# How You Act From A Place of Power | Daily Reminders

**Author:** Dr. Omar Suleiman
**Series:** Reminders
**Published:** 2020-07-07
**YouTube:** https://youtu.be/rA_fyvI-Rnk
**URL:** https://yaqeeninstitute.org/watch/series/reminders/how-you-act-from-a-place-of-power-daily-reminders
**Topics:** Acts of Worship, Sharia

## Description
What is it like to be tested with power and ease?

## Transcript
**[0:01]** Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed Satan the accursed jinn In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds There is no god but Allah, the One who has no partner and the end is for the righteous Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka al abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim

**[0:17]** tasliman kathira I hope you all are doing well inshallah Actually in about 30 minutes I'm going to be recording our Dhul Hijjah series inshallah ta'ala So I'll be heading over to the studio to start recording So make du'a for that, that it goes well I pray that it will be beneficial to everyone bismillah ta'ala

**[0:34]** And tomorrow night inshallah, so as I said Monday, Wednesday, Thursday I'll be doing a nightly reminder On Tuesday nights, the next three Tuesdays I'm going to be going through the life of Ibrahim alayhi salam The life of the Prophet Abraham peace be upon him

**[0:49]** To give us some background, some historical context Sort of the way that the story plays out inshallah And hint it will make you appreciate the Dhul Hijjah series that much more Now, right now we're just developing some thoughts or just extrapolating some of the gems that come from Surah Ibrahim

**[1:09]** But again I'm really just touching on something that might be mentioned in brief And then take it to a very practical lesson in our lives This isn't meant to really be a tafsir lesson As much as just a way for us to reflect on some of the concepts that we can derive from this After Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions to us that he is al-Aziz al-Hameed

**[1:27]** He is the Almighty and the innately praiseworthy The very next verse is Allahu alladhi lahoo maa fi al-samawati wa maa fi al-ard wawaynulil kafireena min athabin shaheed Typically you're used to Allahu alladhi

**[1:42]** Allahu alladhi la ilaha illa hu Because it's Allah and then it will describe some of the attributes, the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Here it is a continuation of al-Aziz al-Hameed Allah So it's a continuation of the previous verse

**[1:58]** And it describes Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah alladhi lahoo maa fi al-samawati wa maa fi al-ard It is Allah to whom belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth And woe to those who reject the truth from a severe chastisement

**[2:13]** Now because it's a direct connection to al-Aziz al-Hameed What it refers to is the fact that as we said that Allah is innately praiseworthy And that he is praiseworthy whether you praise him or not Or he is almighty, he does not derive his strength or his power from anyone else

**[2:31]** Here to say that the heavens and the earth belong to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah is Al-Ghani Allah is completely independent Meaning the heavens and the earth belong to Allah in the first place And there is something to be said about this

**[2:48]** In the modern world there is a lot of discussion about who God should be And so first it makes the divine abstract, unknown And then we assign using our limited comprehension Using our false understandings of the world

**[3:03]** We assign dimensions to the creator to what the divine should be like We assign all sorts of attributes to the divine as we should understand it God should do this and God should do that So it's really an interesting projection that we see

**[3:21]** But the fact of the matter is that Allah is who he is as he described himself to us We don't get to project upon Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala anything We know Allah by how he described himself

**[3:37]** And we connect with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala by supplicating to him By making dua to him using the names and the attributes that he gave to us With the rules that he gave to us And what comes from this or one of the implications of this

**[3:52]** Is that Allah does not wrong though he could wrong In the sense that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala No one could check Allah's power No one could say to Allah that you have to be like this or you should be like this

**[4:07]** But the fact that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the most merciful Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim He has given himself those names and those attributes No one else gives them to him It's very beautiful and very powerful And that's why when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us not to wrong

**[4:26]** In the hadith Qudsi Ya ibadi, O my servants, inni haramtu dhulma ala nafsi I made dhulm haram for me I made it forbidden for me Waj'altu baynakum muharrama And then I made it forbidden between you, right?

**[4:41]** So do not wrong one another And the idea here is that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is saying Look, people that oppress or that transgress They do so out of a false sense of power Allah has all power and he does not wrong anyone

**[4:56]** Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is not dhulam Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not wrong anyone Not even the worst enemy of God Allah will not wrong that person Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will only deal with that person With perfect justice So what's the lesson for us?

**[5:11]** Okay It is much easier to ascribe to noble ideals When you're in a position of weakness To say that if I was on the other side I would act with this It's a lot harder when you're in a position

**[5:26]** Where human beings, other human beings can't check you And that's where a person loses their way sometimes Okay, they lose their way sometimes They lose those noble qualities and those noble ideals sometimes When they're in a position of power

**[5:42]** Something changes Okay And this is not the way that the believer behaves We find, you know, a very powerful statement From Abdurrahman ibn Auf radiallahu ta'ala anhu He says, abtudina bidh dharwaa Fasabarna wa abtudina bis sarraa

**[5:58]** Falam nasbir We were tested with hardship and we were patient Then we were tested with ease And we did not find ourselves patient Now obviously Abdurrahman ibn Auf is one of the ten promised paradise A generous man, a great companion Who sets the example But these people held themselves to a higher standard

**[6:15]** So when he says this What he's saying is As-sabr ala al-shahwat Is harder sometimes than as-sabr ala al-balat To be patient with desires To control yourself when you have power Is sometimes harder than controlling yourself When you are being persecuted

**[6:30]** Or when you're in a place of poverty and hardship You have access and you still recognize your place Even when you're in that space When you're in that moment where you have power And that's where you choose to forgive

**[6:46]** That's where you choose to pardon That's where you choose to show grace That's where you choose patience That's where your most beautiful qualities shine Right Not that you're afraid of anyone else checking you If you don't show noble qualities

**[7:01]** But those noble qualities actually being of you Of you And things that you manifest for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Even when you're in a place of power Even when you're in a place of privilege Even when there is no other human being to check you

**[7:16]** And so that's just the lesson that I wanted to share tonight It's a very small lesson But it is a really important one The power to forgive when you're in a place to forgive The power to show grace when you're in a place to show grace The power to be just when you're in a place where

**[7:32]** If you wronged you would get away with it in this life The power to overcome your desires When you have access to those desires And there is no dunyawi, no worldly barrier Between you and those desires It's a beautiful expression of faith

**[7:49]** And a beautiful way of clinging to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And it allows you to demonstrate a level of character and faith That you would not be able to do so Or that you would not be able to demonstrate In a place of hardship So both in hardship and ease

**[8:04]** There are ways to cling back to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala And to show our best selves And to show that we're living up to the potential Of those human qualities that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Has put in us That bring us closer to the qualities of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam Who demonstrates the epitome of human potential

**[8:20]** And to be patient, to be noble Whether we are in hardship or we are in ease To always cling back to him And to be humbled by knowing that anything that we have in this life

**[8:36]** Anything that we have of goodness Is from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala The source of all good Allahumma ameen Jazakumullahu khayran So tomorrow night again insha'Allah I'll see you for the first session of the life of Ibrahim alayhi salam And then Wednesday we'll get back to our short reminders insha'Allah

**[8:53]** Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

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