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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers.
Muhammad and the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him and his family and companions.
Many peace and blessings be upon them.
And after that, my dear respected brothers and elders,
it is a great pleasure and honour to be here in your mosque.
I have been to Albany several times, but first time here.
May Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la cause this evening to be an evening of khair and barakah for all of us.
And to make it a means of guidance for me and for all of us.
The topic of my lecture is, Am I a Momin?
Am I a Momin?
Now, the purpose of Islam,
the purpose of all the ulum of Islam,
whether you are studying the Quran al-Karim,
whether you are studying the Hadith and Nabawiya Sharif,
whether you are studying Fiqh, anything,
the purpose of all of that is only one.
And that is to connect with Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la.
Because Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la said,
وَمَا خَلَطْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا لِيَعْبُدُوهُ
Allah said, we have not created the jinn and the inns, the humans,
for anything except our Ibadah.
The only purpose, the only reason that Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la created us
and created the jinn is to worship Him.
And as Imam Ghazali Rahmatullah Ali said,
you cannot worship the one you don’t know.
Therefore, knowing Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la is not only critical,
but it is essential for us to be able to worship Him.
When we worship Allah, we are not worshipping some mythology,
we are not worshipping somebody we don’t know,
we are not worshipping some mystery.
The question is, do we know Allah?
Do we know Allah? Who is Allah?
And that is the reason why Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la gave us a framework.
He gave us a metric.
He gave us a way of measuring the strength and the presence and the strength of our Iman.
So when I say, am I a moment?
The question you should ask is, how do I know that?
How can I know if I am a moment or not?
And my answer is, to know if you are a moment,
for me to know if I am a moment,
I don’t need to ask anybody.
I do not need to ask anybody.
Because the Qur’an-ul-Karim gives me and gives you a metric.
A way of checking.
Now that way of checking, Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la mentioned in Surah Al-Anfal,
I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan.
In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Indeed, the believers are those who, when Allah is mentioned, their hearts are filled with joy.
And when the verses are recited to them, their faith increases.
And they rely on their Lord.
Those who perform the prayer and spend from what We have provided for them.
These are the true believers.
They have degrees with their Lord, forgiveness and noble provision.
Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la gave us a metric.
And that metric consists of five things.
Three of them are internal and two of them are visible, external.
The first thing that Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la said is,
They are the Momineen.
Verily these people are the Momineen, the believers.
Innamal Muminun.
Manhu.
Who are they?
Alladheena Yazkuroona Allah.
No.
Innamal Muminun.
Idhaa Dhukira Allahu Wajilat Qulubhu.
When the Dhikr of Allah comes before them,
when the mention of Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la comes before them,
their hearts shiver with the glory and majesty of Allah.
So first, self-test.
What happens to me,
when the name of Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la is mentioned before me?
What happens?
Does something happen?
What happens to me when the name of Allah is mentioned before me?
So let us do that. Let us test that.
Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la introduced Himself.
Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la said,
Allah is the One who is the All-Living, the All-Sustaining.
No sleep or sleep can take Him.
He has all that is in the heavens and all that is on the earth.
Who is He who can intercede with Him except by His permission?
He knows what is before them and what is after them.
And they do not have any knowledge except what He wills.
And the throne of the heavens and the earth is wide.
And their preservation is not in vain.
And He is the Most High, the Most Great.
Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la mentioned His sifat and His awsakr
in ayat al-kursi which we know.
I know we recite ayat al-kursi in the morning,
we recite ayat al-kursi in the night,
because this is part of our azkar of the morning and the night.
And we recite ayat al-kursi for sawab,
we recite ayat al-kursi for protection.
Do we understand ayat al-kursi?
All of this is true. It is a good thing.
We should do all this. I am not against all that.
We should do it. It is sunnah.
But Allah is introducing Himself.
After reading ayat al-kursi,
after listening to ayat al-kursi,
after reciting ayat al-kursi,
can you say, can I say,
Alhamdulillah, I know Allah?
Can we say that?
If you can say that, Alhamdulillah.
If you cannot say it, then ask the question, why not?
And if you say, yes, I know Allah,
then what is the visible result of that in your and my life?
That is the point. The whole point is,
if you know something, then,
for example, if you say,
I know that drinking Coca-Cola is bad for my health,
I know this,
then what will you do?
Drink Coca-Cola.
Huh?
No.
No?
No, seriously.
I mean, if you know something,
if it is good, you will do it.
If it is bad, you won’t do it.
If you say, no, I know this, but I’m still doing it,
then it doesn’t make sense.
So do I know Allah, Subhanahu wa ta’ala?
If I know Allah, Subhanahu wa ta’ala,
how has it changed my life?
If I know that this is my Rabb,
Jalla Jalaluhu,
this is the one who I just worshipped in Salatul Baghrib,
what is the result on my heart?
Allah is talking about the Qalb.
Fee Qulubihim Wajilat Qulubuhu
Allah is saying, check your heart.
Is your heart moving?
Is something happening in the heart?
It’s not up here.
It’s not a question of saying,
Ayatul Kursi has got so many,
you know, ayin in it and so many this in it,
so many, the whole analysis.
No, no, no, no, no.
He is saying, does it do something here?
I give you an example,
Taal Allahul Amsal.
Allah, Subhanahu wa ta’ala, is above any example.
We don’t give the example of Allah.
But let me give you an example to illustrate.
You love your children, right?
And say this little child of yours,
you love him very much,
you love her very much.
And somebody mentions the name of the child.
Just the name.
The child is not there.
The child is with the mother somewhere or maybe at home.
Just mentions the name of the child.
Does it have some effect on your heart?
It brings a smile to your face straight away.
The minute you mention the name of the child,
it brings a smile to your face.
Because now you have gone off from here,
you are connecting with the child.
Oh, my little baby, I need to go home.
So when you mention Allah, what happens?
What must happen?
Say, Ali bin Abi Talib,
Abu al-Ana in one of the battles,
he got an arrow hit his thigh,
and the arrow head went in his face.
And the arrow head went inside,
and it broke off.
So the arrow head is inside his thigh.
Naturally, if you got a piece of iron in your body,
it’s no good for you.
So his whole legs got swollen up.
It got blue.
It would have got gangrenous.
So they said to him,
you have to cut it, cut it and take it out.
Otherwise you will die.
The poison will go into your blood.
But it was so immensely painful
that he would not let anyone touch it.
So they said, okay,
we will give you something to drink.
You will lose consciousness,
and then we will operate on you.
He said, no,
I will not drink anything which is intoxicating.
Now what do you do?
You can’t touch him.
He doesn’t want to be anesthetized.
So they said, you tell us.
You tell us.
We don’t know what to do.
This is the problem.
If we don’t operate on you,
we don’t want you to die.
So tell us what to do.
He said, when I stand in Salah,
then cut it.
He stood in Salah,
they did the whole operation.
He had no consciousness of that.
They cut it, they took it out,
they stitched him up.
No consciousness.
Because he is connected with his
.
But the rest of the world doesn’t matter.
The moment he is connected with Allah,
that’s it.
Allah said,
when my ayat are recited before them,
when they see my signs around them,
their iman increases.
You live here in one of the most beautiful parts of the world.
When you go out in the morning,
take a deep breath,
of fresh, pure air.
Many of us come from countries
where people get lung cancer
never smoked in their lives.
They never looked at a cigarette in their life.
They only bit breathing.
Only breathing is enough.
Not this case here.
Pure air.
Do we thank Allah?
Just air.
Just air.
In this part of the world,
there are beautiful streams.
Clean water.
You can take the water out of the stream.
I have drunk it many times.
Drink the water straight out of the stream.
No problem.
We come from countries
where you take water out of a stream and drink,
you won’t walk 10 feet from there.
Within 10 steps,
you’re gone.
I go for a walk every morning
in a place called Ashley, Urzaway.
Every day,
I see deer.
Some days I see bear.
Today I saw a bald eagle
take a fish out of the lake.
Yesterday I saw an osprey
diving for fish.
SubhanAllah.
The khudrat of Allah subhanAllah.
Every day.
Do we thank Allah?
Seriously,
we need to thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
one by one by one.
I tell people make a list.
Seriously, do this as an exercise.
It’s a part of
Tasiya wa Tarwiyah.
Sit down and make a list
of the things that you have to thank Allah for.
Your faculties,
the environment you live in,
the country you live in,
your children, your spouses,
and so on and so on and so on.
Make a long list.
And then every day pray tahajjud
and in sujood,
thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
one by one by one.
Allah said,
وَإِن تَعُدُّ نِعْمَةَ اللَّهِ
لَا تُحَجُدُ
رُحْصُوحَ
Allah said,
if you try to count my blessings,
not even thank,
thank is the second step.
Allah said,
even if you try to count my blessings,
you will never be able to count them.
Thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Shukur is the,
an attitude of gratitude
is the secret of success in life.
Shukur to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
Right?
Thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
You’re wearing a bam,
t-shirt.
Did you go there?
Yes.
Alhamdulillah.
How was it?
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
Absolutely fantastic.
Thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
He made this earth like this.
Made it like it was Jannah.
How will Jannah be?
This earth,
so beautiful.
Thank Allah.
Thank Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala.
The people used to thank Allah.
Salim bin Abdullah bin Umar ibn al-Khattab
radiya al-Anu.
The grandson of Sayyidina Umar ibn al-Khattab
radiya al-Anu.
The son of Abdullah bin Umar
radiya al-Anu.
He was in the Hanam
making tawaf.
When Hisham bin Abdul Malik
made tawaf,
he was making tawaf.
The Khalifa.
He came.
And as he was making tawaf,
he saw Salim bin Abdullah
bin Umar radiya al-Anu.
And he saw that Salim
radiya al-Anu was wearing a
thobe
which
maybe it cost two dirham,
maybe less.
And he was carrying his shoes
and the shoes were broken.
So he said,
Hisham bin Abdul Malik,
he came close to him,
he was making tawaf,
he came close to him
and he said,
Ya Salim,
tell me what can I give you?
I mean,
the man has a good heart,
he’s trying to be helpful.
He said,
Ya Salim,
tell me what can I give you?
Salim bin Abdullah turned and looked at him
with anger in his face.
He said,
aren’t you ashamed?
Aren’t you ashamed?
You are asking me
what you can give me
in the house of our Rabb?
So Hisham bin Abdul Malik
obviously must have felt bad.
Anyway, they finished
the tawaf and so on.
And then Salim bin Abdullah
left.
Hisham went behind him
when he was outside the masjid.
And then he said,
Ya Salim,
now please tell me,
what can I give you?
What do you need?
So Salim bin Abdullah tells him,
do you want me to tell you
about my worldly needs
or about my needs in the Akhirah?
Do you want me
to tell you about my needs
in this life
or my needs in the Akhirah?
So Hisham bin Abdul Malik
said,
the needs in the Akhirah
are with Allah.
I cannot do anything.
But tell me,
what do you need in this world,
in this life?
Salim bin Abdullah
says to him,
the needs in my life,
I do not even ask
the one who owns
this world for them.
Why will I ask you
when you don’t own the world?
My needs,
my daily worldly needs,
he said,
I do not even ask
the one who owns
this world for them.
Why will I ask you
when you don’t own the world?
Hisham bin Abdul Malik says,
if I could honestly
make that one statement,
I am willing to give
my entire sultanate for that.
For the ability,
to have that state
which Salim has.
Now you might say,
well, what are you saying
that it is haram to make
dua for something I need?
I should not make?
No.
Please make.
Nothing wrong with that.
You can make.
I am talking about people
who set a standard.
Why does Salim bin Abdullah
say that?
Why do you say,
I didn’t even ask Allah
for my worldly needs?
This is a part of shukr
that you do not even
ask your host.
You do not even ask
the person,
who is taking care of you.
If he says,
do you need anything?
You say, alhamdulillah.
Because if you say,
I need this,
it means that he has not been,
he has been negligent.
He left it out for you.
And for the one
who is alim um bizatis sudur,
for the one who knows
what is in my heart,
what do I need
to describe to him?
He knows what I need.
He is Latifun Bilebad.
He is ala kulli shayin qadir.
He has all khudrak.
He knows what I need.
He can give me whatever he wants.
So what he has given me?
Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
Do you need anything,
my abd?
Yes, my Rabb.
What is it?
And you know what it is.
I need your rida.
Nothing else.
What?
Only that.
I need you to be
razi with me.
That’s all.
Shukr.
Zatun thum imana.
That is why Allah is saying
when my ayat are recited
before them,
their iman increases.
Alhamdulillah.
This is by Allah.
All my fears,
all my apprehensions
in my heart,
gone.
My Rabb is in charge of me.
As one of the fellows said,
don’t worry about the world
because it doesn’t belong to you.
Belongs to Allah.
Don’t worry about the world
because it doesn’t belong to you.
Don’t worry about your rizq
because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala
has control of your rizq.
Allah said,
wa fis sama’i rizqukum mamatu’adun.
Your rizq is,
in the heavens
and whatever you wish.
And he said,
don’t worry about the future
because the future is in the hands of Allah.
You have no control over the future.
Nothing.
He said,
worry only about one thing
and that is
today.
Today.
Not even akhira.
Today.
What can I do today
to please Allah?
Do not even worry about the akhira.
I’m telling you,
forget the akhira.
Because your akhira will be exactly
what you make of it today.
That’s it.
Don’t worry about,
will I get jannah?
You know if you will get jannah or not
depending on what you are doing today.
If you are buying and selling haram,
you will not get jannah.
If you are eating haram,
you are putting your jannah in jeopardy.
If you are lying and cheating
and slandering and doing backbiting
and whatnot,
your jannah is in danger.
Don’t worry about the akhira.
Forget the akhira.
Think about today.
Right now,
this is the only time I have
which is today.
Yesterday is gone.
It will not come back.
If it was good,
Alhamdulillah.
If it was not good,
Alhamdulillah,
it is gone.
The future,
I do not know if I will see tomorrow.
You do not know if you will see tomorrow.
But today we have.
What are we doing today?
Right now we are sitting in the house of Allah,
glorifying Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala
and listening to the Alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah.
In Jummah we made dua for one of our brothers
who was in Tanzania.
He went for Salatul Jummah.
He is sitting in the saf,
listening to the khutbah.
The khutbah is finished.
The khutbah is finished.
The Imam said,
Aqeemus Salah.
Everyone stands up.
He is still sitting.
Somebody said,
Get up.
He does not get up.
He said,
Get up.
He is gone.
He is gone.
Imagine.
May Allah grant us ending like this.
He went for Salatul Jummah in the masjid
by,
by obviously in wudu,
listening to the khutbah tul jumma.
He went for Salatul Jummah in the masjid by,
by obviously in wudu for the prayer
but when he was not able to listen
to it by the reason that
he did not know what the mission was.
See my being silent by God was
he heard Qygen a haram .
M
around us and when we listen to the ayat of Allah being recited or we read the ayat of
Allah of the Quran, what is the result?
وَعَلَىٰ رَبِّهِمْ يَتَوَكَّلُونَ
And they have tawakkul on their Rabb, Jalla Jalaluhu.
They have tawakkul on their Rabb.
Hatim al-As’am, Rahmatullah Ali, one of the great scholars of this deen, he was a contemporary
of Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal, Rahmatullah Ali.
He was known as a mutawakkil.
He had a principle in life, whatever he said is Zaid al-Zaroora, Zaid al-Zaroora, he would
give it away in Sadaqah.
Anything which is more than my, and Zaroora in the Arabic language means something which
if you don’t have, it will harm you.
So you might say, well, one meal in three days is Zaroora.
Not every day.
One meal in three days, if I don’t eat.
Then there is a problem.
24 hours will pass just like that, no problem.
So one meal in three days is Zaroora.
So he used to give away.
Now one day, Hatim al-As’am, Rahmatullah Ali, he is in his house, he is sitting there,
he is very sad, tears are falling.
His little daughter came.
He said, yeah, Abhi, what happened?
Why are you crying?
He said,
no, no, no, no, no, tell me, why are you crying?
He said, I want to go for Hajj this year.
Right?
I want to go for Hajj.
But the problem is that we have very little money.
We have just enough money for me to pay to go in the caravan for Hajj.
Right?
Right?
I don’t have enough money to leave behind here for your mother and new people for maybe
more than a week.
But those days if you went for Hajj, you would have gone for six months.
Because they would go before Ramadan, they would spend Ramadan there, they would go all
the way to Dhul Hijjah, then make Hajj and finish the whole month and they would come
back.
So it’s a six month program.
So he said, I asked your mother, will you permit me to go somehow make do?
She said no.
Put the money here, you can go.
Otherwise we will be in trouble, sorry.
So this little girl said no, no, no, hold on, I’ll talk to my mother, you make a plan.
So she went and you know, daughters are very difficult to argue with.
So she went and she, right, looked like you have a daughter, right?
Exactly.
So you can’t argue, if she gets something into her head, you are toast man, I mean gone,
right?
So anyway, so she convinced the mother and the mother said okay.
So Hatim al-Hasan was very happy, he went to the caravan thing, he gave the money to
the caravan, and they left.
Now as they are going, a day passes, maybe second day, maybe third day, this caravan,
the leader of the caravan, the head of the caravan, he got bitten by a scorpion.
You know what I mean?
You know the desert in the night, they have scorpions.
And now that man is in intense pain, he is in severe pain.
So people knew Hatim al-Hasan, he was a great scholar, they came to him, they said please
make dua for him, he is in a bad way.
So Hatim al-Hasan went there.
He made dua for him, he said, ya Allah, please cure this man, he is head of our caravan,
so on, so on, whatever, he asked him.
Allah swt cured him, immediately, the man’s pain disappeared.
That man was so happy, he said to Hatim al-Hasan, here is your body.
He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
here is your money, keep your money, you are my guest.
I will take you and bring you back.
You don’t have to pay anything.
So Aadhimal Asam raised his hand and said,
Ya Rab, you took care of me, now take care of my family.
Right?
Now, this whole story is happening,
they are going and so on and so on,
a week passes, two weeks passes,
two weeks pass,
and now things at home are getting tight.
So everyone is now, after this little girl,
the mother and all, they say,
you are the trouble,
you caused this whole problem.
If you had not persuaded me,
your father would have been here.
And this girl is laughing.
She is laughing.
So people get even more irritated,
I mean, we are in trouble and you are laughing.
Now while all this is happening,
there is a knock on the door.
They go there,
they go there,
they go there,
they see,
it is the ADC,
it is the military assistant of the governor of the race.
He says,
we are passing by,
we have finished our drinking water,
we need some water to drink,
the governor is there,
can you give us some water?
They said, of course.
They go to the well,
they take the water out,
put a nice jug on a tray,
put a cloth on it,
and they present it.
The man takes it,
and when the governor drinks the water,
Allah put such barakah in this water,
that this water is so sweet,
so beautiful.
The man drinks the water,
he said, where did you get this water from?
He said, I said it from that house.
Whose house is that?
He said, Hatim al-Assam’s house.
Oh, the Sheikh?
He said, yes.
I want to meet him.
He said, no, Sheikh, he is not there,
he has gone for Hajj.
Who is there?
His family is there.
The governor says, until he comes back for Hajj,
his family are my guests.
All their needs will be taken care of from the palace,
food will go every day from the palace,
make arrangements.
Yeah.
But Allah is Allah.
When Allah gives, He doesn’t count.
So what does the governor do?
He then rides his horse to the compound wall
of this house.
He is wearing a belt.
And this is a belt which is encrusted with gold and jewels.
And it has pockets and his pockets are gold dinars.
He takes off his belt and he throws it over the wall.
And then he says, whoever loves me, do what I did.
What do you think happens?
If you are with the governor, you better love the governor.
If you know what’s good for you, right?
So next thing you know, there are pouches, there are belts,
there are stuff flying over that wall.
And the whole courtyard is now covered with gold.
They have gold for the next seven generations.
Forget about these people.
They have never seen that kind of gold in their life.
All over.
Now, of course, everybody is very happy.
Then somebody says, where is that girl?
They were looking for her.
She’s sitting somewhere in the corner.
She’s weeping.
She’s crying.
The mother says, Ajiv, she says, what kind of a girl are you?
When we were in trouble, you were laughing.
Now when Allah has given us all of this gold and so on and so on,
now we don’t need anything for the rest of our lives.
Forget what.
You are crying.
She says, you know why I was laughing?
Because you were worried because my father went.
He said, who went?
The Raziq or the Marzook?
Who left here?
The Raziq or the Marzook?
They said, Marzook.
She said, why are you worried?
The Raziq is there.
They said, why are you crying now?
She said, because this, what you are seeing, all this gold,
is the result of a slave of Allah who looked at us with karam once.
An slave of Allah.
Who is the governor?
An slave of Allah.
He looked at us with karam once.
And all of this happened.
How will it be when the will look at us with karam?
Huh?
Do we know Allah?
Do we know Allah?
Wallahi.
This is Tawakkul.
This will come Tawakkul.
When you have this Izzah and this Khashya and this Khubbah of Allah
Subhanahu wa ta’ala in our Qulub, the reward is Khashya.
Khashya to Allah is the reward.
It is the gift from Allah.
And then Allah says, show this with two things.
Alladhina yuqimoon as-salah.
Establishing the Salah.
Not praying when I have time.
Not praying if I am free.
No.
Aqeemoo as-salah.
Yuqimoon as-salah.
Wa mimmaa razakhnaahum yunfiqoot.
And spend from what we have given you.
Not only money.
Your talent.
Your time.
Your energy.
Your influence.
Your knowledge.
Your health.
Spend in the path of Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala.
To bring about goodness for all His makhluq all around you.
Whether they are Muslim, whether they are non-Muslim,
makes no difference.
Spread goodness all around you.
And if we do that, and may Allah make us among those who do it,
Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala said,
Ulaika humul mu’minuna haqqa.
This is the sadaqah.
This is the certificate of being a mumin given by whom?
By the one who is alimun bi zatis sudur.
By the one who knows what is in our hearts.
And then what about that?
Lahum darajatu in darabbihim.
Allah said for them, there are darajat with their Rabb.
Stations of honour with their Rabb.
Wa maghfiratun.
And forgiveness.
Wa rizqun kareem.
And rizq, which is a rizq with Izzah.
Not working like a donkey the whole day.
No.
With Izzah.
Time and honour.
Rizqun kareem.
This is the metre.
Ask Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala to enable us to remember this.
To measure ourselves.
To make sure that we live frequently on this.
And to ensure that we bring our lives onto this framework.
To have a heart which is responsive to the word of Allah.
Where our Iman rises with the itilawat of the Quran al kareem.
And to establish the salah.
And to spend from what Allah Subhanahu wa ta’ala has given us.
And to make sure that we are not the ones who do bad and die ungrateful.
Our Lord, we have wronged ourselves.
And if you would not forgive us and have mercy on us, we would be losers.
There is no God but you.
Subhanaka inna kulla minaz-zhalimeen.
Rabbikfir wa arham wa anta khairur rahimeen.
Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem.
Wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in.
Bi rahmatika ya arhamar rahimeen.
Wa ala’amdulillahi rabbil aadameen.