# Perfection and Beauty | Episode 1 | To Know Him is to Love Him **Author:** Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy **Series:** Lecture **Published:** 2019-07-15 **YouTube:** https://youtu.be/gPX__Q5Boss **URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/lecture/perfection-and-beauty-to-know-him-is-to-love-him **Topics:** Allah, Faith ## Description In the first part of the To Know Him is to Love Him lecture series, Sh. Mohammad Elshinawy describes the first two attributes of Allah to inspire our love for Him: The Most Perfect and The Most Beautiful. ## Transcript **[0:00]** Bismillah, alhamdulillah, wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulullah wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. We begin and we say all praise and all glory be to Allah and infinite thanks and blessings be to Allah who permits for us to get together and remember him and to mention him, subhanahu wa ta'ala. **[0:16]** Allah azza wa jal says, fathkuruni adhkurkum, right? Remember me and I will remember you. Mention me and I will mention you. And this is a little bit mind-boggling if you think about it, right? Yahya ibn Mu'adh, rahimahullah, he used to say, ya ghafoolu ya jahool, he says, **[0:35]** oh oblivious person, oh foolish person, law sami'ata sareera al-aqlaam, if you could only hear the sound of the pens, taktubusmak heena zakarta amawlak, when it was writing your name **[0:51]** up there, writing your name when you mentioned the name of your Lord. You would have died out of longing for your Lord. Meaning if you would have just heard the sound of the pen writing your name when you remembered Allah, **[1:09]** what about hearing Allah himself speak about you? So may Allah enable us to fully feel the depth of the size of that blessing, Allahumma ameen. And then we're not just here to talk about Allah azza wa jal, we're here to talk about the most important aspect of our relationship with Allah, **[1:28]** which is loving him, subhanahu wa ta'ala. That is the inner nucleus and the most fundamental aspect of our faith as Muslims. That's why Allah azza wa jal said, wa minan nasi man yattakhidhu min doonillahi andadan yuhibboonahum ka hubbillah. Among humanity are those that have set up equals **[1:50]** with Allah, set up rivals to Allah. How? Prostrating to them the way they're supposed to be prostrating to Allah or taking judgment from them the way they're supposed to say judgment. No, no, he says by loving them the way they're supposed to be loving Allah. Then he says, wal ladheena aamanu ashaddu hubban lillah, whereas the believer, the most primary **[2:12]** definition of a believer is that he is more intense, she is more intense in their love for Allah, more intense than everything else. And so we're here to speak about him and the most important aspect of our relationship with him is loving him. But how do we make up for lost time or those **[2:34]** many moments when we misplace our love for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? When it blurs, when it fades, how do you rediscover your love for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? So here's my first confession. I don't believe in unconditional love, **[2:52]** in anything. We always love for a reason. We may not be fully aware of why we love someone or something, but there's a reason why. And so some scholars, some philosophers, they try to summarize it, perhaps it's a good way to summarize it, in five ways. The reasons we love things, what our **[3:13]** love hinges on. The very first of them is perfection and beauty. We love something, we're drawn to it, we're captivated by it, because we see the object of our love is something perfect, something beautiful. Easy example, why are we drawn to like impressive feats performed by athletes? **[3:36]** Why are we drawn to like a team when it's about to break a record that's never been done before? Why are we drawn to the sunrise and the sunset? Why are we drawn to a brand new fancy car? The immaculate body, the brand new seats, I know sisters may not be able to relate as well, **[3:54]** I'll think of a better example. Because these reflect to us an element of beauty, an element of perfection. Then when you take that to Allah azza wa jal, He is matchless in His perfection, He is matchless in His beauty, He is the creator of beauty, isn't He? **[4:10]** Subhanahu wa ta'ala. And He is perfect in every single way, inherently, His qualities, His actions, His determinations, His legislations, everything about Him, to the degree that imperfection is not even imaginable when it comes to Allah, from any angle, from any lens. **[4:28]** You know in the hadith in Sahih Muslim, the Prophet ﷺ says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَنَامُ Allah does not sleep, that's an imperfection. وَلَا يَنْبَغِي لَهُ أَن يَنَامُ And it is unbefitting of him to sleep, meaning not even close. **[4:47]** لَا تَأْخُذُهُ سِنَةٌ وَلَا نَوْمٌ Not even drowsiness overtakes Allah. يَخْفِظُ الْقِسْطَ وَيَرْفَعُ He lowers the scales in justice and He raises them again. He's in full control. سُبْحَانَهُمْ وَتَعَالَى But then He says, and this is the part I want, حِجَابُهُ النُّرُ **[5:04]** The veil of Allah is light. لَوْ كَشَفَهُ لَأَحْرَقَتْ سُبُحَاتُ وَجْهِهِ مَنْ تَهَى إِلَيْهِ بَصَرُهُ مِنْ خَلْقِهِ If He were to remove His veil, which is light, the glory of His face would burn, **[5:22]** the intensity of the beauty, the glory of His face would burn everything that His sight can reach, which is everything, would incinerate from the beauty of the face of Allah. سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى Would not be able to handle it. Like you think of Yusuf Alayhi Salaam, **[5:39]** when the women saw the beauty of his face, it smothered the pain of them, skidding with the knives into their hands, right? So what will happen to the people of Jannah? May Allah make us and you of them. When you get to see the face of the one who created Yusuf Alayhi Salaam, **[5:58]** may Allah deliver us there safely, every pain, every hardship at that moment will vanish. You will melt out of love of seeing Allah. But there is enough to know about Allah through what He disclosed about Himself in Revelation, **[6:14]** in authentic traceable revelation, to melt not out of seeing Him yet, but out of knowing Him. 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