fbpixel

Take 30 seconds to give for 30 days.

Prophets

From Adam to Abraham: "When My Servants Ask of Me, I Am Near" | Virtual Khutbah

April 24, 2020Dr. Omar Suleiman

In Surat al-Baqarah, there is a verse that states "and when my servants ask you about Me, then tell them I am near. I answer the call of every believer when they call upon me so let them also answer my call and believe in me so they may find rightful guidance" (2:186). Sh. Omar Suleiman discusses the very powerful connection of this ayah to two prophets, Adam and Abraham, and their call to Allah.

Transcript

This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh everyone. I hope you didn't forget that today's Friday. I know that it's Ramadan. So first and foremost Ramadan Mubarak to all of you. But we're still going to do this virtual khutba inshallah ta'ala but because I can't drink water, I'm going to probably keep it a little bit shorter inshallah ta'ala and there's already a lot of great content to interact with bismillah ta'ala. So bismillah ar-rahman ar-raheem, alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen, wa la'udwana illa'a la'zalimeen, wa al-aqibatu lilmuttaqeen, Allahumma salli wa sallim wa barakan abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathira. So last night we started the Qur'an 30 for 30 series and then just a couple of hours ago or a few hours ago we released the first of the Angel series and inshallah ta'ala I hope you're going to follow along with both of those. But I wanted to draw a deeper reflection from yesterday that would move us into the second juz which we'll cover tonight inshallah ta'ala but with a very very personal reflection and then we'll do some more in terms of the overall structure of the Qur'an inshallah ta'ala when we talk tonight. But if you caught last night we talked about how the very first chapter of the Qur'an is a supplication, it's a dua, it's a prayer which automatically defines the relationship between the servant and their lord. You start off with a prayer and the supplication is not any supplication it's specifically a supplication for guidance, specifically a supplication for guidance and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and God answers immediately with a chapter about guidance. That this is the book in which there is no doubt a guidance for the God conscious so we talked about that. Now tonight inshallah we're going to get into juz 2 and there is
I ask you my servants about me, for I am near, I answer the call of every caller when they call upon me, so let them also answer my call and believe in me so that they may find rightful guidance. What's the connection between this and Adam and Abraham? There's a very powerful connection to them and the usual hesitations that come with supplication, the usual hesitations that come with dua and it's a lot in there to unpack and reflect upon. So Allah starts off with a chapter of supplication in surah al-fatiha and it is the mother of the book and then it goes into the next chapter and we get the stories of the prophets. We have two very specific duas, two very specific supplications that we find within the first juz of the quran and then Allah affirming in the second chapter of the quran that I answer the prayer of every caller, I am near when you call upon me. The two that are calling upon Allah are Adam and Ibrahim and they're calling upon Allah on the heels of two opposite deeds. In the case of Adam, Adam is calling upon Allah on the heels of a slip, on the heels of a sin. Ibrahim is calling upon Allah upon the performance of a good deed. So that's the first thing that I want you to notice between the two, between Adam and between Abraham. That Adam is calling upon his Lord after committing a sin, Ibrahim is calling upon his Lord after the performance of a good deed. In the case of Adam, Adam has never experienced what it is like to attain the displeasure of his Lord.
Adam has never seen the displeasure of his Lord before. Adam and Eve have lived in paradise, they have lived in the gardens of felicity, they have never seen displeasure. Everything that they have encountered thus far is pure happiness and pure tranquility. And that's why this is going to be particularly challenging because when Adam and Eve slip, when Adam and Eve slip, Adam could have done what the devil did which was to further despair, which was to dig himself into a hole and to go away from Allah. But instead Adam did what? As soon as Adam slipped, he did not think to himself, he didn't let the devil get to him and tell him, you know, you were in a paradise, you were in a garden, how could you do something like this? What did God do to you in order for you to disobey him? Because shaitan will play the righteous mufti after you commit a sin and tell you that you're not worthy of repentance. He didn't fall for that. Immediately Adam alayhi salam responded and said, فَتَلَقَىٰ آدَمَ مِنْ رَبِّهِ بِكَلِمَاتٍ فَتَابَ عَلَيْهِ That Adam alayhi salam turned back to his Lord with some words and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, so his Lord forgave him. There was absolutely no difference, no gap in the time from which Adam alayhi salam called upon Allah and asked him for forgiveness and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala actually granting him that forgiveness, which is so beautiful when you think about it. It was instant. Not only that, but Allah gave Adam the words to make repentance with. Okay, so بِكَلِمَاتٍ is interpreted in another verse in the Quran رَبَّنَا ظَلَمْنَا أَنفُسَنَا وَإِن لَمْ تَخْفِرْ لَنَا وَتَرْحَمْنَا لَنَكُونَنَا مِنَ الْخَاسِرِينَ Oh our Lord, we have wronged ourselves and so if you don't forgive us and have mercy upon us, then surely we will be amongst the wrongdoers.
Okay, so Adam alayhi salam did not let a moment of feeling guilty cause him to turn away from his Lord or feel unworthy of calling upon his Lord because he knew that he had a Lord that answers and a Lord that forgives and a Lord who will not turn down his supplication. And so even though he could have despaired after slipping due to his desire, he turned back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. He turned back to his Lord and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala elevated him. So Adam alayhi salam, again, his supplication was on the heels of a sin and sometimes what causes us to not supplicate or not believe that our supplication has any worth after committing a sin and repenting is that why would Allah forgive me when I've done this, when I've done that, when I've done this. What good is my supplication now? What good is my dua at this point? What good is my prayer at this point? Now fast forward to Ibrahim alayhi salam. Abraham. Abraham and Ishmael, Ibrahim and Isma'il constructing the Kaaba, raising the foundations of the Kaaba. وَإِذْ يَرْفَعُ إِبْرَاهِيمُ الْقَوَاعِدَ مِنَ الْبَيْتِ وَإِسْمَعِيلُ رَبَّنَا تَقَبَّلْ مِنَّا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ السَّمِيُّونَ عَلِيمٌ When Abraham and Ishmael, when they raised their hands to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and they asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness, okay? They asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for acceptance, I'm sorry. So they asked Allah to accept the deed. They didn't just ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept the deed. He then asked Allah, Abraham then asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and oh Allah, make us an ummah. وَجَعَلْنَا مُسْلِمَيْنِ لَكَ مَكْسِنْ أُمَّةً مُسْلِمَةً لَكَ Make us an ummah of Muslims, an ummah of those that submit to your will. He asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, أَرِنَا مَنَاسِكَنَا To show us the proper way to do the ritual. He asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, وَتُبْعَ لَيْنَا And accept our repentance to you.
Which shows you that there is another layer of seeking Allah's forgiveness, which is that there is a deficiency in your good deeds. So accept our repentance. And then he asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, وَبَعَثْ فِيهِمْ رَسُولًا مِنْهُمْ يَتْذُوْا عَلَيْهِمْ آيَاتِكَ وَيُعَلِّمُهُ الْكِتَابَ وَالْحِكْمَةَ وَيُزَكِّيهِمْ And send amongst that offspring of ours a prophet that will recite upon them your verses, that will teach them the sacred knowledge, and that will purify them with it. So subhanAllah, you have a very different incident of dua here. In the first situation, you have a man who Allah has given everything, who has never seen anything but ease and good in paradise. And you know what happens? He ends up falling from paradise, and so he calls back upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and he's elevated and he turns back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and is raised in that state. In the case of Ibrahim alayhis-salam, in the case of Abraham, you have a man who has never seen ease. He has not seen the Jannah of this world by any means. He's seen hardship his entire life, he's seen rejection, he's seen pain, he's seen people treat him extremely badly, starting with his own father. He's seen nothing but pain his entire life, and all he's responded with is good deeds, and doing the next thing that's pleasing to his Lord. And he did not think for a moment that his Lord was incapable of granting him amazing things in this world in terms of acceptance in the hereafter, as well as acceptance of the prayer in this world, because of everything that he had seen before. And so what can happen to us is that if we've prayed and we've supplicated, and we have not seen the answer within a time span that was pleasing to us, or that we felt was fair and just, and we felt was in accordance with the best, then we may start to despair in Allah's answer, right?
Ibrahim alayhis-salam did not despair in Allah's answer. He didn't say when, he said, Oh Allah, send a prophet from amongst my offspring that would take this message, and that would spread it to the world, that would bring people to this Kaaba, and that this Kaaba would consistently have your followers, your worshippers, your servants coming to you, imploring you and pleading to you, right? For your forgiveness and your mercy. The time span did not cause him to give up on his dua. He didn't even ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for the time span. He didn't ask God for when. He just gave Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the supplication, the dua, okay? And on top of that, Ibrahim alayhis-salam did not start to compare his good deeds to what he had seen at that point in his supplication. So sometimes you can find that in the case of some of the people of Musa alayhis-salam, of Moses peace be upon him, that are referenced, also that you could call upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and you could be impatient, and what's spurring the impatience is you're saying, I did this, I did this, I did that. Didn't we do this? Didn't we do this? Didn't we do that? As if to suggest that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has not been as merciful to you as you have been obedient to him, right? And that implication is a sinful implication, it's a prideful implication, it's a satanic implication, right? I've worshipped you for all these years and this is what I get, okay? So again, I wanted just to compare the dua, the supplication. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, starting off Juz 2, which we'll talk about tonight, we'll reflect on the structure, وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَأَنِّي قَرِيبٌۢ When my servant asks of me, indeed I am close to him. And Juz 1, which starts off with the dua, which starts off with the supplication, and Allah would not tell us to call upon him except that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would answer us. So when we ask Allah for guidance, Allah gives us guidance right away. And in the case of Adam alayhi salam, when Adam alayhi salam asked Allah for forgiveness, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave him forgiveness right away.
And in the case of Ibrahim alayhi salam and Abraham, when he asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for acceptance, Allah gave him acceptance right away. So even though the answer to Ibrahim's dua of the nations of people coming to the home that he was constructing with his son Ismail, the nature of that dua, Ibrahim alayhi salam would not see the response in his lifetime, still the acceptance was then. The qabool was then. The acceptance was then. Just like the acceptance of Adam's repentance was right away, the acceptance of Ibrahim's dua was right away. And so the lesson for us, dear brothers and sisters, whether you're calling upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, calling upon your Lord on the heel of a sin in sincere repentance, or you're calling upon your Lord on the heels of a good deed in sincere hopes of acceptance, inni qareeb, I'm close to you, I'm near to you, I hear you, I will accept it. Let Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala respond to the dua in the way that Allah knows how to respond to the dua that's best for us, and then keep the onus on ourselves. fal yastajeebooli wal yu'minoo bi la'allahum yarshodoon So let them respond to me and let them believe in me so that they may find success and guidance. And ar-rushd is hidayatun fil amal. It's to be guided with your actions. So hidaya is guidance with your knowledge, guidance with your path, knowing the path, being guided to the straight path. Rushd is actually having hidaya and amal, having guidance to the actions then that will allow you to propel yourself upon that path, to get to the end of that path, to the destination of Allah's pleasure bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. So inshaAllah ta'ala we'll reflect more tonight in just two in Quran 30 for 30. I hope you all enjoyed the angels, the first angels series. It's gonna get deeper and deeper inshaAllah.
I've never enjoyed a Ramadan series the way that I enjoyed recording the angels series. So please make sure you watch everyone, their short episodes, watch it with your family inshaAllah ta'ala and benefit and share with others bi-idhnillahi ta'ala to benefit and give us feedback. I'm already thinking about next year's Ramadan series inshaAllah. And I'll see you tonight as well for the Quran 30 for 30 bi-idhnillahi ta'ala. JazakumAllahu khayran and Ramadan Mubarak to you all once again. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
Khutbahs

Allah

215 items
Present
1 items