira.
My brothers and sisters, we are on the last of the four truths. As I mentioned from the beginning, the first truth is that time passes. Therefore, the sensible thing is to make the most of it and utilize that time for the best advantage you can get.
Number two: No choice. Absolutely. There’s no question of “I like this” or “I don’t like that.” Liking doesn’t matter. What needs to be done must be done. Whether you like it or not, that is the secret of success. Even if you don’t like it, you still must do it if you want to succeed.
Number three: Two ways of learning. One is through your own experience; suffer the pain. The other way is to learn from others—whether they are teachers, parents, elders, or even people who have passed away. Of course, the best of the best among them is the Seerah of Rasulullah ﷺ. So, use all of this material we have. Allah has given us an absolutely treasure house of opportunities to learn. It’s up to us to take advantage of that.
And the fourth one is the four stages of learning that we talked about: Diagnose what you need to learn, find a solution (design and intervention), implement that, and monitor the results. Now, in that context, yesterday I briefly mentioned the same four stages which Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentioned with respect to the Risalah of Rasulullah ﷺ. In the beautiful ayat where Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentions Rasulullah ﷺ, He called him His ni’mah. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, “This is my ni’mah.”
The thing to reflect on is that everything we have from Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is His ni’mah. Right? Everything is a blessing from Allah. The fact that there is air to breathe, clean air, is a blessing. But if there is respiratory failure, you cannot breathe, even though the air is there. Even if they put oxygen in your nose, you still cannot breathe. Alhamdulillah, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala has not only given us air; He has given us the ability to breathe.
The fact that we have full color vision so that we can appreciate the glory and magnificence of Allah’s creation—you don’t have to go blind. If you just lose color vision and start seeing in black and white, how much the beauty of the world gets reduced because you cannot see colors! The fact that we have taste buds, that we can taste different things… Imagine if you didn’t have those taste buds. And these are all blessings. There is a very common phenomenon: sometimes people, for various reasons (one being women in childbirth), lose their sense of taste after birth. During childbirth, women lose their sense of taste completely. I remember talking to a lady who was invited to eat somewhere at a buffet with absolutely fantastic food. She said, “I cannot taste anything.” She was just eating for nutrition. Whether it’s chili or bitter or sweet—nothing. She eats only to survive. Imagine! Just taste buds gone. It’s not life-threatening per se, but what will that do to your quality of life? So, Allahﷻ blessed us. Every single thing that Allahﷻ has given us—our parents, our children, our friends—is a blessing from Allahﷻ.
Allahﷻ gave us the biggest of His blessings, which is the Quran al-Karim. This is the Kalam of Allah. You know, just yesterday I heard a hadith where Sheikh Mutawalli al-Sharawi, rahmatullahi alayhi, mentioned this. He said that Rasulullah ﷺ once asked the Sahaba: “Whose iman is the most ajeeb—the most wondrous, astonishing, amazing?” The Sahaba replied, “Ya Rasulullah, Allah and His Rasul know the best.” Rasulullah ﷺ said, “No, you tell me. In your view, whose iman is the most amazing?” They said, “The iman of the Malaika (angels).” Rasulullah ﷺ asked, “What is amazing about the iman of the angels?” They see Allahﷻ; they are in the presence of Allahﷻ. How can they not have iman? Then the Sahaba said, “The iman of the Anbiya (Prophets) and Messengers.” Rasulullah ﷺ asked, “What is so amazing about their iman?” They receive Waheeb (revelation) from Allahﷻ. How can they not believe? What’s so amazing about that? Then they said, “Is it us? We are companions of the Sahaba.” Rasulullah ﷺ said, “What is so amazing about your iman?” He said, “I am among you. You are seeing me.”
They said, “Ya Rasulullah, then we don’t know.” Rasulullah ﷺ revealed the truth: “The most amazing iman, the most wondrous iman, is of people who will come into this world after me. They will find a book written on paper and they will believe in it. They have not heard the Kalam of Allahﷻ in the voice of Rasulullah ﷺ.” He said there are people who will come after him who will find a book which is written on paper and they will believe in it. And that is the Quran. May Allah make us those people that Rasulullah ﷺ said—people who have the most wondrous iman.
Related to this is another hadith where Rasulullah ﷺ made dua, saying, “O Allah, combine me with my brothers and sisters. I want to be with my brothers and sisters.” The hadith clarifies that “brothers and sisters” implies both genders. So the Sahaba asked, “Ya Rasulullah, are we not your brothers?” Nabi ﷺ said, “You are my Sahaba. Allah has given you a special station. My brothers are those who will come after you, those who will come after me, and those who will believe in me even though they have not seen me.” We ask Allahﷻ to make us among those whom Rasulullah ﷺ called His brothers and sisters.
The point I am making is: all of these are the ni’mat (blessings) of Allahﷻ. But Allahﷻ did not call any of these things specifically as *His* ni’mah. He did not even call the Quran al-Karim as *His* ni’mah explicitly. It is, there is no doubt about this; but Allah did not say this. Allahﷻ called Muhammad Rasulullah ﷺ as *His* ni’mah. Allah said, “Laqad manna Allahu ala al-mu’mineen.” Laqad means definitely, certainly, with emphasis. Allah is saying, “Truly and definitely Allahﷻ has given the ni’mah. He has blessed the mu’mineen by raising His rasul from among them.”
Allahﷻ mentioned four things regarding this ni’mah:
1. **Yathru alayhim ayatihi**: Recite for them what you receive. Inform them. For the teacher, inform. For the student, learn. You have been informed. Listen carefully. Don’t let your attention wander here and there. Pay attention.
2. **Wa yuzakkihim**: Purify them. Because as I mentioned yesterday, the Kalam of Allahﷻ is pure. The Kalam of Allahﷻ does not settle in a place which is impure. So if I want the Quran al-Kareem to enter my heart, the heart must be pure. If I want the Quran to enter my mind, the mind must be pure. How do you do that? This is what Allahﷻ told His Nabi ﷺ: Do that for them. Purify them. Allah did not tell us just “purify yourself” like this; Allah told His Nabi to purify *them*. Teach them how to do that.
3. **Vayu’alimuhumul-kitab**: Now they have been purified. Now teach them the book. Remember, this instruction was given to people who know the language. Teach them the book. If somebody says that to us today, we understand that because we don’t understand the language ourselves. So somebody has to teach us. We hear the Ayah. Sure, fair enough. But what does it mean? We don’t know. So somebody has to tell us. But the Sahaba (Rizwanullah) were the sahibul kalam. They had the language (sahibul lughah). These were the people who had the language and were the world’s biggest experts on it. They used to be arrogant about that, saying everybody else is dumb or animals, claiming no other language is a language except Arabic. To them, Allah said, “Teach them.” Because it means that just because you understand the words, it does not mean you understand the meaning. The meaning has to be taught to you by the Nabi ﷺ.
4. **Wal-hikmah**: And the wisdom behind it—how to implement that in your lives.
To use the same ayahs which I mentioned as an example to illustrate all of these four stages: Allahﷻ said, “Aqimis salata li dhikri.” Establish this Salah for My Dhikr.
So the first step is to know what it is. Inform.