Late Night Talks (2024)
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Not Lying To Ourselves About Allah | Late Night Talks
In the last 10 nights of Ramadan, Dr. Omar Suleiman and Sh. Yaser Birjas reflect on the book “The Disease and Its Cure” by Imam Ibn al-Qayyim.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. The last thing we talked about is that du'a and al-qadr, that you know how the du'a is better than al-qadr. If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala decreed something, how your du'a can affect that by the ultimate knowledge of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, what you make in du'a at some point, this will have changed. But then Ibn Qayyim says, look, we have to also understand something very important. In order for this to be effective, in order for qadr to be changed by that du'a, you need to bring with the du'a another qadr. So al-qadr will change because of another qadr. And he says this is one of the most important things people need to understand. Just making a du'a does not necessarily change what Allah has decreed for you. So many, many people, they make du'a in the last minute. And they forgot that in order for them to get to this moment where the du'a needs to be accepted, you have to do what Ubadur radiallahu anhu said, that you have to live a life of righteousness so that little du'a will be answered right away. So that's why he says you have to have the qadr, the asbab, the means that will bring that change to happen so your du'a will only be just another push. That's all. And that's something he was emphasizing, and then he says, however, he goes, فهادي المسألة من أشرف المسائل one of the most important masal that people need to understand and brings you happiness. But you have to observe two things. The first thing he says, in order for this qadr to affect the qadr of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala as well too, that is the qadr for you, he says, لابد, you have to bring two things. Number one, أن يعرف تفاصيل أسباب الشر والخير that you have to understand the means to good and evil. What really leads to good? What leads to evil? وتكون له بصيرة في ذلك بما يشاهده في العالم And you have that insight by observing what happens around you, which means learn from the experience. If you know someone has done something that led him to commit a haram or a sin, then don't
do it. Learn from those who have gone through this path before you. قال وما جربه في نفسه وغيره And also from your personal experience. If you know that being alone in a room, the most likely is going to cause you to go on a haram site, then avoid being alone in those moments. If you know that being around these people, they will gravitate me to get somewhere, then avoid being with those people. The whole idea is that you need to know that for the qadr to be affected by da'a, you also need to bring the counter qadr to it by bringing the asbab to safety. And that's what we mean by the title of tonight is the delusion of safety. Many of us, they think, الحمد لله, as long as I'm doing my istighfar, my ibadah, my ta'a, I'm good. Whatever sin I commit, الحمد لله, Allah will forgive it for me. This is the illusion of safety. We need to learn this. Now, one thing I want to bring here to the table as well is to understand that we all, at some point, all of us, as a matter of fact, we share that level of ailment from this issue, which means we all have that level of delusion that we think, الحمد لله, at some point, I'm good right now, you know what, I've done enough of this. But it's extremely dangerous when people start depending on those moments of what we call delusion of safety, and then they stop, and they stop using that qadr of doing the right thing and abstaining from the wrong thing. Otherwise, if we don't pay attention to that, we'll continue the sinful life, always depending on Allah's mercy. A few things, Shaykh, SubhanAllah, immediately stick out. He says, وَمَا جَرَّبَهُ فِي نَفْسِهِ وَغَيْرِهِ what he has tested with himself and others. Every single person around you is a potential version of you, in good or in bad. And so he says, مِنْ أَخْبَارِ الْأُمَمِ الْقَدِيمَ وَحَدِيثًا
the stories of the nations that came before and the stories of the nations today, the individuals around you, the people around you, everyone has an attribute that you are capable of having of good or bad. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la just says, He gives you the example of destroyed nations, He gives you the example of very unhappy and unfulfilled people. And who has taken a path away from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and found fulfillment in that? And so you see people that have it all yet have nothing. And on the other hand, people that have nothing yet seem to have it all. And that's a proof for you. And when it comes to it, حُسْنَ الظَّنْ بِاللَّهِ because I think this is what we're really getting to, is this idea of a good assumption of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. If you're still thinking along the lines of الدَّاء والدَّوَاه, the disease and the cure. So we talked about the Qur'an. In order to benefit from the Qur'an, there are أَسْبَاب. There are things you have to do in order for the Qur'an to be a شِفَاء for you, to be a cure for you. In order for the دُعَاء to be answered, there are أَسْبَاب, there are means. The means are the good deeds and the obedience of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So just like with physical health, it's don't just take the pill, don't just take the medicine. There's a list of requirements for you that precede the illness and that also either hasten the cure or delay the cure or make it impossible. Likewise, when it comes to حُسْنَ الظَّنْبِاللَّهِ, so this is a new medicine, right? Which is a good assumption of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Your hope in Allah, your hope in Allah, your hope in Allah. We live in an age where we emphasize hope, right? Likewise, when it comes to your hope in Allah, that's the cure, حُسْنَ الظَّنْبِاللَّهِ. The أَسْبَاب, the means, also exist there, right? What's the responsibility that you have so that your حُسْنَ الظَّنْبِاللَّهِ, your hope in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is a real one and not a form of delusion. Because you even find, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, I was thinking about this, yesterday we read Surah Yasin, and you look at these people that disobeyed Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la,
and they speak very well of Allah, right? You know, the man in Surah Al-Kahf, I don't think that I'm going to lose these two gardens, and I don't think the hour is coming, وَلَئِن رُدِتُ إِلَىٰ رَبِّي And if I go back to my Lord, He's going to treat me well. فَأَمَّا الْإِنسَانُ إِذَا مَوَتَ لَاهُ رَبُّهُ فَأَكْرَمَهُ وَنَعْمَ فَيَقُولُ رَبِّي أَكْرَمًا Like when someone's getting it all the way that they want it, despite their sin, even the most wicked people in the world say, God is good to me. Don't you hear that? God is good to me. You hear someone whose whole life is فَوَاحِش, is wickedness, and they say, God is good to me. Why? I've got this mansion, I've got this money, I've got this. God is good to me. That's literally the attitude that Allah keeps on highlighting through the Qur'an. God is good to me despite me not being good to Him. That's really what's being said. And so the Muslim can ingest some of that, and that's what Ibn Al-Qayyim is about to diagnose. When you say, I expect well from Allah without expecting the next level of your بِر, your obedience towards Him, that is nothing but delusion. When you are taking steps towards Allah, while also expecting Allah to bring you along, that is devotion. So the difference between devotion and delusion is in the أَسْبَاب that you are taking, the means that you are taking in your journey to Allah. Sheikh Ibn Al-Qayyim says now that we know that we have to also, we have to pursue the means for good and stay away from the means that leads to evil, because now who decides what's good and what's evil? Unfortunately we live in a time right now I believe that a lot of people they take good and bad from what? From what they see on social media. So we see what other people do, especially when it comes to being Muslims. So because Muslims do that, so why not? Like many, many people they have that delusion, if I move my family and do hijrah to a Muslim country, we're going to be awesome. We're going to be righteous people, inshallah, and so on. So they go to a Muslim country, and they realize that in Muslim countries they have the exact
same problems, not even worse than sometimes, subhanAllah, that they have everywhere in the world. And in addition to that, the delusion that since it's in a Muslim society and people do that, then why not? And frankly that's many of the challenges parents they bring to the table when they take their kids to a Muslim society or a Muslim country or even a Muslim school. So they were eager to raise their Muslim kids in a Muslim environment, but when you take them to a Muslim environment that is not necessarily doing what they're supposed to, they're not using the right means of good or evil, instead they're only doing what the society just kind of like imposes upon them, becomes problematic. And their kids start having the excuse, well, they do this, they do this in the school, and I've seen these people on social media do that, they're hijabis and they do the same thing too, and it becomes a problem. So Ibn Qayyim says, look, in order for you to understand what is right and what is wrong and what is evil and what is good, you have to go back to the source. You can't depend on what people do, what people say. You have to go back to what Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says and what the Prophet ﷺ said, and that's what he was talking about here actually in this point over here. So going back to the source in order to identify right from wrong is extremely, extremely important. Because other than that, if you like to see the point of reference becomes anything besides the Qur'an and Sunnah, will be delusional. So there are two things that Ibn Qayyim Rahim Allah mentions in the chapter of Husn al-Dhan and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. He says, number one, that you can't use your Husn al-Dhan to change the nature of Allah. Like you can't think Allah a different Allah. So you can't remove the attributes of punishment and the attributes of obedience and what is required of you as a Muslim. And number two- They call this forcing the hand of God. It's a principle in other faiths where they say forcing the hand of God, basically like you're putting words in God's speech.
So that's the same thing here. God would not accept this, for example, they keep saying. No, true God will never accept this and that leads subhanAllah to atheism as a result of that, unfortunately. So it's fashioning an idol without building the stone. That's really what it is at the end of the day. You're making your own version of Allah and you're saying that's Husn al-Dhan and Allah. That's my good expectation of Allah. So either you try to change the nature of God Himself by thinking it or two, you remove the commandments that God Himself has put, that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la Himself has put. So you can't Husn al-Dhan your way out of Haram, right? It doesn't work that way to where you can change Haram and Halal based on your Husn al-Dhan and Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, based on your good expectation of Allah. I think what's really powerful, Shaykh, is like, I don't know where you're going to read from, but like where he comes to wa kathinu min al-nasi al-dunnu, when he comes to... We're going to come to that point, but before we get to this, but we need first of all to explain the awham, and these are the delusions that people have, the excuses that people have for continuing a sinful life or doing something wrong or something Haram. Like someone knows that not praying is bad. They know that, you know, hanging out with these friends is awful. Drugs and this is Haram. You know, walking around in a place that you're not supposed to be in the first place is also wrong. We know what is wrong. We know that this is wrong. This association, for example, and I have to mention, for example, al-ikhtilaf, like for example, the free mixing nowadays between the young people, subhanAllah, without any regard of what is right and what is wrong and who decides what is considered appropriate and inappropriate. Completely, we removed all the boundaries and we created, we fashioned our own, you know, understanding of what is appropriate, what is inappropriate. But that goes again to the same problem. He goes, a lot of people, a lot of people, their delusion about, you know, what they do. They think that they're okay with that. So he mentions here that this is one of the most dangerous things and he gave us some asbab.
We're going to take one at a time, inshaAllah, so we can explore it. I want you guys to explore this to yourself. Do you have that delusion? Do you have this excuse that, you know, you know what, wow, I have that problem too. I keep talking to myself about this issue. So what are these things he mentioned? So he mentioned them in one paragraph and then he detailed that. That's on page 29 in the Arabic text, actually. He says, وَلَا كَنتُ غَلِطُهُ نَفْسُهُ بِالإِتِّكَالِ عَلَىٰ عَفْوِ اللَّهِ وَمَغْفِرَتِهِ تَعَالَىٰ Sometimes we commit sins, but then we deceive ourselves that it's okay, you know, that's fine. Why? Because we rely too much on Allah's forgiveness and Allah's mercy. وَبِالْتَسْوِيفِ بِالْتَوْبَةِ تَعَالَىٰ Procrastinating when it comes to giving tawbah says, not now. I still have maybe more to do. Like I want to make a collective tawbah to all these things. So we keep pushing the tawbah because I feel embarrassed to make tawbah knowing that I'm going to do something else in an hour from now. Number three, he says, وَبِالْإِسْتِغْفَارِ بِالْلِّسَانِ تَعَالَىٰ Making the lip service, which is saying, أَسْتَغْفُرُ اللَّهُ بَيْتَنْغُ Astaghfirullah will be fine inshallah ta'ala. Right? Really? Just saying astaghfirullah is going to erase this big sin? That's not simple. قَالَ وَبِفِعْلِ الْمَنْدُوبَاتِ تَعَالَىٰ People, they say, look, alhamdulillah, if you commit a sin, just go and make wudu. The sin will come out with every single drop from the wudu. And they're quoting you a hadith, mashallah, for this, right? And they deceive themselves with that too. قَالَ وَبِالْعِلْمِ تَعَالَىٰ And sometimes even with knowledge. Like some people, mashallah, they become muftisab when they come to these issues. So they commit the sin, and they still come to say, look, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is ghafoorur raheem. He is most forgiving, most merciful. So we should be fine right now. They give the hadith and they quote the ayat, but in the wrong way. قَالَ وَبِالْإِحْتِجَاجِ بِالْقَدَرِ تَارَىٰ Some, they use qadr by saying, look, if Allah didn't want me to do it, He would stop me.
But since I'm doing it, alhamdulillah, Allah wants me to do it, right? So they use the qadr right now in the wrong way as well. قَالَ وَبِالْإِحْتِجَاجِ بِالْأَشْبَاهِ وَالنَّظَاءِ رِتَارَةً So they're kind of like making parallels. And also say, قَالَ وَالْإِقْتِدَاءِ بِالْأَكَابِرِ You know, saying that, you know what, I mean, who am I not to sin? People before me, these people, this and that. So they basically kind of like comparing themselves to other people with that. And there is so many, and I want to take them one at a time inshallah, talk about them. The first one he says, وَكَثِيرُ مِنَ النَّاسِ يَظُنُّ أَنَّهُ لَوْ فَعَلَ مَا فَعَلَ ثُمَّ قَالَ أَسْتَغْفِرُ اللَّهِ زَالَ أَثَرُ الذُّرُوبِ وَرَاحَ هَذَا بِهَذَا He says a lot of people, he started with this one because he knew this is basically the biggest problem. He said a lot of people, they think that if they do whatever they do, just by saying استغفر الله, all these sins will be wiped out, will go away, alhamdulillah. That's what they think. And that's one of the biggest delusions. So one of the things that makes Ibn al-Qayyim distinguished as well, by the way, is he's actually very familiar with Christian doctrine, and he was actually conversing with it, those around him at the time, and some of the excesses that he had seen in those that claimed to be followers of Christ, of Isa a.s., and so he was actually basically expelling what he saw as Christian doctrine, or not real Christian doctrine, not the actual message of Christ, but Christian practices and Christian thoughts of the time coming into Islam. And so one of the things that you'll see him fighting with, have you ever heard this saying, one hand washes the other? One hand washes the other? That's not a Muslim thought. The Prophet ﷺ said, وَأَتْبِعْ أَلْسَيَّةِ الْحَسَنَةَ تَمْحُوهَا Follow the sin with the good deed, it will wipe it out. Which means what? After you've repented from the sin, then you put a good deed in the place of the sin that
you used to commit, not keep sinning here, and keep doing the good deed here. So he is fighting back against this idea of one hand washes the other, you know, you can live a double life, basically keep doing this, but as long as you still come to the masjid, as long as you give your charity, as long as there's no regret. So he's talking about the Sunday syndrome, right, which Muslims, we have the Friday syndrome, or we have the Ramadan syndrome, right, or the taraweeh syndrome, or the last night syndrome, which is as long as I come into this highly spiritual space, I can continue to live a highly sinful life. So he's saying, he actually was saying that he noticed that in some of the Christians around him at the time, and he's seeing that now coming into the Muslim community as well. And subhanAllah, the same, you'll find, I mean, we live in a society that's dominated by these thoughts as well. You'll find it's still prevalent in our discourse today, this idea that, you know, look, I live this life, this is my Muslim side, and this is the stuff, and yeah, I'm a flawed person, but we're all flawed people. So one hand washes the other, right? As long as I keep doing this, and I keep reading my Qur'an, and I keep showing up to the masjid, I don't have to abide by this command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I can stop halfway there. I don't have to give up this haram. I can accept that everybody does some form of haram. And the beauty here, or the power of it, Shaykh, is like, in the Qur'an, you're talking about previous nations. So the sample size is everyone before Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam, before the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam. Here, Ibn al-Qayyim rahimallah is actually going to talk about delusional Muslims over the last few centuries from his time, so you're talking about about seven centuries between the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam and him, and he's going to talk about some of the things that have appeared now amongst the Muslims departing from the original revelation of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, and how some of those same thoughts that show up with the people of the book also show up with us as an extension of the people of the book as well. So the hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, that, you know, follow the sin that
you commit with a good deed, it will wipe it out completely. That doesn't mean just, you know, like you're saying, that if you do something wrong, you need to premeditate doing something good afterwards, right? Like, I'm going to commit this haram in my mind. Once I'm done, I'm going to make wudu, pray two rak'ah, and so istighfar, alhamdulillah, will be even. That's not sufficient, right? No. So he's literally talking about the idea, and he actually, Ibn al-Qayyim writes, by the way, li man badda ladin al-Masih, you know, he writes about those that change the religion of Christ, the removal of the commandments of God, with this idea that all commandments are gone, so long as you know that Isa A.S. died for your sins, so there's a similar mindset now. It's all gone, so long as you know that Allah is ghafoorun raheem, the commandments are gone now, and he starts giving these examples here in this paragraph. Before we move forward, actually, as we hear the rain, mashaAllah, coming down on this beautiful 23rd night of Ramadan, it's one of those moments that the dua hopefully will be accepted, so please make sure to make a lot of dua on this night, inshaAllah, azza wajal, and especially for our brothers and sisters in Gaza, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for them, ya Rabb al-alameen. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to alleviate their sufferings, ya Rabb al-alameen, to restore peace and tranquility in their life. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to deliver them to victory, ya Rabb al-alameen. Another thing that people do, which Imam al-Qayyim says is a delusional thing as well, he says, istikhdamu al-'ilm, using knowledge sometimes, but you kind of like twist it, twist the understanding of that knowledge. He goes, wa qali li rajulun min al-muntasabeena ila al-fiqh, he says, one time I heard a man who's kind of like, he calls himself faqih, like he understands, he knows, like mashaAllah, now what is it? Just because you watch a few TikTok videos, you become allama, mashaAllah, right? You know about everything, tabarakar rahman. You heard one statement about, you know, romance being rizq, khalas, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah. You're not Ibn Hazm on romance, right? Of course, you know everything about romance right now, right? It's rizq, man, subhanAllah.
So the idea is that some people, they think that they know everything. He goes, qal fa qala ba'da al-muntasabeena, some of those who say that they know, qal ana af'alu ma af'al thumma aqool, subhanAllah wa bihamdihi, mi'ata marra, wa qad ghufira He goes, look, I do whatever I want to do. And then I say, subhanAllah, wa bihamdihi, a hundred times, and he said, I'm sure that this will be wiped out. Why? Because he says, because it's sahih that the Prophet ﷺ says, man qala fi yawm, if you say in one single day, subhanAllah wa bihamdihi, mi'ata marra, a hundred times, saying subhanAllah wa bihamdihi, a hundred times, qal huttat anhu khataya, all their sins will be wiped out completely. Even if it was like the foam on the face of the surf and the waves. So he says, these people use this ilm, but unfortunately, to serve their desire. Kama qala bi fi hadith hudayfa, illa ma ushriba min hawa, they always seek in matters of knowledge that which feeds their desires. You know, sometimes people, they look for the fatwa, what we call fatwa sharping, right? You keep going from shaykh to shaykh, from shaykh to shaykh, until you find... the one. And he would say, declare the shaykh to be, he is the one, alhamdulillah rabbil alameen. But what about the 99 other shaykhs that you asked and they said no? Just because someone said yes, mashaAllah, that's my imam, that's my allama, right? So that's one of the delusions as well too, that you think that when you hear a hadith or an ayah that you have the answer to everything. And he said, qal wa qala li akhar, now Ibn Qayyim is speaking about his personal experiences, right? qal wa qala li akharu min ahli makkah. He says, one time I heard somebody from the people of Mecca telling me, he says, nahnu idha fa'ala ahaduna ma fa'al, like we, the people of Mecca, saying, we, the people of Mecca, because of their location, because they're near the haram, and they're in the most sacred spot
on earth, they have access to the house of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Regularly he goes, whatever we do, he says, qal idha fa'ala ahaduna ma fa'al, ightasala wa ta'afa bil bayti usbu'an, like we do, we take a shower, we make tawaf seven times around the Kaaba, and alhamdulillah we're done. Our sins are wiped away. By the way, sheikh, this became a practice. Like he actually, subhanAllah, writes about it, like in the footnotes here, like this actually became, again, like, you've now got a sample size of the Muslims departing from the revelation. The people of Mecca had this practice where, do anything you want, and then make intense tawaf for a week, usbu'an, and it's okay, keep doing you. That's exactly what the religion of the Quraishis was before Islam. That, you know, just worship your idol, give your charity, then interest, usury, zina, it's all good. So it is, you know, embracing, embracing two-facedness in the religion, and living this double life as part of the religion, and abusing, subhanAllah, all the ahadith about tawaf, and how tawaf wipes out your sins for this, and it became an actual practice. Without repentance, that's the key point. Without sincere repentance. Without sincere repentance to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Sheikh Ibn Qayyim, for those who would like to hear him talk about this particular, what he calls hiyal, evasions. Like many people, they do things and they try to evade the consequences. So they try looking for exits out of every difficulty, basically. In his book, Ilam al-Muqqa'in, he has almost like a one-third of the book, which is supposed to be about fiqh, about the establishment of fiqh and fuqaha and scholars of the sharia and so on, almost like one-third of the book he talks about evasions and hiyal, which means people try to cheat in the system. Like many people these days, they follow, one time I read on a billboard here in Texas, said look, everything
is legal until you get caught. That's in Texas. Welcome to Texas, right? Basically, if you do it and get away with it, you're fine. But once we catch you, too late for that. Now some people, unfortunately, even in the matters of the deen, they still follow the same principle. Like they can do it, it's okay, as long as they're not going to be punished immediately, I still have a chance. So they have evasions, they have exits out of every single difficulty. They find ways because now they know. And sometimes, subhanAllah, little ilm, and that's where the dangerous thing, Shaykh, little ilm is much more dangerous probably than no ilm at all. Yeah, because you quote the hadiths. Absolutely. The sayings. You can go fight somebody and say, you know, hey, you know, Shaykh so-and-so said this, the ayah says this, you can go on and on and on, and that becomes experience. And he has so many examples, subhanAllah. He himself, he said, actually, the most dangerous people for people are ansaf al-atibba wa ansaf al-fuqaha, half doctors and half scholars. He said because half doctors will kill your body, and half scholars will kill your soul. So you be careful with that, jama'at. And our ulama, they say, when it comes to knowledge, it's just like traveling as three spans of a hand. One, two, and three. Because the first span, man dakhala fis shubri al-awwal takabbar. When you enter the first span, it breeds arrogance. Why is that? Because, oh, I heard from the Shaykh, or I read in this book, or I saw it the other day. And you think you know everything. The second span, if you continue to learn, you don't stop, and you continue to learn, you will realize that, oh, there's a lot to know about this issue.
She said it breeds humbleness and humility. And if you continue, because now I realize there is a lot to learn before I can speak, you realize that the more you dig into knowledge, the farther your goal will become. Why? Because knowledge is just like an open space. It's like open ocean. The more you go deeper into it, subhanAllah, the more majestic it becomes. And it's just like it humbles you even more and more. That's when you realize I know nothing. And that's something we all learn, subhanAllah, from Medina as well. And I can tell back in those days, when we have dinner together as students, you can tell a freshman from a senior from how much they talk. The freshmen, they talk too much. Seniors, they dig into their food. And then when you interrupt their meal to tell them, what do you think about this? He goes, I don't know. Like, come on, you're about to graduate. How come you don't know? He said, I seriously don't know. Because there is more to it than what you guys are talking about. Like, he knows more than they do. That's why they become actually quiet. So sometimes Ansaf al-Ulama, those who have barely touched the surface of knowledge, they think they know everything. They know about the Quran and the Hadith and the Sunnah and the Sharia. And now they want to debate you even, subhanAllah. So the last thing about this, subhanAllah, he quoted a story. One time a man saw a lady walking in the marketplace looking for something that she dropped. She dropped something valuable to her. And now she went back again, tracing it back to see if she could find it. While she was looking for it, she was making the du'a. Allahumma la taj'al luqatati taqa'a fuyadi faqih. Ya Allah, I ask you that don't allow the thing that I dropped to fall into the hand of a faqih, like a scholar. So someone heard her saying that, he goes, what's wrong with you? What's better than a scholar to catch your stuff? She goes, well, I'm afraid that he has some knowledge that will actually
make him find an interpretation and keep it for himself. Like some people, unfortunately, that knowledge is really not beneficial to them. It becomes bad and against them. So when it comes to the subject of sins, a lot of people might have read a hadith or an ayah about tawbah, not tawbah, but actually forgiveness. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has afwa and maghfira, his graciousness subhanahu wa ta'ala, which is true, all rahmah of Allah azza wa jal. But unfortunately, they don't use it properly to recognize Allah, rather just to escape away from him. Shaykh Ali radiyallahu ta'ala anhu has a beautiful saying where he was asked who the best faqih is, who the best scholar is. He said, the one that doesn't cause you to despair from the mercy of Allah, but also doesn't give you permission to disobey him. That's the combination. He doesn't make you despair from Allah, but he doesn't give you permission to disobey him. So that's what he said is khayru faqih, the best faqih. And then you have these filters. And Imam bin Sirin rahimahullah ta'ala, I believe it was him, Allah a'lam, whoever calls to themselves and leave them to themselves. So personality cults, right? So someone, you know, how do you kind of detect like someone who's going to take you down a path of destruction, someone who calls to themselves instead of to Allah. And so in their preaching of the deen, they're constantly making themselves the priest, the connection between you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, rather than connecting you to Allah himself and teaching you how to connect to Allah himself. And the second thing is they make you comfortable. They make you complacent. Hopeful is good. Complacent is not good. If you're not progressing in your journey to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the only thing that's happening is you're developing an attachment to a personality, that's a problem. The other thing is that when you follow them, they cause you to commit more sins than good deeds. And so this is something that you'll find in some of the writings. Actually the Rasul of Ibn Ayyam Rahimallah as well. What did they call you to? And as a result of you following them,
you start fighting other people on their behalf. So you start backbiting other people, you start dissing other people, you start looking down on the followers of another shaykh, you start doing this, you start doing that. This was supposed to make you a more humble person and purify your heart and bring you closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But that's how personality cults form. And it's all kind of tied, like the prosperity gospel. Again, I mean, because these are notions that seeped into our deen. The prosperity gospel and sort of the private jets. We're fighting over parking spots. But like, you know, the idea of what? Hey, you're good, you're good, just keep following me. You're good, just keep following me. That's a very dangerous thought. So the best scholar is the one who doesn't make you despair in the mercy of Allah. Because laa yimutanna ahadukum illa wa huwa yakhsin allahnabillah. No one of you should die except that they have a good opinion of Allah. But never gives you permission to disobey Allah. Yeah, it's okay, this is okay, this is okay, this is okay, this is okay. Where you become complacent and you don't make progress. You know, Sheikh, one of the points that he mentioned, rahimahullah wa ta'ala, qala at-tawassul bi aulaa al-mashayikh wal-saliheen. Like, one of those delusional moments is people, they defer their sins to their scholars and their shuyukh who give them, like you said, false hope. And subhanAllah, I don't know what exactly the reason for that, but lately I see this more often on social media. All these cults, where you have this particular leader, where you have, subhanAllah, hundreds, you know, even thousands of people standing right in front of them. And he is doing nothing but just standing there and everybody's marveling at his, mashallah, ya'ni righteousness and his beauty. And then they go and they kiss his feet, kiss his hands, and God knows what else they do. And all of this because they think as long as he tells them, you're fine, because he recites whatever he recites, and he blows into the crowd, and everybody feels, alhamdulillah, I've been purified, let's go home.
So some people have this kind of following, and they do that kind of stuff, and also deceive them so they would never really even need to stop doing anything wrong. Because as long as I go to my sheikh and I ask his help, and he's going to just do some recitation, blow into my face, alhamdulillah, I'm done, ya'ni. How is that different from people of other faiths, like in Christianity, for example? That's going to be dangerous. Yeah, Allah protect us. There's one more point, sheikh, I wanted to mention in regards to, he says also, not just al-istishfa'a bi-ssaliheen and going to your teachers and this and that, but sometimes your friends and your peers, like what we call today an echo chamber. You're looking for validation sometimes. And I have to call this out, it's happening today among our brothers and sisters, specifically our younger generation, when someone, unfortunately, they decided to come out with their sin publicly on social media, whether it's on TikTok, whether it's on Instagram, whatever that is. It bothers me to see a lot of good brothers and sisters, good, masha'Allah, you assume of them goodness, brothers and sisters. Suddenly, they go into the comment section and they're cheering them up for the sin that they're actually coming out publicly about. And why? Under the pretext, no, no, no, we have to give them hope, insha'Allah, we have to kind of like keep that door open for them. I hear you, but how far do you need to go with this? They're publicly committing something haram, they're bragging about it on social media, and you come and tell them, you know, go get it, girl, go get it, boy, whatever that is, right? Allah mustaniya is just like, and it's bothered me to see that the comments sometimes come from brothers and sisters who are supposed to know better than this, who are supposed to tell them, look, may Allah forgive you, may Allah make it easy on you, if you need to talk about this, reach out to me. Other than just kind of put these comments, what do you think about this
phenomenon of this, Sheikh, now? So every night I want to give a little bit of a paradigm shift, because I think that's the most helpful way that we can sort of think about this, insha'Allah. I really want everyone to think deeply beyond what's being said, insha'Allah, and apply this to themselves. I'm going to ask you all a question. Does Allah love the sinner? But aren't we all sinners? All of the children of Adam are sinners, right? The best of the sinners are those who repent, right? Okay, is there an ayah in the Quran where Allah says Allah loves the sinners? No, there isn't. But it's common in our culture to say God loves the sinners, God loves the sinners, God loves the sinners. You're going to say something, you thought of something? But, you know, God loves the sinner, God loves you as a sinner, we're all sinners, God loves us as sinners. I want you to have a paradigm shift here. Don't say Allah loves the sinner, say Allah loves the repenter. Because how many times does Allah say he loves the repenter? Allah loves the repenter despite their sin, their inevitable sin. But Allah does not say Allah loves the sinner, even though we're all sinners, and we're repenting because we're all sinners. Allah loves the repenter, Allah loves the repentance. But that is a paradigm shift that we have to have as well because otherwise we do really ingest. By the way, in a well-meaning way, like I have no doubt, Shaykh, that a lot of these people that you're mentioning, I know we're mentioning it jokingly, but they mean it from a good place. Like I don't want to lose this person, I don't want them to leave Islam because they left off something from the deen. I want them to know they still have a path back. The way to do that is to tell them Allah loves you when you turn back to him, don't let your turn away from him, become too distant, and we will always welcome
you back, and Allah is still calling you back, and you are redeemable. Not your sin is acceptable. You are redeemable, not your sin is acceptable. We've got to have that paradigm shift because otherwise we use the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so inappropriately. And this is where, by the way, this is one of the most difficult sections in the book because he starts talking about all the nations that Allah destroyed. If you were just going to say that, well look, Allah can be whatever you want him to be. Why did Allah do this to the people of Shu'ayb? Why did Allah do this to the people of Lut? Why did Allah do this to the people of Nuh? He starts listing the destruction of nations. He's saying, look, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is someone that wants you to know he's Rahman, nabbi ibadi anni ana alghafur raheem. Let my servants know I forgive, and that's one of the wisdoms the ulama mention here, by the way, of using ghafoor first because in order for there to be ghafoor, there has to be istighfar here, right? Allah is always ghafoor, but in order for you to encounter alghafoor, the forgiving one, there has to be istighfar, seeking forgiveness from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So al-qadi ayyad raheemullah, he actually commented on that verse, and he talked about husn adhan billah, and he said that husn adhan in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, when a person sought forgiveness, Allah forgave him. When you called upon Allah, he answered you. Not he answered you and he forgave you without you seeking forgiveness and seeking him. No, when you made tawbah, he accepted you, and the delusion, again, like don't think about the, like sometimes these examples are so ridiculous, and it's easy for us to say, ha ha, Bani Israel, crazy, ha ha, people of Mecca in the 14th century, crazy, you know, we would never be like that, but we've got elements sometimes, and one of those elements is where you say, look, I'm a sinner, but I know Allah is forgiving. That's one of the most
insulting things you can say. You know why? You did not give Allah his due estimation. Laylatul Qadr, one of the meanings of its name, liqadariha, right, it's estimation. You did not give Allah its due estimation, and the part that shook me in this book, honestly, I read this chapter and I was like, man, subhanAllah, it's like a blow. He went through khulafa al-rashideen, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, where they're literally saying like, I wish I was the hair on the body of a righteous believer, I wish I was a tree, I wish I was, like they were so afraid of their sins. Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, Ali, khulafa al-rashideen, the best of this ummah, they were afraid of their sins. And what sins we're talking about? What sins are we talking about, right? We're not talking about the major sins. It's not like they were boasting about their sins and saying, no, it's because Allah was so great to them that their sins, don't look to the smallness of the sin, look at the greatness of the one you're disobeying, Allah became so great to these people that the smallest sin became big in their eyes and they were afraid. So the Prophet ﷺ, I'm sorry, Sheikh, this is a long tangent, but it opened up a door for me. I think of the Prophet ﷺ when he visited that young man who was dying, and he said, how are you? And he said, I have hope in Allah, but I'm afraid of my sins. I have hope in Allah, but I'm also afraid of my sins. And the Prophet ﷺ said, no one combines these two things, except that Allah ﷻ gives him what he hopes for and protects him from what he fears. What a beautiful, like that's one of those ahadith, when I read it, I say, he was given comprehensiveness. He is the Prophet of Allah,
that's divine. For him to be able to quickly say that, that's something coming from the heavens. In one sentence, Allah will give you what you hope and Allah will protect you from what you fear. But if you don't fear your sins, your hope is delusion. And the best of people feared Allah ﷻ with their sins and the difference between them and us and how they approach these ahadith about istighfar and forgiveness and the adhkar, the moments of remembrance. These were people that tried to make sure that there wasn't a spot on their body that was sinful. I mean, I'm not missing a spot on wudu, that I am guarding the obligations to Allah ﷻ with everything I possibly can. But then they inevitably have these minor sins that take place. And that's where the Prophet ﷺ comes with the hadith of, look, salah to salah wipes out the sins between it. Because if you're Abu Bakr or Umar or Uthman or Ali, like a moment of ghaflah is like a major sin to you, a moment of being heedless, like, man, I slipped with my tongue. And that's where the Prophet ﷺ, his ahadith about, look, say subhanAllahi wa bihamdihi a hundred times, it will wipe it out. It wipes out the inevitable zallat, the minor sins that take place between these things. But it is not an excuse for you to keep on deliberately disobeying Allah ﷻ by just in the face of his command saying, well, Allah will forgive me anyway, so I don't have to do this all the way. Dear brothers and sisters, Ramadan is a chance for you to change and to say, no, I'm going to stop making excuses for myself by looking around and saying everybody else does it. Everybody else is going to be held accountable too. I'm going to stop making this excuse for myself and I will be diligent and try to guard the obligations of Allah ﷻ. And then at the end, arjullah, I have hope in Allah ﷻ. And so at the time of death, it's a breath of
alhamdulillah, a breath of relief. And that's where at the end of your life, then you have this hope in Allah ﷻ. Like at that point, the book has closed with my deeds. I know now, I know Allah is forgiving. I know Allah is merciful. And I turn to Allah ﷻ with that. Sheikh, to close this chapter, inshaAllah ta'ala, I want to give the brothers and sisters a message of hope as well too. So because when we start seeing all these excuses that we're giving ourselves to continue our sinful lives, and then we realize, oh my God, I do this and I do this and I do this, and eventually I realize I'm doomed then. And then how am I going to find my way back to Allah ﷻ when I'm completely doomed? So Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, as a teacher, and the ustad of Sheikh Islam, Ibn Taymiyyah actually, the teacher of Ibn Taymiyyah, he says, Qal, wa laysa min shara'atu al-muttaqeen an la yaqa'a minhum dhanbun wa la ma'asiyah. It's not a prerequisite or condition to be righteous, that you be flawless, that you don't do any mistakes. That's not a condition to be righteous. Qal, in kana kadhalika lam yakun ahadu min al-muttaqeen. If that was the case, to be a righteous, you need to be completely flawless, have no sins. Because no one ever will be counted among the righteous ones. Qal, wa lakin min shara'atu al-muttaqeen anhum idha waqa'a minhum dhanbun ta'bu ilallah. Which affirms what you mentioned. The idea is not about committing the sin. It's about actually repenting to Allah ﷻ that wiped that out. So not just making a good deed, but to come back sincerely to Allah ﷻ. That's what makes that sin, inshallah, go away. Again, as long as the tawbah is sincerely from the heart, not just a lip service or just a fake hope or just saying, you know what, I know Allah will forgive me. No, you can't do this. That is extremely, this is the biggest delusion.
But you need to make sure that if you would like to return back to Allah ﷻ, you're gonna have to clear the path. The path has a lot of clutter there. And you're gonna need to remove all these things. And remember, in order for you to change the qadar of your life, of being difficult, being wrong, being, you know, astray, you have to bring the qadar of righteousness and the qadar of guidance. Meaning I have to pursue the means for righteousness and guidance, repenting to Allah ﷻ, asking for his help. Only then I can find my way back to Allah ﷻ. I'll just, in two minutes, this section here where he says, he comments on, inna Allaha yaghfiru dhunuba jamee'an. Allah forgives all sins. inna Allaha yaghfiru dhunuba jamee'an. He says, wala khilafa anna hadhihi al-ayah fi haqqi ta'ibin. There is no difference of opinion that this ayah is talking about the repenters. fa innahu yaghfiru dhanba kulli ta'ibin min ayyi dhanbin kam. Allah forgives every single sin from every single sinner, no matter who that person is when they turn back to Allah ﷻ and what they are turning back to Allah ﷻ with. walaw kanat al-ayah fi haqqi ghayri ta'ibin la batrat nasusul wa'idi kulluha. And if this was talking about people who belittle their sins and don't even return back to Allah ﷻ then all of the ayahs of warning would have no meaning to them. So the beauty here is that when you embrace the identity of a repenter, when you embrace the identity of a repenter, so Allahumma innaka afoon tuhibbu al-afwa fa'afu anni O Allah, you are al-afu, you love to forgive, so forgive me. You know what? Turn back and say to yourself, O so-and-so, you love to repent. tuhibbu al-tawba You love to repent because Allah loves tawba.
Allah loves when His servant comes back to Him. You know what, there are a lot of us that are sitting in this room, in this masjid, that last year when Ramadan was around, we made some promises, and we thought we're going to give up certain sins, and we thought we're going to change certain things about our lives. And then it slipped. The fact that Allah ﷻ brought us to another Ramadan, and brought us to another 10 nights, what could very well be Laylatul Qadr. What better way to have your tawba accepted than to say, O Allah, I'm there. And this is the hope of the Prophet ﷺ where he mentions, when the man came to him, Shaykh, the alcoholic. This is one of the most beautiful ahadith. The guy who says, if I drink alcohol, major sin, then I seek forgiveness from Allah ﷻ. Will I be forgiven? Yes. What if I return back to it? Then you're sinful. What if I return back to Allah? Then you'll be forgiven. Now, it goes on and on and on, right? So the guy keeps on basically giving this scenario that, you know, look, I keep falling back, I keep relapsing into the sin. And the Prophet ﷺ tells him that inna Allaha laa yamallu hatta tamallu, that Allah ﷻ does not tire of forgiving you until you tire of seeking His forgiveness. And Imam An-Nawawi ﷺ said about that hadith, he said, what this is referring to is a person who, when they quit a sin, they say, ya Allah, I am quitting the sin. And they have intention and determination, azeema, and they feel guilty, they have nadam, they've got the regret, they've got it all there. But then their desire overcomes them and they fall back into it. And here's the thing, the difference between that person that sincerely repented over and over and over again and really tried to quit, and maybe they didn't get it right until the eighth or the ninth time, and the person who simply drinks and says, inna Allaha ghafoorun raheem. That person might fall into kufr, might fall into disbelief, not because the sin is kufr in and of itself, but just to a point of like, how low is your opinion of Allah ﷻ? Like, oh, Allah's gonna forgive me anyway,
this is just a lifestyle. You know, there are other Muslims that drink and other Muslims that do this. It doesn't matter what other Muslims do. wa maa qadar Allah haqqa qadri. Establish a relationship with Allah ﷻ independent of other Muslims and talk to Him on His terms and repent to Him from your sins, no matter how many other people are doing those sins. May Allah ﷻ forgive us and may Allah ﷻ let our hope in Him, be a real hope in Him and may Allah ﷻ allow us to continue to make progress as we ask Him to grant us paradise. Yeah. JazakAllah khair, Shaykh. If I would just make another comment to this, Ibn Qayyim rahimahullah wa ta'ala, he brought a question, a very valid question, which is part of the delusion that we go through as well, too. He says like, people may ask, how come people of knowledge, those who know what the sin is and the consequences and the greatness of Allah ﷻ, they know about Jannah and Jahannam and do you know all that? How come these people still fall into the sin? Like, you know all these things and you still go back again to fall into the sin. Because there are many reasons for that. And he gave a few of them. One of them he says, qal qad yakoon da'af al-'ilm. You do have the knowledge. You don't have the effect of it. Meaning, you just have the information. You're just like a floppy disk, basically, of the old times, ya'ni. It's somewhere there, but it's not connected to the computer, so it's not helping at all, completely. And the second thing he says, qal da'af al-yaqeen. The weakness in the yaqeen, the certainty. Especially the certainty in Allah's mercy, the certainty in their ability to be righteous. As well, too, because I'm too messed up, so there's no way I can be righteous, so therefore, he said there's a lot of excuses people throw out there, so that knowledge, even though they know all these things, but they still fall into the sin. So we're gonna probably elaborate on this, inshaAllah, next time, with the help of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Just a few questions we have here, and I think much of this are coming right now.
Question from Canada. How does one strike balance between having hope in Allah that your du'a will be answered, and also not being too excited because Allah might not give it to you? Because it might not be good for you. So how do you strike this balance? The hope in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is in knowing that he's going to answer that du'a in a way that's best for you. It's not an attachment to the talab, to the thing that you're asking him for, it's the attachment to the one that you're asking. So you have to have the certainty Allah answers the call no matter what? Yeah. How? That's to him, not to you. Yeah, so if Allah does not give me what I want, and this is really what it comes down to, by the way. You know, it's hard, because we want to make Islam palatable, but there is one thing you can't get around, which is if you love this world too much, and you seek Islam as a means of bettering your world, without thinking about the hereafter as your ultimate goal, it's just not going to work. Like the equation's always going to kind of be off balance. And so the believer, when they make a du'a, they don't get too disappointed when what they ask for doesn't come true, because they don't put their hopes in this dunya in the first place. I always come, one of my favorite sayings from Sheikh Hatim al-Hajj, Habibullah Ta'ala, I mentioned this before, and I love him dearly, subhanAllah, and I had the chance, I think some of you, and he would get really mad at me for sharing this story, so please don't share it with him, okay? I mean, I know some of you know him. So we're live, Sheikh. We're live. Hopefully Sheikh Hatim doesn't watch our streams within the night time. But you know, subhanAllah, when he went through a really difficult time, when Islamophobes came after him a long time ago, you know, and Islamophobes jump one from our community, by the way, we all have to have their back. And unfortunately, because of his humility, kind of took it on the chin, and let people jump him, and went through a very difficult time. And you know, he was at the Mayo Clinic,
and Islamophobes cost him his job at the Mayo Clinic. And I remember, like, going to see him, and like, man, like, you lose a position at the Mayo Clinic, and like, you're, you know, who's gonna employ this guy that's been slandered this way, and stuff like that? And I was so blown away by how content he was. I went to see him, spent some time with him in Minnesota, and I'm like, in the car with him, and I'm like, like, what's going on here? And that's when he said, this dunya can't disappoint you, if you don't have any expectations of it. This dunya cannot disappoint you, if you don't have any expectations of it. And I said, that's it. That's the sentence. This dunya cannot disappoint you, if you don't have expectations of it. So I make du'a to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. If Allah chooses to distribute the portion of that du'a for this dunya, alhamdulillah, I will thank Allah, wa la in shakartum la azeedannakum. And I'll be grateful, and hopefully it will mean better. But if Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la saved the whole portion for the hereafter, well, that's my ultimate goal anyway. And I'm sure it's gonna show up there. So if I made the du'a, and 20% of it got answered for me here, then I'm really looking forward to the 80%. And if I made the du'a, and 100% got stored there, then I'm okay with the 100% being stored there. And I'm not disappointed. Because the equation's never gonna work with your taskiya. It's not gonna work with your spiritual upliftment. You're still trying to use Islam as a medicine for this world alone. You know, there's pain medication, and then there's medicine that actually removes the illness, right? Islam is not the pain medication. Islam's not your ibuprofen or your Tylenol. Islam actually deals with the root causes, and removes the disease, no matter how painful that process actually is. And that's what the deen is, and that's what we're actually seeking. So if that's an invasive heart surgery, alhamdulillah, we need to remove it. I'm not just taking something to cope with the headache for now. May Allah protect us, and grant us the best of this life and the next.
Ameen. A question coming from a regretful sinner. If you've been living a life far from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, can I still make du'a to Allah about marriage, good job, and other things? Or should I only focus on repentance? Like, I don't feel I deserve even to ask about these things. What do you think? How would you answer this? This is where the good expectation of Allah is from the one who is in a state of repentance. Ameen. You gotta understand that, like the sahaba came from very, very dark lives, to being the best generation of people, in a very short span of time. And that's because they had to know that even with this horrible past that we have, we have a generous, and a forgiving, and a loving Lord. So, so long as you are in the state of inaba to Allah, turn to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, at that point, Allah is, and by the way, this is the beauty of, Allahumma innaka afoowun kareemun, tuhibbu al-afwa fa'afwa AAani, even if the hadith is, but the ulama mention it too, like, Allahumma innaka afoowun kareemun, you are forgiving and generous. So he's forgiving of your sin, and he's generous despite your sin. So not only are you asking Allah for forgiveness, you're asking Allah to still give you, despite all of the sins that you put forward. Because you know that he's forgiving, and you know that he's generous as well. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant that to us. I think also we talked about this last night, when hadith an-nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, man la yas'al Allah yaghdab alayh. If you don't ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah will be displeased with you. You need to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. As a matter of fact, it's not you want, no, you need to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for everything. But as we were talking about it today, in order for this du'a to be like the salt in the food,
you need to do what? Lead a righteous life. So you need to work on fixing yourself, but never stop making du'a and asking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for your needs. Still, that's part of our ibadah, and belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. A completely random question, Sheikh. Say, Sheikh, does Sheikh Omar color his beard? Does he what? Do you dye your beard? No, I got these gray hairs, kind of hide them here and there. Allahu akbar, alhamdulillah. It's okay, by the way, to cut a gray hair, you just can't pluck it, it's another thing. No. But Sheikh Yasser gave up on that a long time ago. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Forgive me, sorry. Habibi. 23rd night, I don't want to lose my. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. You lost access to the office, alas, that's it, we're done. We're done here. I'll see you in 10 years, we'll see, inshallah, ta'ala. At that point, I'll probably die. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. No. So, somebody was asking about the three stages of knowledge that we talked about, the three spans of the knowledge. We said the first stage is when you enter the first phase of knowledge, it breeds what, ya jama'a? The first span of a hand would come to start seeking knowledge. What does that breed? Arrogance. Because you know a few things here and there, you think you know everything, right? But if you continue to learn, it breeds what? Humbleness and humility. That's when you realize, oh my God, I still need to learn more. So, humbleness and humility. The third phase is what? That's when you know you know nothing. And that's the stage of true ulema. Like, wallah, we've seen that from our great ulema and scholars, when you praise them, they humble themselves, they say, wallah, ma nahnu illa naqala, we're only just carriers of knowledge, that's it. The true ulema, they were from before, but we're just carrying that knowledge to you right now. So yeah, true ulema, they know their place in this world. But those who don't know nothing about knowledge, when they talk, mashallah. It's just like, the whole, they are the Mecca of knowledge, that's it. You have to do tawaf around them, basically. For those type of people, stay away from them.
May Allah protect us, ya rabbal alameen. Now, what if you did sins knowing what you were doing was wrong, but you convinced yourself it's okay because you will do tawbah. So over time, you realize how wrong they were. Is there a door for tawbah still open for these people? Like, I've been messed up for so long, and I always told myself, that's fine. Now I realize this is dangerous. Is there hope? 100%. There is tawbah for the one who deceived themselves into thinking what they were doing was okay, and the one who knew what they were doing was not okay. There's tawbah, the sin melts in repentance. That's the beauty. You turn back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, and it's gone. It's gone. And just like we can't understand the process of Allah's answering du'a sometimes with all these barriers, because we're used to how we ask of people. Like, we find it unfathomable that literally a person can come back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la in one minute. After 100 years of disobeying him, and Allah Azawajal will say, ghafartu laka wala ubali. I forgive you, and I don't care for it. It's gone. That's because Allah is who he is. And that's also, like some people, wa maa qadar Allah haqqa qadrihi. That's also taking away from, like not giving Allah his due estimation. Here's the thing. Allah is not harmed by your wickedness, nor is he benefited by your repentance, right? It doesn't harm or benefit Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So, you know, we hold hard feelings sometimes towards each other because there's harm that's done, right? With Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, you never harmed Allah Azawajal. You were harming yourself the whole time. And so, when you have that realization, and you turn back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, Allah will forgive you. And he wants you to ask him with confidence that you will be forgiven. Who taught you, Allahumma innaka AAafoo wa tuhibbu alAAafoo wa faAAafoo AAanni.
The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, who received direct revelation from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. وَقَالَ رَبُّكُمْ وَادْعُونِي أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ Even, Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, Adam Alayhi Salaam, فَتَلَقَّ آدَمٌ مِنْ رَبِّهِ كَلِمَاتٌ فَتَابَعَ عَلَيْهِ Adam, you know, when I say, put yourself in the place of Adam Alayhi Salaam, right? Like, you're the first one to ever do this. Like, you can really think you're done. Man, I disobeyed Allah despite having Jannah, and everything was open to me, and I'm the first human being, and now I'm gonna get kicked out. This is it. And you can imagine that Shaytan, الَّذِي أَبْلَسَ The one who despaired from the mercy of Allah, would tell Adam Alayhi Salaam, you might as well just tank now. You know, you and I, we're both gonna go to hell now. He's gonna tell Adam Alayhi Salaam, just like he told him, eat from the tree, he's also telling him, don't bother repenting, right? When Adam is looking back to Allah, and like looking for the words, Allah gave him the words to repent with. Allah gave him the words to repent with, which means Allah wants to forgive you. يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ وَيَتُوبَ عَلَيْكُمْ Allah wants to forgive you, but you've got to be willing to speak the words, and take the next step. Allah will give you the words and the next step, but there's the willingness that comes from your end. And that is not something that Allah will force upon you. Allah will not force you to repent, just like Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will not stop you from sinning. That's your choice as a Muslim, as a person, as a human being. But the one who turns back to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la will never be disappointed. Sheikh, adding to this right now, someone's asking a very legitimate question, obviously. How do I know that my repentance is real or been accepted? How do I know that? How do I know that I'm sincere in my repentance? So this is a tough subject, and I actually wanna entertain this question with you for a bit.
Because one of the things, like Allah doesn't want us to despair over our past sins, but one of the things that kept Umar humble is his remembering his past. One of the things that kept Said ibn Amir humble was his remembering what he did in the past. But it never stops him from doing good for the future. Exactly. So if when you look at your previous sins and wonder, and that causes you to make more istighfar and do more good deeds, that's healthy regret. If you look at your previous sins and say, it's no point, I'm already way too tainted, then that's not healthy. hadhil farq bain al-nadam wal-hasra Right, regret and remorse. Hasra is not a quality of the believer. Hasra is always in the Quran reserved for the people in hellfire, right? They have hasra, remorse, but they never acted upon it. Nadam, regret is a quality of the believer or the believer regrets. I have my regrets. And even if I hope that Allah has forgiven me, I also know that I need to keep growing out of that act of disobedience. I trust Allah to forgive me, but I also want to do more to make up for that time that I was distant from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. That's a healthy type of regret. And that honestly keeps you grounded. And that's one of the reasons why the ulama were so humble. People see your good deeds. They don't see your sins. You know, like people have like a very, like people either make you an angel or a devil. You're either the best person in the world or the worst person in the world, right? Because people project onto you. And the ulama of the past, they had that, right? Like Imam al-Shafi'i, rahimahullah, there's some people that would want to fall and kiss his feet. There's another guy that walks into the masjid in the middle of his dars and says, Anta al-Shafi'i, are you a shafi'i? He says, yes.
Anta al-Shafi'i, you evil, wicked devil. Like he basically called him a kafir. Why? Because he was dealing with social media of his time, right? He heard things about al-Shafi'i. So you're either, oh my God, or what a devil. The ulama, when those people came to them and talked them down, you know what they thought to themselves? Man, he might be right. He might be right. So al-Shafi'i, rahimahullah, what did he say? Allahumma in kaana sadiqa, faghfir li warhamni wa tabAAaliyya. Wa in kaana ghayra dhaliq, faghfir lahu warhamu wa tabAAaliyya. Oh Allah, if he's telling the truth, like he didn't say, get him, jump him. He said, oh Allah, if he's telling the truth, then forgive me and have mercy on me and accept my repentance. And if he's not telling the truth, then forgive him and have mercy upon him and accept his repentance. Like the ulama, actually, when someone said something, they looked at themselves and said, yeah, Allah, maybe he's telling the truth. Maybe there's an element to what he's saying about me that's true, and I need to reckon with that with myself. So these people, they live in a different realm, Sheikh. Yeah. SubhanAllah, their life is out of this world. It's somewhere else, Allahumma sadiqa. A question that was actually repeated multiple times here in regards to some of the examples, they say, that commonly overlooked in today's youth as considered maybe sins in this generation. They're asking, what else could you highlight for us that we might be normalizing without even knowing that? Now, I wanna, before we get to this, if we wanna answer it to begin with anyways, but I just wanna remind ourselves what we started with. What defines right and wrong? What defines halal from haram? What defines evil from good? Is the Quran and the sin of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. Not the people. Because if you're gonna go by what the people say and do, Allah says, wa intuta akhtar man fil ardi dhulluka an sabili Allah. If you go to follow and obey the majority of the people, they will lead you far away from Allah azza wa jal. Those are the words of Allah in the Quran. So it's not about popularity,
and that's unfortunately nowadays, it goes by how many followers, how many likes, how many comments. It's all about popularity. That's what makes it, what's the criteria for people to say, do or don't, good or bad. We need to go back again to the asul of our deen, the core values of our deen, come from the Quran and the sin of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wa sallam. So like the Sheikh Omar mentioned, if someone comes to them and says, hey, this is wrong, their arrogance, they will subdue of course their ego and say, tell me more. How can I change this? How do you know that? Because really they pursue the truth. They wanna save themselves in this dunya before the akhira even. And if it's gonna always be, my ego is hurt or no, you have no right to say this to me and who are you to tell me about this and that and so on. You know what, I don't know who he is or who she is. But like Imam Shafi'i said, if they're telling the truth, may Allah forgive me, have mercy on me. That's what I need to learn from them. Omar bin Khattab says, qal rahimallahumra'an ahda ilayya ayyubi. May Allah have mercy on someone, gifts me my own flaws. Like remind me with my own mistakes so I can fix them, inshallah ta'ala. Is there anything, Sheikh, in your mind in regards to this young generation of our time that you believe they're overlooking and they're taking too light and too easy, that they need to pay attention to it? If I could summarize it in one thing, I would say adam al-hayat. A lack of modesty. Hayat is one of those words in Islam that's so encompassing. It's so encompassing because there's hayat with Allah, there's modesty with Allah, and there's modesty with each other. So usually when you think of hayat, what do you think of? You think of dress, right? So you're thinking about sitr al-awrah. And even, by the way, like covering the awrah, so the proper hijab for women and the proper covering for the men and whatever it is, right? That's usually what people think of when they think of hayat is they think of clothing.
But hayat is such a lofty concept in Islam. Hayat, how could you flaunt your sin? Whether it has to do with dress or mannerisms or not, like. It's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle. Like, why are you flaunting your sins? Why are you so proud of your sins? Hayat, you have the nerve to talk yourself up and boast yourself up. Aren't you ashamed of your Lord? Put yourself down a bit. So hayat with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is a person who is shy with Allah. So I'm not gonna boast about my sins. And then they're shy with the people. I'm not, you know, arrogance is when a person doesn't know their place with Allah. And that's why they treat other people in certain ways. So it's a lack of hayat when you berate your brother or sister. Lower yourself a bit. Calm down. So it has the elements of, you know, of certainly sitr and covering ourselves and observing the commands of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Unlike you mentioned, Shaykh, like our interactions with each other and social media is just a place to let out your lowest self. It's an invitation to flaunt. That's dangerous. Especially in the comment section, when people commenting. How people cross, of course, gender comments and jokes and memes and this and that and subhanAllah. The barrier of hayat is gone, unfortunately. It is. And it's with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la as well. So like people even making fun of the deen. Hayat with the Quran. Like I see sometimes people joking about an ayah. And I don't want to say other people because then I would be failing to see the tree in my own eye, right? And seeing the branch in someone else. I'm not trying to say this is everyone else. Say like the ease with which we make fun of, make a joke about an ayah of the Quran or like the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Everything's a joke, right? So it's like turn a hadith into a meme. By the way, turn my lectures into your fun all you want. Like meme me all you want. Don't meme the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Don't meme a hadith, right?
Don't meme an ayah. Like don't boast about yourself. Don't put anyone down. Don't flaunt your sins. Have modesty. Be shy. Like you're thinking Allah is watching me. Like there's a hayat with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. There's a modesty with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And that's also part of that. Like, you know, when someone praises a shafi'i, can you imagine if a shafi'i said, you guys see this guy, what he just said to me? Get him. Like, doesn't he know I studied this long and I didn't want to say anything, but this, this, this, and this. I was like, he's so shy from Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Hayat with Allah, hayat with ourselves, hayat with the people, knowing our station with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And with Ibadur-Rahman, an-nadheena yamshoona ala al-ardi hawna. There are multiple reasons why the Ibadur-Rahman, the servants of the Most Merciful, walk so lightly on the earth. One of them is that they don't take themselves so seriously. So you think of a person who has a heavy presence, person who clings their feet to the earth, there are multiple reasons for that. One of them is their pride, right? Kibir, adam al-hayat, that's also a lack of modesty with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Another one is their shamelessness. Another one is how they walk over people, right? There are so many fawa'at, so many reflections you can take from an-nadheena yamshoona ala al-ardi hawna. They tread the earth lightly. Like their presence is a gentle presence. It's a shy presence. Unfortunately, social media has become about making ourselves larger than life. We're not. Taking ourselves too seriously. I have to worry about myself with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. So use it for benefit and use the means that you have, the communication you have with other people. I know some of you are like, I'm not on social media, why do you keep talking to me about this stuff? Use what you have in terms of what Allah Azawajal has put of people in your life as a means of bringing people up, as a means of bringing other people closer to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la, as a means of showing your good akhlaaq, as a means of teaching good akhlaaq,
as a means of receiving akhlaaq, akhlaaqi lessons, the good lessons from people. Like there's a lot to benefit, SubhanAllah, from coming from people. Look, when you look around, and I'll end with this, Shaykh, and I apologize, I went too long. SubhanAllah, Shaykh, when we talk about the normalizing of evil, there's also the good influences. Like there's the sahibul misk, the person who's got a good influence as well. Alhamdulillah, there are a lot of us that could rub off on each other in a good way. Shaykh Yasir rubs off on me, all jokes aside, in a very good way. May Allah reward you, Shaykh. We rub each other as well when we're around each other, the presence of other people that are trying, the striving, remember the repentant, إِنَّ اللَّهَ يُحِبُّ تَوَّابِينَ Allah loves the repenters. وَتُوبُوا إِلَى اللَّهِ جَمِيعًا All of you repent to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala together. Some of the scholars said جَمِيعًا means together come back to Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ We rub off on each other in a good way as well, inshaAllah ta'ala. So, hayat is sort of the barrier between us and the غضب of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, the anger of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. All of the signs of the Day of Judgment pretty much surround a lack of hayat. People boasting about their wealth, people boasting about their position, people boasting about their sins, people shameless in the public space. Almost all of عَلَمَاتَ السَّاعَة the signs of the Day of Judgment involve قِلَّة الحَيَاة the lack of modesty and that barrier. May Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us that hayat with Him. Ameen. Sheikh, since you brought this up, I want to just make this the last question inshaAllah ta'ala all the way from Poland. So, the question from Poland saying, is it okay to accompany fellows who commit negative actions even though you know you would never commit those sins? All right, here's the... So, basically they say that dust is not gonna come on their shoulders. Unpopular take, all right? You need to let some of your friendships die. Yep. You need to let some of your friendships die. For the sake of Allah.
That's one of, for the sake of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala. Some friends will take you to hell. Yeah. You need to let some of your friendships die. And so, that doesn't mean that you become arrogant and shut the door on them. That means that, look, when I hang out with you, I'm talking in a certain way, things are being normalized in a certain way, I'm acting in a certain way, I don't want to meet Allah talking like this or acting like this. So... Sheikh, can I comment on, add to this point exactly quickly, the foul language. It's becoming so easy for young men and women to speak bad language in front of each other and use profanity. And it's a lack of hayat. A lack of hayat. Yeah. Unfortunately, sometimes it happens across the, in front of the opposite gender. Like, they're talking just like normal and they start throwing all these cuss words in front of each other. Even though guys are speaking in front of girls and girls are speaking in front of guys and they have no problem, there's no shame, no hayat. Even in a righteous class. We're all fighting for Palestine right now. Look, it's awkward. It's weird to see a person who wears hijab or a person who's in the masjid with a beard start throwing F-bombs. Doesn't fit. لَيْسَ الْمُؤْمِنُ مِنْ تَعَانُ وَالْلَّعَانُ وَالْفَاحِشُ وَالْبَذِيرُ That's not who the believer is. We're not like that. That's not who we are. Let's distinguish ourselves. Let's excuse some of the anger that happens sometimes and like other people are gonna start going, we're not foul people. The Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam could express himself without becoming foul. Again, these are ideas that are not popular, super popular ideas. We don't need that. We don't need that as Muslims. Keep your tongue pure. You can be dedicated to justice. You can be speaking the truth. Keep your tongue pure. Don't start talking like that. That's not who you are. Other people, may Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la bless them and guide them for the goodness and forgive them for their shortcomings. But let's not adopt that as identities for ourselves as well. No, like you want to follow the sunnah of the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam, Rasulullah SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam's face would become red at injustice. His voice would bolt, Alayhi Salatu Wasallam.
The same person whose voice was so low and so modest, Alayhi Salatu Wasallam, when he saw injustice. But with that, he never departed from that essence, that prophetic essence that he had, Alayhi Salatu Wasallam. Keep that about yourself. Again, it just keeps coming back to it. So yeah, people around you, they talk a certain way, you're gonna start talking like them. And by the way, this isn't just kids. Some of the worst backbiting I have ever heard is in the presence of students of knowledge. It becomes a culture, because when the religious do it, well, they probably know, they probably got their own, their way out of it, when the religious do it. And again, it's like when you kind of get these cults and stuff like that, amongst groups of students of knowledge, and this madhab, and this, this, and this, and this firqah, like people start talking about other people. And you look around and you're like, well, everybody's a sheikh here. Everybody's a student of knowledge. Everyone's a masjid goer. So when they backbite, it's like people kind of like, well, it must be okay if everyone else is speaking this way. It's not okay. So we have to check each other. But some of your friendships have to die. Some of those relationships have to go if you want to grow in your relationship to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. Never let your sense of loyalty to a person take you to hell. Don't let it happen. I love you. I care for you, but I've got to go. I'm on a relationship. I'm on a path. And I'm happy to bring you along, and I hope you come with me. But right now, I've got to go. I've got places that I'm trying to get to, and I love you and I care for you, but I just can't stay in this way. SubhanAllah, that reminds me of the last thing I have, inshaAllah, we'll close with this with Allah Azza wa Jal, is that our time today, I don't want to make that resemblance to be 100% in terms of accuracy or otherwise, but it's so close. It's so close to the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, how much the people needed Islam on that time.
Like at the time of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, haya was gone, goodness was gone, religiosity was gone, everything was gone. People were living completely ridiculous life. Whether it's in Persia, in the Byzantine state, in Egypt, in Yemen, all these places, they were completely far away from God. Because the last Prophet that was sent to them was 500 plus before the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So at that time when Islam came, it was easy for people to take it outside of course, away from arrogance and so on, because they needed that message. That's why the poor people, they were easy to go and follow that message. SubhanAllah, in our time, it seems we have the same maybe perils happening right now. As Muslims, in this time, in this wallahi time in our society, around the world, even Muslim countries, we are the final, the last line of defense. When Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says, kuntum khaira ummatin ukhurjat linnas, you are the best nation ever produced to mankind. What is the first quality he said to Sibarada al-Ummah? Ta'muruna bil ma'ruf wa tanhawna an al-munkar, because you enjoin good, forbid evil. Not because you are faithful, you are believers, no. That came afterwards. Qaba tu'minuna billah, and you believe in God. No, he said because you enjoin good, forbid evil. What does that mean? You are the final line of defense here. You are the protectors of faith, the protectors of deen. Even religious groups of other faiths, they diluted their iman, their deen, like Shaykh mentioned, subhanAllah, like you shape it in a way, you fabricate your God in a way to suit your desires and needs these days. And you start worshiping a delusional God right now. And you try to find justification in religious text. If Muslims are gonna start doing this about Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and justify all their deeds, because of the lack of haya, and lack of responsibility and accountability, how different are we gonna be from these people? We are the final line of defense when Allah come to the deen.
That's why a lot of non-Muslims, when they come to Islam, what do they say about Muslims? Discipline. Look at you guys, what time is it now? 2.25 a.m. And the masjid, mashaAllah, is full. Where do you find these people coming these nights after nights to have that self-discipline? But I hope we enhance this beautiful self-discipline moment with more, mashaAllah ta'ala, of goodness. Not just for the moment of emotional high, and then that's it, we go the old ways. I hope that we understand our responsibility in this life, in this dunya, is bigger than your social media account, and the number of followers you have. It's bigger than you. And if you can put yourself in this equation, that I am an agent of goodness, I'm an agent of khair, I am the messenger of Islam to the world, and Allah chose for me to live in this time, in this age, in this stage, in this place, for a reason. Make sure to utilize that in the best way, inshaAllah ta'ala, you will see that your value will increase. Suddenly you realize, oh my God, I am more important than just a few followers. It's bigger than this, jama'a. And I hope, inshaAllah, we can hit this masjid, bidni Allahi tabarak wa ta'ala. Is there anyone, like the people of Gaza, in this regard, too, when we talk about al-hayat? Does anything contradict hayat from the people of Gaza? Anything. As a collective. Individuals exist everywhere, right? That might be in contradiction to the culture. But does anything about the way those people are right now? We always talk about, let's say, hasbi Allah wa ni'ma al-wakeel la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah. Have you seen more modesty with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with each other than the people of Gaza? Have you seen more chivalry? Have you seen more futuwa than the people of Gaza? They're manifesting that, subhanAllah. Even the ladies, wallahi, it brought tears to my eyes
hearing one of the sisters wearing her salah garment, or garb. She goes, we're always wearing our garment, our hijab garment, because we don't know when we're gonna die. We wanna be ready, that we're covered when we die. Like, they don't even take off their hijab anymore in their own houses, their own rooms, out of fear that this could be their moment, and they don't wanna be exposed if they die. La ilaha illa Allah. It's the woman who came to the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam with the seizures, and said, ya Rasulullah, I don't wanna be cured if it means I can get jannah, but just can you make du'a that I'm not exposed. And now in our time, we're seeing a whole bunch of women in Gaza. It's not one woman or two women. It's a culture that they sleep in their salah clothes so that if they die, they're not exposed. SubhanAllah. I mean, these people are giving us a look of ahl al-yaqeen. These are people of yaqeen, people of certainty, people of all of these values that we talk about. And to live a life beyond this world. A lifestyle that's way beyond this dunya and beyond this world. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for them, ya Rabb al-alameen. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to confirm the iman in their heart. We ask Allah to restore peace and tranquility into their lives, ya Rabb al-alameen. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give them safety in this dunya and in the akhira. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to relieve them from the suffering, ya Rabb al-alameen. We ask Allah to alleviate their suffering, ya Rabb al-alameen, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to deliver that victory He promised, ya Allah. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to accept their shuhada, to heal the wounded, and give shifa to those who are sick. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to release their captives. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bring back the absent. And we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give them safety in dunya and in akhirah, ya Rabb al-alameen. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to protect our iman, to protect our haya. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us the ability to lead a righteous life, ya Rabb al-alameen. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
to show us that which is right and make it easy for us to follow it. And that which is wrong and stay away from it. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to count us among the most righteous in this dunya and in the akhirah, ya Rabb al-alameen. And the way we all gathered in this place, in this moment, I ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us the ability and the pleasure to meet together and be together in jannat al-firdaws al-a'la with the Prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa s-salihin wa alhamdulillahi rabb al-alameen. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi ta'ala wa barakatuhu.
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