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Do Not Forget Who You Are | Daily Reminders
“Do not be like the one who forgets about Allah because that person has forgotten himself.” Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed explains two thought-provoking ayat that are relevant to the current circumstances we are living and the lessons we can learn from them.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. ... As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. My dear brothers and sisters, there's an ayah in the Qur'an that I find to be one of the most thought-provoking and interesting ayahs in the Qur'an. This ayah is the reason why Allama Iqbal, rahimahullah, reached the heights that he reached in his life and the legacy that he has left behind. It was the deep profound reflections over this ayah that developed his philosophy of khudi, the falasafa of khudi as we know it today. And wallahi al-azim, I think that this ayah is an ayah that we can appreciate more in the current circumstances that we're going through. So, stay tuned as we take a ride along the tafsir and reflections of two verses. One is this verse, and it will only be understood if we understand another verse in the Qur'an. This verse in surah al-Hashr, ayah number 19, Allah says ... ... ... Very basic ayah. Allah says do not become like the one who forgets Allah. Okay? Do not become like the one who forgets Allah. So, if you do this, this is going to be your consequence. And what is Allah saying that is a consequence of forgetting about Allah? Is He going to take sustenance from you? Is He going to make life more difficult for you? None of that. Allah didn't mention that. Allah mentions something that is even more profound than that. Do not become like the one who forgets about Allah. Hence, Allah makes them forget about themselves. Hence, Allah makes him forget about himself. Hence, Allah makes her forget about herself. Subhanallah. What does that mean that I will forget about myself? And this is what we want to dive into today. If you do this, Allah is saying
... Those are the true transgressors. ... means in the classical Arabic is ... ... That when a fruit leaves its peel. So, for example, when you open the banana and the banana comes out of its peel, this banana no longer has the ability to get more ripe. And if it stays there for too long in this state, it spoils. Allah is saying that a person who becomes like this is truly spoiled. So, oh Allah, what does that mean? That a person forgets about himself. What we have to understand from this is that how Muhammad Ali says, where is a man's wealth? Great quote. Where is a man's wealth? If his wealth is in his bank, then it doesn't belong to him. My wealth is in the knowledge of myself. Love and spirituality. Allah says, ... ... Allah says, dive into yourself. Learn about who you are. What capabilities you were born with. How you were born. What you're doing in this world. Learn about yourself. ... ... ... He says, by knowing more about yourself then you will truly learn more about Allah SWT. So, the path to learning more about Allah starts by learning about ourselves and what our true capabilities and capacities are. And it starts with this. We all have titles. This is Dr. Sahib. This is Mufti Sahib. This is Sheikh. This is an engineer. And these titles we got and these titles were put by our names through a formal education we went through. Four years in college we became engineer. But there was a title that we were born with. All of us, Allah gave us
this title at birth. Every single one of us, young and old, rich or poor, whether we live in the western world or not, this title is shared by every human being. And forgetting about this title is what Allah is saying in this ayah. If you don't forget about Allah, then this person forgets about that title, that introduction that Allah gave him. What was that title that Allah gave you? And in another surah Allah mentions that title. What is our title? Who are we truly? And these circumstances can teach us that. Allah says in that ayah, Ya ayyuhan naas, antumul fuqarao ilallah wallahu wal ghaniyu al hamid O mankind, each and every single one of you, the title that you were born with was faqeer. Faqeer. Faqeer in our modern day language we say a poor person. You know, people who speak Urdu, they tend to say faqeer is this person is faqeer, he's poor. But that's not what the classical Arabic meaning of it is. One of the most profound meanings of faqeer is how Ibn Arafah and Al-Raghib Asfahani mentioned is al-muhtaj. A person who is in need. Faqeer means a person who is completely dependent. A person who is completely in need and cannot do anything on their own. This is who we are. These circumstances around us is sort of teaching us this. That we had plans. We had ideas. We had quarterly goals. We had different weddings planned. We had, but Allah has his own plan. And what happens sometimes is because we tend to strategize and we have quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly targets, and daily targets, and we work hard, we have our, Sheikh Sulaiman bin Allah says it very nicely, I'm paraphrasing what he says, you have all these, and then we start to think naively and foolishly that it's because of my effort
or because of my strategies and my abilities, my planning things are happening. Allah lets, sometimes Allah lets things happen with his own grace. But then sometimes Allah pulls the plug, and then we realize it was not our abilities, it was not our strategies, it was not our planning all along, but it was Allah's ability, Allah's qudra all along that was letting these plans and efforts come to fruition. Now we're realizing that masjids are closed. Many times people get so involved in the masjid with donations, strategies, board meetings, and we start to think that maybe it's because of our circumstances, our strategies, our board meetings, our professionalism. Yes, Alhamdulillah, it's all good that masjids are open and it's because the donations we're giving, but really Allah is saying, في بيوت أذين الله أن ترفع ويذكر فيها اسمه It is in the houses of Allah that Allah allows his name to be mentioned. It is because of Allah's grace the masjids are open. It is because of Allah's permission that the name of Allah is mentioned in those houses. It is because of Allah's plan whatever was happening in the masjid. Imagine to that degree, subhanAllah in another ayah Allah even says إِنَّ أَرْسَلْنَاكَ شَاهِدًا وَبَشْرًا وَنَذِيرًا وَدَاعِيًا إِلَى اللَّهِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَسِرَاجًا وَنِيرًا O Prophet of Allah, even your giving da'wah day and night is because of the amr, the permission, the plan of Allah. وَلَا يَشَاءُونَ إِلَّا أَن يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ Whatever we wish to happen cannot happen. Whatever Allah wishes to happen that happens. Ali bin Abi Talib used to say that عَرَفْتُ رَبِّي بِفَصْخِ الْعَزَائِمِ that I truly recognize my Rabb, my Lord by the breaking of my plans. I had plans but one after the other they were not happening and I realized that there's an Allah who is in control of everything and I'm a
faqeer, I'm completely dependent. I have no say in what's going on. Yes, there are asbab but these circumstances should teach us what our true identity, what our true title is. It is we are faqeer. And Allah is al-ghani, Allah is independent. Right? And now we look at, and I conclude by saying this, now we look at the dynamic relationship in our lives of someone who is dependent with someone who is independent somewhat. And we see that we find this relationship between parents and children. A baby who is five months old, we can say that this baby is a faqeer. Completely dependent on his or her mother or father. Cannot do anything on its own. لَيْسَ لَهُ سِنٌ تَفْلَقْ وَلَيْسَ لَكَ دَرْسٌ تَطْحَنْ وَلَيْسَ لَكَ يَدٌ تَبْطِشْ وَلَيْسَ لَكَ رِجْلٌ تَمْشِيْ Hadith Qudsi, Allah says, you have hands but they have no strength. These little baby hands have no strength to grasp with. You have no teeth, how can you bite? Your jaws have no strength, how can you chew? Your feet have no strength, how can you walk? You make your faqeer, this baby is faqeer, completely dependent. Completely in need. And the mother is the one who is helping. And we see in this relationship that whenever this faqeer, this baby needs something, it doesn't know any language, it doesn't speak Fusha Arabic, it doesn't speak English, it doesn't speak Urdu. The only language the baby knows is the language of crying. It just cries. In a moment this baby cries, the entire house goes upside down. Everyone comes to action for this baby. That is why today we have to learn how, forget the flowery words and different words that we speak with and how we call unto Allah. The most important thing is how this baby cries to Allah. That is a relationship, faqeer of ghani. Allah is ghani and we are faqeer. We need to open up our hearts and just cry in front of Allah. Allama Iqbali says,
Tu bacha bacha kina rak isay, tera aayina ha vo aayina, ke shikasta ho to azeezatar, ha nigaah aayina saazime. Don't keep on holding this mirror of your heart. Don't keep on finessing it and making sure it doesn't break. That Allah, the one who created this heart, the more it breaks, the more it is beloved to Allah. The more you cry, the more you are beloved to Allah. So hopefully we understand in these circumstances the dynamic relationship in our title which is faqeer and Allah is ghani and that the way to take from ghani is how the child takes from his parents or her parents is by crying and Allah make us among those who truly understand this and shed tears in front of him so we can take from his treasures. JazakAllah Khair.
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