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Your Image of Allah and Attachment to Him | Khutbah
People imagine Allah in different ways. Some perceive Him as loving and kind. Others perceive Him as as distant and punishing. Many sources influence our perceptions of Allah, including our education and parents. Ultimately, having a benevolent image of Allah is key to having a healthy relationship with Him.
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Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. We thank Allah, we praise Him, we ask for His help, we ask for His forgiveness, we believe in Him, and we put our trust in Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our actions. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah. He is alone and has no partner. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. Allah says in His book, يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا اتَّقُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ تُقَاتِهِ وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ We begin by praising Allah, we seek His guidance and His blessings and His nearness, and we put our complete trust and reliance in Him. I bear witness there is nothing in this universe worthy of serving, of vowing before, of submitting to, of absolutely loving except for Allah. And I bear witness that Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam is His last and His final Messenger. O you who believe, be mindful of Allah, be conscious of Allah, and be in awe of Allah in a way Allah has a right that we be in awe of Him. And do not die, do not allow yourself to leave this life unless you leave in a state of submission, in a state of Iman and Islam. My dearest brothers and sisters, a few days ago, many of us in the world were treated to some of the most stunning images of the universe that we've ever seen. With the launch of the James Webb Telescope that sent back the images, we saw some of those images of nebulae and galaxies that previously were impossible for us to see. And so for those who saw the images, you remember seeing maybe an image, looked like it had these beautiful mountains and stars glittering in the background. And the whole world, the Muslim and the non-Muslim, was marveling at the stunning beauty of the stars, of the galaxies, of the nebulae, of the gas, of the dust in this world that Allah has created. Now what's fascinating is that we were only able to see those images because the telescope was using, it was an infrared telescope that allowed it to see wavelengths that our eyes cannot see.
So you all have a remote control at home probably, right? When you shoot the remote control and press it, it sends infrared signals. And we don't see those with our eyes, but those, there actually is something that's being transmitted there. And so we were able to only see this because we were able to capture the infrared and then convert it to the colors of the visible spectrum. So we know, even with our simple eyes, that the universe is beautiful. We can see the moon, we can see the star, we can see the sun, the other stars in the night sky if it's clear. But we know that what we cannot see is probably even more beautiful than that which we can see. And this is why Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la said this in the Qur'an. He said in the Qur'an, That indeed we have adorned and beautified the skies of this world with beautiful stars. But just the same way that we cannot fully appreciate and witness with our eyesight the intense beauty of this universe, we are similarly unable to capture the complete beauty and perfection of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. He is the creator of this universe. If the universe is beautiful, how beautiful must he be? If the universe is in harmony, how much harmony are his attributes in? He is merciful, he is kind, he is loving, he is forgiving, he is the creator, he is the one, he is the fashioner. And the names, they go on and on and on. But unfortunately, for the human being, as a test of this life, we cannot observe that beauty every single day in its totality. We can capture glimpses of it. We cannot capture his mercy in its totality. We only feel bits of it. And this leads the human being to struggling, to ultimately having to answer two questions in this life.
Every single one of us, whether you're 10, 20, or 75 years old, you will grapple to answer these questions, which is number one, although I cannot see Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, how do I imagine him to be? That's why Allah said in the Qur'an, That vision cannot perceive Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, although he perceives everything. So number one, again, although we cannot see Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, how do we imagine him to be? And number two is, we know Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la can see us, so how do we imagine Allah thinks us to be? What does Allah think about us? And these are two deep questions that have major ramifications for our lives. They're going to influence your connection with Islam, your relationship with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, your relationship with your spouse, with your children, with your friends, and even your relationship with yourself. Today, my brothers and sisters, I'm here to speak about a topic, which is what is your image of God? What is my image of God? What is our image of Allah? And how does that affect our lives? And what I'm going to speak about today is something that many of, you know, one of the brothers involved in this project, Dr. Hassan Alwan and I have been researching for a number of years, and some really startling insights we've come to, which is why we want to share this message of today. And so we begin with this notion that if someone was to ask you today, what do you think about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la? There are likely two sources of information that you are drawing from to explain how you imagine your creator to be. Number one is an intellectual aspect of it. You all were taught by your parents, by your Sunday school teacher, by the imam, by some religious authority, who Allah is. Your parents might have told you as a child, Allah, He created the universe. Allah sees everything. Allah, He hears everything. Allah is infinitely powerful.
And these superlatives and adjectives that describe Allah, we begin to internalize them. So if you ask, and I do this regularly, I'll go and ask kids when we're together, what do you think of Allah? Describe Allah? And they will say, He's one, He's powerful, He's vast, He's supreme. And you get these descriptions. But the second source of our knowledge is not intellectual, it's actually emotional, which means that we have these experiences every single day in our life that we attach some divine meaning towards. So we learn about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and we form an image of Allah based on the emotions we feel in religious experiences. We base our beliefs about Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la on how religious figures have interacted with us, how our parents have interacted with us. And so these two sources, the intellectual domain and the emotional domain, work together to create an image of God in our minds, which is why some people, they'll say, if you ask them, tell me about Allah, they will say, I feel He's very near to me, He's close to me, He's personal, He's merciful, He's loving. And you ask somebody else and they'll say, I don't know, I don't really feel Allah in my life. He's distant. I feel disconnected. He's cold. And these terms, they come out. And oftentimes the disconnect between what we're taught about Allah in terms of the schooling and the books and how we experience and we feel Allah. So people will say things like, I know He is merciful, but I don't feel His mercy. I know He's near, like I believe He's near, but I don't feel His nearness. And so we want to unpack today, why do we have these beliefs? Where do they come from? And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la was aware that every human being would have a different image of Him. That's why he said in a Hadith Qudsi, he said, He says, I am as my servant perceives me to be. Meaning no two people in this room will have the same image of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la.
Because we've all lived a different life experience. We all had different parents, with different teachers, with different feelings and emotions. And so we all can construct some image in our minds. Now that image may be accurate. It may be accurate. If it comes from proper teachings, comes from proper emotional development, proper relationships in life. Or it might be incredibly distorted and skewed. And just to provide some numbers behind this, in a study that Dr. Hassan and I did of almost 300 Muslims in North America. We found that about 25% of Muslims had a really unhealthy image of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, which is non-trivial. One in four Muslims viewed Allah as not being very benevolent. They felt Him either as being distant, not very merciful, like a cop who's just watching over them, looking to punish them. And so we know that there's a diversity of experiences in our community. And we need to treat this. Because there is no way for one to draw near and want to worship Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, and want to get close to Him if they perceive Him inaccurately. This is why Allah said in the Qur'an, مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ That people have mis-estimated Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. How far is their estimation from the true estimation of Allah? So when Allah says, وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ Allah says, when people, the servant asks, But then people say, I don't feel Allah's nearness. There's a disconnect between what Allah says He is, and the truth of His nearness to us, and our experience. And so where does this come from? Again, we spoke about the two sources. Let's unpack it for a few minutes. The first and foremost source of our God image will be our parents, my dear brothers and sisters. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la has not created the child with the capacity to perceive the abstract.
So if you ask your three-year-old or your four-year-old to explain Allah in theological terms, they don't really understand. They can repeat what you've said to them. But because Allah is abstract, they cannot understand it. They don't have the developmental capacity to think about a perspective of the Creator. So Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, in His infinite wisdom, put in the parents the means, and the drive, and the attributes that would make the child internalize who Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is. So Allah made the parents loving. He instilled with the parents a desire to nourish their children and to care for their children. And that's why many parents naturally show love and affection towards their children, especially when they're infants. But what ends up happening is as we get older, our parents then begin to explicitly tell us about Allah. And sometimes this is where problems can happen. So depending on how the parent was raised, they might say things that, well, Allah is one, Allah is powerful, Allah is the Creator, and they use all the right terminology. But then they also use expressions like, if you do that, Allah is going to punish you. If you do that, you're going to go to hell. And what this does in the child is it distorts an image in their mind. And also what they do, so number one is you can have a distorted image because of wrong information. But number two, and probably more importantly, the parents act as a godly figure. They act as a Rabb. That's why Allah said in the Qur'an in Surah Al-Isra, when we're talking about how to treat our parents, وَاخْفِضَّهُ مَا جَنَاحُ ذُلِّ مِنَ الرَّحْمَةِ that lower yourself in humility to your parents. And then say what? And then say to your parents, you say to Allah, that have mercy on my parents. كَمَا رَبَّيَانِي صَغِيرَ That, oh Allah, have mercy on my parents, the way they raised me when I was young. So you as a mother and father in this room today, or as an aspiring mother or father, you will act like a default godly figure for your children
before they understand who Allah is. Now what that ends up doing is how do you treat your child? If you treat your child with kindness, compassion, with empathy, with forgiveness, with mercy, with gentleness, just by doing that when your child is old enough to understand that there is a creator, and they're wondering who their creator is and what their God image is like, and this is empirically been shown, that they will say, I perceive God to be kind and loving and merciful and forgiving, because they had a working model from their parents. And if the parent is cold and is harsh and is demanding, then they will internalize, well, God must be cold and harsh and demanding. And the question that we have to ask is who wants to worship a God that is cold and harsh and demanding? Likely nobody. In fact, about a month ago, for those of you who are savvy on social media, please make room in the masala for those who are trying to enter. Somebody invited a brother from Saudi Arabia. He tweeted to Elon Musk telling him, Elon, you're so brilliant. What do you think about your creator? Have you thought about your creator? And his response was startling, but probably something many people think. He said, I'm okay. He said, thank you for the blessing, but I'm okay going to hell if that is where God has destined me to be, because almost everybody that God has created will end up in hellfire. So his message captures the essence of human motivation. No one wants to work hard for something unattainable. If I was to tell you all, go back to your years as a student in college if you've graduated or if you're still in school, think about it. I said, there's a course you can take. It's a really, really good course. It's going to be really, really good for you. But the professor fails 99% of every student, every student,
except for one will fail in this class pretty much. How many of you would enroll in a class with a 99% fail rate? Like, you know what? I'm good. I know the class sounds amazing and the professor is really good, but I don't want to feel like failing this class. So what Ilan is saying in this tweet is what many people, they believe, but they don't have the audacity to express this, that I do not want to worship a God who's impossible to please, that is incredibly demanding, who is not very forgiving, because that's just too costly for me to engage with. So inshallah, in the second part of the khutbah, let's talk about how did the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam rehabilitate the image of God in the hearts and the minds of his companions? وَأَسْتَغْفِرَ عَلَيْهِ وَلَكُمْ فَاسْتَغْفِرُهُ إِنَّهُ وَلَهُ الرَّحِيمُ أَتَّائِبُ مِنَ ذَنْبِهِ كَمَا لَذَنْبَ لَهِ فَدَعُوا اللَّهِ The one who repents from his sins is like the one who is sinless. So ask Allah to forgive us of all of our shortcomings and our mistakes. الحمد لله وكفاه وصلاة وسلام على رسول الله وعلى آله وصحبه ومن ولا هو الذي أرسل رسوله بالهدى ودين الحق ليظهره على الدين كله وكفاه بالله شهيدا My dearest brothers and sisters, we are here to speak about our image of God and our attachment to Him. And so what we have found in our research, before I get to the prophetic guidance, was that individuals who believe, who create an image of Allah in their mind, that is inaccurate, that is skewed and flawed, and who believe Allah as not being incredibly kind and merciful and near and helping, these individuals are highly likely to have two styles of attaching to Allah. One is they have anger towards Allah.
And number two is they feel incredibly anxious in their relationship with Allah. And what that leads to is a lot of problems in life. It leads to religious doubts. It leads to objecting to Allah's commands. It leads to objecting to Allah's qadr, what He has decreed for us that we are angry at. And it leads to self-doubt and shame and guilt. So the consequence of a distorted God image is quite severe. And so the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, he lived amongst the people who had a distorted God image. The companions did not grow up thinking nothing about Allah because they lived in a pagan society. And they experienced the cultural norms around having multiple gods and having to satisfy gods and superstitious norms about sacrificing to appease the gods from getting angry. And so he understood that there was a lot of anxiety and fear about who is this God that we're being asked to worship. So he began one by one over the years to rehabilitate and show, and heavily show that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala was incredibly merciful, kind, loving, forgiving, and seeking nearness to His creation. And this is why in the Hadith Qudsi, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, He says that My servant does not draw nearer to Me than by doing that which I love the most, which are the obligatory acts. And then He gets closer and closer to Me by doing the nawafil until I love Him. Now what's beautiful about this is that the human being typically doesn't like to do things they're commanded to do. If I was to... Imagine that you're about to go into your room, and you're about to vacuum your room because it's dirty. And then your spouse or your parent says, your room is a mess, go and clean it. Do you want to vacuum it anymore? Like, you know what, I was about to vacuum it, but now that you told me, I don't want to vacuum it. That's how we are as human beings. I will do things I want to do, not what you tell me to do. So people often think, well, you know what,
God is telling me to do this and God is telling me to do that. Why do I have to do all these things God wants me to do? God doesn't want you to do this because He's trying to... He tells you why He wants you to do it. He says in the Hadith Qudsi, the things that bring the servant closest to Me, I'm telling him to do. I want to be near to you. I want to have a close intimate relationship with you. I want to have a deeper loving relationship with you. Do these things because that's how you will find a connection with Me. And again, it's not... You will find the connection with Allah. Allah is already connected to us. Allah is already incredibly connected to us. Whether we perceive it or not. Just like if you look in the sky, there are galaxies out there you cannot see, but they're there. Allah is very, very near to you, but it's up to you that do I want... How can you get close to anybody if you don't speak to them? Imagine you have a wife or a husband. You're like, I love my wife, but I don't really talk to them. And when they ask me to do things, I don't like to do things they ask me to do. I just want them to leave me alone, but I love them. What kind of love is this? There's no love. So Allah is telling you, these are the things that you will find love with. You will fall in love with Me, and I will get closer to you with. So when Allah tells us to do it, it's for our own benefit. It's not because He's demanding it, because He needs it. And so the Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam then came to undo these shackles that were on people's minds when they had the false God image. And so he goes and he says stories that really shocked people. We have a story of a prostitute that we've all heard, but to repeat it, a woman who does some of the worst immoral things in society. But she sees a dog that is on the verge of death because of thirst. And because of her compassion for a dog, she takes off a sock, puts it into a well, and gives that to the dog. And so all of her sins are forgiven. Does it sound like a God that is demanding and vengeful and seeking to punish? You've done a life of sinning, and you gave water to the lowest of creation,
and all your sins are forgiven. Then a beautiful gem to pull from this is asking the question, is that where did that dog come from in the first place? Allah sent this dog dying of thirst to this prostitute to offer her a chance at forgiveness and redemption. He didn't need to send that dog to that lady. He could have said, go and seek forgiveness and redemption. This is why Allah sent the Qur'an. الله يحول الناس إلى التغفير لذلك يمكنهم أن يحولوا إليه في التغفير مجدداً، رجل قتل 99 شخص نحن سمعنا هذا القصة مرة أخرى ويذهب إلى عبده ويقول قتلت 99 شخص لدي شعور غفور هل يمكن الله أن يغفرني؟ الآن، إذا كنت مجرد قاتل في القرى هل يمكنك أن تغفر شخص قتل 99 شخص؟ لن يفعل ورجل يقول له 99 شخص أنت مغفر أنت مغفر الرجل يقول حسناً قتله أيضاً إذا كنت مغفر، فلن يفعل الآن، رجل قتل 100 شخص لكنه يشعر بالغفور يذهب إلى شخص آخر وهو علماء العلماء يقول بالطبع كيف يمكنك أن تتخيل أن الله لن يغفرك ولكن عليك الخروج من هنا هذه المدينة مغفرة لديك أصدقاء سيئون هنا اذهب إلى مدينة أخرى وتجد أصدقاء جديدين وعلى الرحيل يموت ويأتون الأنبياء الأنبياء الذين يحرقون أرواح المرحلة لأنه في الوسط، ويقول الله أن يتقفل الأرض لجعله أقرب من أرض الرحيم ومن ثم يتقفل الأنبياء لأنهم يتنافسون ويقولون إنه أقرب من أرض الرحيم سنأخذه مع الرحيم أقرب من أرض الرحيم سنأخذه مع الرحيم وذلك، الله جعل الأرض تتقفل قليلاً في تلك المجموعة لذلك، سيكون أقرب من أرض 100 شخص قتل هل هذا الله المغفور أو هو الله المغفور يبحث عن تقديم ومن ثم يكون هناك رجل الذي كان مغفوراً بشكل مذهل أيضاً في حديث كان مغفوراً بشكل مذهل وعلم أنه شخص مريع لذلك، عندما كان على موته قال لأطفاله عندما أموت، احترمني ودعي أشجاري في كل مكان في البحر لأنني لا أريد أن أتعامل مع الله في الآخرة
وذلك، سيقوم الله بإنعاذ هذا الرجل وسيسأله ماذا فعلت؟ لماذا فعلت هذا؟ وسيقول لأنني كنت خائفاً جداً وخائفاً جداً منك الله قال لك أنت مغفوراً وسيغلق النبي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم بهذا عندما رأى فتاة كانت في حدث محارب وكانت تبني طفل وكان ينظر إلى أصدقائه وقال هل تعتقد أن هذه الفتاة تريد أن ترسل طفلها إلى النار؟ والأصدقاء قال بالطبع لا يا رسول الله لا فتاة تريد أن ترسل طفلها إلى النار قال الله يحبك أكثر، الله يهتم بك أكثر الله أكثر مهتم وإذا لم يسمح لك بالرحيل فهذه الفتاة تريد طفلها وهكذا أصبح النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أن يغلق حقاً الترامة التي كانت تتعاون بها على أصدقائه منذ تلك الجاهلية أو أي حالة قبلية لتعاون ورؤية الله سبحانه وتعالى في هذه الضوء المبارك في هذه الضوء المبارك الذي أعطاهم الوصول إلى أقرب وقرب وإبحث عن حبه وإبحث عن حبه لأنهم قالوا نحن نريد أن نقترب من الله المرحب ونجدهم يتطلبون أن يتعاون بإسلام وليس يتجاوزون أو يجعلون لذلك نطلب من الله سبحانه وتعالى أن يجعلنا من أولئك الذين يملكون صورة صحية من الله وموارد صحية له ومن خلالها نجد نجاحنا في هذه الحياة ونحن نتعاون بإسلام
وزينه في قلوبنا وقره إلينا الكفر والفسوق والإسيان وجعلنا من الراشدين أسأل الله أن يغفرنا عن نقاطنا والخطأاتنا أسأل الله أن يجعلنا أن نرى أنفسنا ومعناها لذلك نطلب من الله أن يجعلنا من أولئك من خلال حبنا ومن أجل أن نكون قريبين أسأل الله أن يحمينا من لا تزال لدينا أثناء أن نحبك وأن يحمينا من أننا لا نصرف على أنفسنا أو أن نحمينا من أننا لسنا عايزون ليلاحبك to be near to you. We ask you to forgive us of all of our shortcomings we've made and how we've taught our children about you. And O Allah, the way you've gathered us here today, we ask you to gather us in the highest gardens of paradise with the prophets and with the martyrs and the righteous. وقيم الصلاة إن الصلاة تنهى البحشاء والمنكر ولا ذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون وقيم الصلاة إن الصلاة تنهى البحشاء والمنكر ولا ذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون وقيم الصلاة إن الصلاة تنهى البحشاء والمنكر ولا ذكر الله أكبر والله يعلم ما تصنعون
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