Academic Conferences
7 / 11
The Status of a Believer
Allah (SWT) recognizes the status of His slaves and revealed a whole chapter in the Qur'an in honor of the Believers. Striving in the way of Allah (SWT) and remaining firm in our conviction elevates our status in the eyes of Allah (SWT) and draws us nearer to our end goal.
This lecture was recorded live at the 2022 Miftaah Mercy to Mankind Conference.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. First of all, to honor those who Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has honored is part of the adab of what we learn from this deen. So mashallah, all of the great ulema that are here, the scholars, the teachers of students and the students of knowledge that are here. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala bless you all. May Allah continue to benefit through you and elevate you. The pioneers that are here that have built these facilities and these organizations and these institutes that have come together. May Allah reward all of the organizers. May Allah reward the volunteers. Ameen. Make sure that you thank the volunteers. Y'all have been giving round of applause like every five seconds here. That's the problem with Sheikh Abdullah, mashallah. He's making you give a round of applause for your round of applause. But make sure you thank the volunteers on your way out as well. And mashallah, indeed it is a blessed gathering. SubhanAllah, when the brother was saying that it feels like COVID's over, COVID's been over in Texas for two years. So this is pretty common in Texas, but I recognize the significance here in Canada, alhamdulillah. And I pray that Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala allow this to be an accepted gathering from us all. Allahumma ameen. The topic that I have is about the value of the mu'min, the value of the believer in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I want to take a step back and analyze this purely through the Quran with the few moments that I have. When you talk about the value of the believer, the mu'min in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, there are two levels to that discussion. The hurma, the sanctity of the believer, and the manzil, the station of the believer. They are related, but they're not exactly the same thing. Now when we talk about the sanctity
of human life, in the sense of how Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala has put so much emphasis in the Quran and we find in the sunnah of our messenger Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam an emphasis on not taking a life or harming someone without just cause. That is because of the rights that Allah Azawajal has assigned to everything and everyone around us. But then you talk about the sanctity of the believer, the value the believer holds in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah Azawajal says after these many verses in Surah Al Furqan, Ibadur Rahman, the verses about the servants of the most merciful where we recite the qualities of the servants of the most merciful, Kul ma ya'ba'u bikum rabbi lawla du'aakum ay lawla imanakum Say what value do you have in the sight of your Lord except for your du'a, except for your supplication. Abdullah ibn Abbas radiallahu ta'ala anhuma said, meaning your iman, your faith is what gives you value in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sanctity in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that hurma that is established for the believer, that sanctity is a baseline sanctity the scholars mention. And I want you to think about the moment Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam standing in front of the Kaaba on the 10th of Dhul Hijjah in his only Hajj after his pilgrimage or after his hijrah to Al Madinah, Hajjatul Wada' the farewell Hajj and the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam looking at the Kaaba and addressing the Kaaba and he's not really addressing the Kaaba, he's addressing the people that hear him addressing the Kaaba. How sacred are you? And I'm going to paraphrase the hadith for the sake of time. How sacred are you? How beautiful are you? How pure are you? But the sanctity, the hurma, the sanctity of the believer is greater in the sight of
Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala than you. Their honor, their property, their lives. SubhanAllah can you imagine a person meeting Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala on the day of judgment with the crime of Hadmul Kaaba, of destroying the Kaaba? How many people will meet Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala with the crime of destroying the honor of a believer? Of harming people with their tongue because this tongue breaks down people worse than what would happen if someone was to physically break down the Kaaba. And we will be accountable, may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from meeting Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala with that. Allahumma ameen. That's the baseline. That's not the wali of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. That's not the muhsin, the person who excels. That's just the mu'min, the sanctity of the believer in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. When we talk about Palestine, may Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala liberate al-Aqsa, Allahumma ameen. The sanctity of our mother who is being kneed in the face by a settler scumbag on her way to Masjid al-Aqsa and hanging on, holding on to her mushaf, holding on to her dhikr. The sanctity of our uncle, the sanctity of our father, the sanctity of our brother, our sister, the sanctity of our child in al-Aqsa under the boots of occupation is greater than the sanctity of al-Aqsa itself. The sanctity of a believer. And as much as a person increases in iman, in faith, then that sanctity increases in the sight of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala as well. Until it reaches, man aada li waliya faqad aadhantuhu bilharb. Whoever takes a wali of mine, someone who is very beloved to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, a friend of Allah, may Allah make us amongst them. When you say, watawallani fee man tawalayt, you're asking Allah for it in your witr. Take me
as a wali, take me as a friend of yours, oh Allah. Tawallani fee man tawalayt. Man aada li waliya faqad aadhantuhu bilharb. Whoever takes a wali of mine, someone who is very beloved to Allah, says, do you not believe? Do you not have iman already? Fala bala walakin ni yathma inna qalbi. Of course I believe, but that my heart may be put at ease. Ya Allah, I am challenging these people, idol worshippers, tyrants, all of these people with the hujjah, with the proof of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala that's been given to me. But ya Allah, I'm not asking you, can you give life to the dead the way that the idolaters do. I'm asking you to show me, give me a glimpse of Allah, of how you give life to the dead. And Allah says, do you not believe? Of course I believe. Fala walakin ni yathma inna qalbi. But let my heart be put at ease. And as Ibn Abbas radiallahu ta'ala anhuma says, so that I can have ziyadatul iman, an increase of iman upon iman. Grow my faith. Ibrahim alayhi salam, Allah is khadir. Let my iman grow. And then you know if you are watching someone that is beloved to you, doing something on your behalf and they didn't know that you saw that or that you heard about that. Let's take a journey through the Quran for a moment. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, alam tara ilal ladhi hajja Ibrahima fee rabbihi an ataahu allahu al mulk. Did you not see the person, Nimrud, the tyrant? Now Allah is watching his friend, his loved one Ibrahim alayhi salam, confronting Nimrud, the tyrant. And he's challenging Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And his name is not even worthy of being mentioned. Man who
thought so highly of himself. He's simply alladhi hajja Ibrahima fee rabbihi. The one who challenged Ibrahim in regards to his Lord. That he claimed sovereignty. Ibrahim alayhi salam says to him, rabbiyalladhi yuhyi wa yumeet. Qala ana yuhyi wa umeet. Ibrahim alayhi salam says, my Lord is the one who gives life and gives death. He said, I give life and I give death. The mu'min, the believer, Ibrahim alayhi salam, standing in front of this tyrant who is so empty on the inside. You know they say tyrants try to overcompensate with ridiculous antics. They try to do all sorts of things to overcompensate for the emptiness and insecurity they feel on the inside. So what does this powerful man do? A cowardly thing. He brings a man who was destined to be killed or who was supposed to be executed. He says, you go free. Then he brings a completely innocent man and he kills him. See, I give life and I give death. Qala Ibrahimu fa inna Allaha ya'ti bish shamsi minal mashriqi fa'ti biha minal maghrib. Ibrahim alayhi salam says, Allah brings the sun from the east so bring it from the west. Fabuhita alladhi kafar. And he was completely, completely baffled, lost, humiliated, disgraced. Wallahu la yahdi alqawma al-zalimin. And Allah does not guide the transgressors. Here you have, imagine, Allah says, alam tara, did you see? Allah azawajal is watching his friend Ibrahim alayhi salam who in private would ask him, show me, show me how you give life to the dead. And Allah azawajal confirms that and gives Ibrahim alayhi salam an experiment to show him how he gives life to the dead. But now Ibrahim
alayhi salam is challenging this tyrant. And Ibrahim alayhi salam tells him, go ahead and alternate the night and the day the way that you claim. And that man was completely left empty. I have no way to compensate for this weakness that I have. And Ibrahim alayhi salam grew in his maqam with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He grew in his station with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And with every one of these incidents that we read about our father Ibrahim alayhi salam, he's growing in his station. Now, go to Ali Imran. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, qulillahumma malika almulki tu'ti almulka man tashaa wa tanzi'ul mulka min man tashaa wa tu'izzu man tashaa wa tu'dhillu man tashaa. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, say, Oh my Lord, you give sovereignty to whom you will and you take it away from whom you will and you honor whom you will and you disgrace whom you will. Yadikal khayr. In your hand is all good. Innaka ala kulli shay'in qadeer. Verily, you have power over all things. SubhanAllah. This reality, we're going to do a little Quran 30 for 30 here, all right? Early madani reality. People scoffed at the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam when he said, one day this light of mine is not just going to reach Mecca, Medina. It's going to reach the Romans and the Persians. It is going to reach the entire world and the keys of all of those kingdoms will be given to the Ummah of Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam. And they scoffed at him. They mocked
him. Who do you think you are? And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam with full faith, with full iman, doesn't stutter when he talks to Suraq ibn Malik radiAllahu ta'ala anhu and tells him about the days to come. Doesn't show any hesitation or lack of confidence when he says that one day this will come to pass. And some of the ulama, they say in an added richness to this with the mockery that some of them said, why did Allah make you a prophet? He could have made us a prophet. Whether that was the tribes in Medina from the people of the book that thought that the Prophet should be from Bani Israel, you don't get to choose that. Or whether it was Abu Jahl and the people that the two mighty men of Ta'if who said, why you? Allah could have given it to us instead. If Allah is distributing his mulk, meaning his nubuwa, why not us? Should have given it to us instead. And Allah tells the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam and the believers by extension, qulillahumma malika al mulk. malika al mulk. tu'ti al mulka man tasha'a. You give it to whom you want, you take it away from whom you want, tu'izzu man tasha'a. You're the one who gives honor. You're the one who disgraces. biyadika al khair innaka ala kulli shay'in qadeer. tu'liju al layla fi al nahari wa tu'liju al nahara fi al layl. What did Ibrahim alayhi salam challenge Nimrud with? Alternate the night and the day. Here, we say, oh Allah, you alternate night and day. wa tu'khriju al hayya minal mayyiti wa tu'khriju al mayyita minal hayy. wa tanruzuqu man tasha'u bi ghayri hisaab. What was the initial challenge? You give life to the dead and you give death to the living. You are the one who controls life and death.
You are the one who controls night and day. And that is the proof by which the believer continues to connect themselves to the giver of all things and the giver of all things gives relative to iman, relative to the increase of faith. Because the more iman you have, the more you view Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala as being greater and being the giver and the bestower, the more you humble yourself to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, the more you humble yourself to Allah, the more he honors you. And the more that everything around you as destabilized and destabilizing as it may seem, starts to freeze. Now SubhanAllah, you move to the end of Surah Ali Imran and you have another madani reality, the post-uhud reality. You know I've said this many times that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, if you only took his seerah, you could author every single leadership book in the world about the qualities of a leader. Post-uhud is a pivotal moment and Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam lost some very close people to him. And the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam almost lost his own life. And people fled uhud, noble people made a mistake, they fled uhud. They weren't the hypocrites. The hypocrites already turned their back before uhud even started on the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. These were believers in a moment of weakness. And at that moment Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, you know what he could have done? You know what a tyrant would have done? A tyrant would have made all of those that fled uhud wear a certain type of garment for a week, lash them in public, humiliate them, say I lost Hamza because of you. I lost Mus'ab because of you. I lost
Abdullah ibn Jahsh because of you. Is that what happens? No. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala forgives them. Not only that, in a post-uhud reality, wa la tahinu wa la tahzanu wa antumul a'launa in kuntum mu'mineen So beautiful. Wa la tahinu, don't weaken. Shaykh Mustafa is here, I'm like afraid to translate Quran right now. Read the clear Quran for proper translations. And go to the Tartil app to find the place that I'm reciting. There's two plugs in one, Alhamdulillah I'm going to collect from both of you afterwards. Duas of course. This verse in a post-uhud reality is so profound. Wa la tahinu, do not weaken. And tahinu refers to the physical manifestation of power and strength and refers more to that which is to come. Like there's still a lot more to come here. You still have a lot ahead of you. Wa inni wahana al-'azmu minni. When Zakariya says, I've withered away on the inside, my bones have weakened. Do not weaken. Do not become defeated. Wa la tahinu wa la tahzanu. And don't grieve over the past. The sadness that you feel in the heart, the guilt, the second guessing. Kalimat law, if I would have done this and I would have done that, Hamza would still be alive. Mus'ab would still be alive. You know I come from a country where we have, and I'm not joking here, I mean being real, it is one of the most disgraceful elements of a society. More mass shootings than days in the year. And often times you read the statistics on survivors guilt. Survivors guilt. People that will actually kill themselves. There are some mass shootings where you have more suicides in the aftermath of the shooting by the survivors
than the actual casualties of the shooting. Imagine the survivors guilt in Uhud. Imagine like I saw Hamza radiyaAllahu anhu fall. I saw Mus'ab fall. I saw the best people fall. And Allah says, wa la tahinu wa la tahzanu, wa antumul a'laun. You are the highest. You are the best community. And don't be demoralized and paralyzed for what is to come, nor paralyze yourself with grief over that which has passed. Wa antumul a'laun in kuntum mu'mineen. You are the highest. You are the best community. You are the most beloved community to Allah. In kuntum mu'mineen. So long as you are believers. So long as you are believers. SubhanAllah, our Messenger ﷺ taught us that there is victory in defeat so long as belief was not lost. And that's why in that moment, the mockery of the mushrikeen, of the disbelievers, when the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr and Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhuma are standing back there in Uhud, beat up, battered, bloodied. And they're yelling out. And they're claiming victory. Because this was the only sense of victory they could possibly have because their reality is so empty. It's restricted to this life. They were not there for allat or al-izzah or hubal, like they claim. They weren't there for their idols. They were there because their egos were bruised and they worshiped their egos. And their egos were hurt after Badr. That's why they were there. Their only victory happens in this life because they didn't even believe in an afterlife. So what an empty existence they actually had. Nothing to look forward to. Nothing to fulfill them. And so the only way
they could fill that emptiness and that insecurity was through material victories and wins. And so when they call out for victory, what's the answer? You guys don't get it. Our dead are in paradise. Your dead are in hellfire. You're celebrating here this victory of yours. Hamza radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu has already seen his place in jannah with the first strike, Sayyid al-Shuhada. Mus'ab radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu is already seeing al-jannah. The shuhada are already living a new reality and you're sitting here claiming... victory. Our dead are in paradise. Your dead are on the fire. Wait a minute. That's not the answer we were seeking. So let's try the chants about our idols. You guys don't get it. Allahu mawlana wa la mawla lakum. Allah is our protector. You have no protector. You know what we learned there? They weren't defeated. They were victorious because they didn't lose iman. They lost lives. They lost wealth. They lost security. They had to rebuild quite a bit to get themselves ready for the next phase. You are the highest community in the sight of God so long as you remain people of iman. So long as you have belief. Meaning what? If you win but you lose your iman, then you're actually low in the sight of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You have lost. And this is an admonishment to our community that when you seek material gains and advancements as a minority community, don't lose your iman in the process. That's not victory. That's not victory. That's not advancement. That's not progress. Progress is to make progress with your faith intact and to start to transform society around
you with your faith. Not to be transformed by your society with your faith withering away. No material progress is going to fill that emptiness or fill that status gap with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Progress is with faith because sanctity is with faith because elevation is with faith. And as long as that faith is intact and grows, then we are making progress on the side of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We are being elevated. There are no shortcuts to being a wali of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. There are no shortcuts to advancement. You have to take the long road, the difficult road, and Allah will make it easy for you because the reward will be worth the struggle. So keep at it. You know what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says? Surah al-Buruj. Subhanallah. Ashab al-Ukhdud. You know, the humiliation of the Meccans when the Prophet salallahu alaihi wasalam, Abu Bakr and Umar radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhuma could still have that clarity in the midst of all of that. Not even a moment of clarity was lost to have that clarity in the midst of that. By the way, that clarity exists in Gaza. Let me tell you something. People here will have a faith crisis talking about what's happening to the people of Gaza. The people of Gaza are increasing in their iman because of what's happening to the people of Gaza. I was talking to a distant cousin of mine, subhanallah, he was telling me how, you know, they were anticipating after this racist flag march that they had on Jerusalem, they were hoping for some sort of a skirmish so they could change the tune, change the narrative from the murder, the shameless murder of Sireen Abu Aqla. So they were hoping for something. They were hoping to start a both sides war so that they could provoke the American government and the Canadian government. Your government is just as terrible as our government when it comes to Palestine. They
equally stink. So he was saying the only concern they have when the airstrikes come and the bomb bombings come is how they're going to get to Fajr the next day. These people don't delay a salah. They don't delay a wedding. They just put them all together. Something we should probably try in the west as well. You know, instead of the individual expensive weddings. They are growing in their faith. They're not losing. لَا تَزَالُ طَائِفَةٌ مِّنْ أُمَّتِي مَنْصُورِينَ لَا يَضُرُّهُمْ مَنْ خَذَ لَهُمْ There's a group of people from my ummah. They're always supportive. They are not saddened. They are not harmed by those who turn their backs on them because they are not turning to the world for help. They're turning to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala for victory and elevation. There's a quality inside of them. اِرْتِفَاعُ الْإِيمَانِ اِرْتِفَاعُ الْمَنْزِلِ The elevation of faith, the elevation of a station. And so they see themselves as making progress and they're coming close to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. They have not withered. So why are you withering? They are not in crisis. Why are you in crisis for them? They're telling you to ثبتوا. They're telling you to have ثبت, to have firmness with them. They're telling you we're okay because we are coming closer to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What does Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tell us in Surah Al-Buruj? اِنَّ الَّذِينَ فَتَنُوا الْمُؤْمِنِينَ وَالْمُؤْمِنَاتِ ثُمَّ لَمْ يَتُوبُوا فَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ الْحَرِيقَةِ Allah Azawajal says, those who put the believers, look at the wasf, look at the characteristic that
Allah is drawing upon. Those who put the believers to trial and did not repent will have a grievous punishment ahead of them. No material victory can put off the eternal torment that awaits them. So those who put the believers to test, to trial, Ashab al-Ukhdud, a group of innocent people thrown into a ditch and lit on fire, ثُمَّ لَمْ يَتُوبُوا and they don't repent. So Allah is opening the door to them to repent. فَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ جَهَنَّمَ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابُ الْحَرِيقَةِ اِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ لَهُمْ جَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَابِ Those who believe and work deeds of righteousness have paradise beneath which rivers flow. ذَٰلِكَ الْفَمْزُ الْكَبِيرِ That is the great success. Because their iman was not burned in that fire. Therefore the reward for their iman is preserved. Those people that put them to torment did not have the quality of faith that guarantees them that safety and that security and that elevation and that station with their Lord. It's iman that raises you up. It's faith that raises you up. And the more that your faith rises, the more that everything in the world starts to make sense. I end with two things in this regard. The Prophet ﷺ told us that there would come a time that a person would wake up in the morning a mu'min, a believer, and they go to sleep at night without belief, a disbeliever, and vice versa. You go to sleep a believer, you wake up a disbeliever. And so iman is there sometimes and it's not there sometimes. That's not because Allah ﷻ is playing with our hearts. That's not because Allah ﷻ is oppressing us or wronging us. That's when your
iman becomes so flimsy due to you conditioning your faith upon material things. I had a good day at work, I'm going to sleep on alhamdulillah. I had a bad day at work, I'm going to sleep with I don't know if God exists. I mean this is the variation, right? You condition your iman upon material success, whereas the Messenger ﷺ taught you to believe in Allah without condition, and as a reward for believing in Allah without condition, your condition would perpetually improve until you meet Allah ﷻ in eternal bliss. That's the deal. The deal in Medina with the Messenger ﷺ and the Ansar was what? Even though the Prophet ﷺ was talking about Rome and Persia and Islam spreading throughout the world, the Prophet ﷺ did not say to the Ansar, I'm going to turn Medina or I'm going to turn Yathrib into a world-class city. I'm going to build you an airport and maybe one day a clock tower here too. You know all types of worldly promises, all of these people are going to come to you, Medina is going to have hotels and gardens, wait till you see. None of that. What does he promise them? In exchange for iman, Jannah, paradise. The other stuff is secondary, the other stuff is bonus, the other stuff is bonus. Dear brothers and sisters, subhanAllah, I wasn't going to, I've never mentioned this in a public lecture even though I took permission from the family. One of the prisoners of the Holy Land Foundation, the HLF5 that was shut down in the United States, one of the five HLF5 prisoners, I was performing the niqab of his son a few months ago and they were playing a message from prison.
One of the things about the United, the U.S. prison system is they seek to dehumanize you in every single way possible to a point that you can't play the message of a man without every few seconds it's stopping and saying this is a collect call from this prison, this is a call from this prison. You imagine playing on the loudspeakers while people are dressed up nicely and people are celebrating a beautiful moment with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and with each other and they're playing the message, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala free those who are unjustly imprisoned, everyone say ameen, may Allah free those who are unjustly imprisoned, everyone say ameen. They're playing his message and he's talking to his son, he's giving his son a nasiha and this is a man in prison now for almost two decades for a crime he didn't commit and he says to his son over that call he says learn to compromise in everything except your deen wallahi he said that sentence, subhanallah a man from prison and he says learn to compromise in everything except for your deen, learn to be a humble easygoing person, compromise with your ego, compromise with your day, compromise with the harms and the compromise with your day, compromise with the harms and the things that the world presents towards you, but don't compromise your iman. That was the dua of Ibn Mas'ud radiyaAllahu ta'ala and I want you all to remember it. wa murafaqata nabiyika muhammadin salallahu alayhi wasalam fi a'na jannatil khult
wa murafaqata nabiyika muhammadin salallahu alayhi wasalam fi a'na jannatil khult oh Allah I ask you for faith that does not leave, faith that does not escape me, I ask you for faith that stays with me, blessings that don't cut off, that don't expire and I ask you for the companionship of your Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasalam in the highest level of Jannatul Firdaus. Ameen. Say Ameen, memorize the dua. It was the dua of Ibn Mas'ud radiyaAllahu ta'ala for which the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam said Ameen when he said it. We ask Allah subhana wa ta'ala for iman kamila, for full faith, yaqeenan sadiqa, for true certainty and for amalan mutaqabbala, for accepted deeds. Allahumma Ameen.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
