Podcast: Play in new window | Download (11.2MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS
Auto-generated transcript:
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘alamin, was-salatu was-salamu ala sayyidina Muhammadin Rasulullah ﷺ, wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliiman kathiran kathiran, wa hamdun lillah.
My brothers and sisters
Alhamdulillah, two days ago I was in Kerala, in the south, a place called Kundai Estate. And we were looking for elephants. It was 10 o’clock at night; pitch dark with no street lights, nothing. And it was heavily raining, raining very heavily. My friend and I were driving in a jeep, and that jeep had seen the best part of its life. So it’s… it was old. As we were going, the only light is the light of the jeep; nothing else. It’s complete pitch darkness, forest on all sides, just the track.
And I thought to myself: The importance of light. Because if at that time, for some reason, the light goes off in the jeep, then we are completely blinded. We don’t know what’s in front of us, we don’t know what’s behind us, we don’t know if anything is coming for us. Nothing. Completely and totally blinded. Now Allah used the parable of the simile of the light in the meaning of guidance. A very beautiful ayah of the Quran where in Surah An-Nur, the famous ayah that Allah said: “Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth.” His Light is like a niche in the wall, in which there is a lamp. In the old days they used to put lamps into a niche which is curved like this. So it reflects the light. So His Light or His Nur is like a niche in which there is a lamp. The lamp is in a crystal, the crystal is like a shining star, lit from the oil of a blessed olive tree located neither to the east nor to the west—meaning it’s in a way in a place where the light from both the east and the west shines on the tree whose oil would almost glow even without being touched by fire.
Light upon light, Nur upon light. Allah guides whoever He wills to His Light. And Allah sets forth parables for humanity; for Allah has perfect knowledge of all things.
Now, light here or Nur does not mean the physical or visible light, but it is the spiritual Guidance of Allah, the guidance of Islam, which drives out all the zulmats, all the darkness of shirk and kufr, and the isyaan of sins and ignorance, and guides humanity to truth and righteousness. Now Allah is reemphasizing for us that all sustenance comes and all illumination comes, both physical and spiritual, from Allah only.
And without the guidance and presence of Allah, the universe would be in total darkness, both physical and spiritual. Today when we ask somebody “How are you?”, we say “I am very well.” You mean physically well, right? The person asking is also only asking about your physical well-being. Whereas physical well-being is only one part of it, and it is not even the most important part of it. The most important part of well-being is spiritual well-being.
Spiritually, in what condition are you? The Sahaba used to ask each other when they greeted each other. In the morning, they would ask each other: “What is the state of your Iman?” How did you wake up this morning?
How did you wake up doesn’t mean “Did you wake up on the right side”; no, it means “In what state of Iman did you wake up?” So what is the state of your Iman? What is the state of your heart? Is your heart full of shukuk and shubuhaat? Is it full of doubts?
One doubt is enough to destroy our Iman and to take us into Jahannam. May Allah have mercy on us. And that is why it is strongly, strongly not recommended to argue with people about Islam, and about Islamic matters, and about the Quran and so on, unless you have the competence to be able to answer. And most people don’t have the competence, but they get into these arguments—why this, why that. You don’t know why and why not. So Alhamdulillah, you were on the path, the right path; you were believing, what was right. But now somebody puts a doubt in your mind, and it destroys your Iman. I have seen, I have literally seen this happening, where people who were good people, Masha’Allah, as far as people are concerned, they are still good people. But the point is that there were people who were strong in the faith.
Completely gone bonkers. May Allah have mercy on us.
So Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala used this parable of the light in another place. In another place, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said: “Allah is the Guardian of those who believe.” He brings them out of darkness into the Light. And those who disbelieve, their guardians are the darkness; He brings them out of the Light into the darkness. Those are the companions of the Light in which they are forever. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said: “Allah is the Guardian,” “Allah is the Protector,” “Allah is the Sustainer.”
“Allah is the Ally of the people who believe.” He brings them out from darkness into the Light. Now, darkness and Light is not physical darkness; it means from the darkness of Shirk and the darkness of Bid’ah and the darkness of misguidance, into the Light of Tawheed and the Light of guidance. And those who disbelieve, their allies, their Awliya, are the Taghut. The Taghut are religious all false deities, false rules, false laws.
And what do they do? They take them from Light into darkness. Now, how do we say they take them from Light? How are they in the Light? Because the fitra of the human being, the person is created on Haqq. He is created with Tawheed. When the child is born, the child is a Muslim in the sense of by his fitra.
It’s only the parent. Dabi Salah al-Salam said this. He said the child is born on Islam. A child is born on the faith.
The parents misguide the child.
And they take the child and, you know, make them worship this one, that one, so on. And the child becomes, falls into that trap. But every child that is born, no matter where the child is born, is born on the fitra. And the fitra is Islam. The fitra is to recognize Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala as His Creator. So when these Taghut, when the false deities and whoever promotes them, what do they do? They take this person who was on the fitra of Haqq into a place of darkness.
And Allah says: “Those are the companions of the Fire.” And they will stay there forever.
Finally, in Surah At-Tahrim, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is describing the scene from the Day of Judgment. And before that, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is advising us of how we can come out of darkness into Light—out of ignorance and out of misguidance into guidance—and how we can stay there. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala says:
them and on their right, and they will say: “Our Rabb, O our Rabb, perfect for us our light. And forgive us. Indeed, You have control over everything.” So this is the scene from the Day of Judgment of those whom Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ﷻ will forgive, and those who can look forward to the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ﷻ. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ﷻ will guide them, and they will cross the Sirat with their own light. Allah will cause them to emanate light. And Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala ﷻ, see the beautiful.
And so, you know, we must think when you wake up for Tahajjud, when you come to the masjid for Salatul Fajr; all of these things are, I mean, in the normal case, when people do it for the first time and so on, they seem to be difficult. Alhamdulillah, once you are, you know, you start doing it, you start tasting the sweetness of it. So you come with joy. You don’t come because it is difficult. You are not fighting. There is nothing to fight. You come because you like to come. Alhamdulillah. But sometimes to get there, you know, there is a little bit of effort. But if you make that effort, imagine this is what Allah is promising us. On the day when no one can help us, there is no one to shine a torch. There is no one to switch, to turn a switch on. In that darkness, the only light is your own light. And if you don’t have that light, what do you do? But Allahﷻ is saying, “Allah will give you this light.” And you will, light will emanate from you and from your right.
And that is the reason why the believers will make this dua: Rabbana atmeem lana noorana. O Allah, perfect our light. Don’t let it turn off in between. Before we reach the other side, right? Maqfir lana. And forgive us. Innaka ala kulli shay’in qadeer. And You are, You have control over everything. We ask Allahﷻ to make us among those who turn to Him with sincere istighfar and tawbah, who change their lives, who bring about—we want to make a revolution in the world. Well, let’s make a revolution in our lives first. The world will make a revolution by itself. Our own lives need to change. We need to, we need to change how we think; we need to change what we do; we need to change our own lives. We ask Allah to make this easy for us and to help us in that, to be pleased with us, and to forgive us and not to be displeased. Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma’in bi rahmatika alhum wa rahmeen walhamdulillahi rabbil alameen ﷻ