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Self Actualization and the One Who Needs No Praise | Daily Reminders
How can a recognition of Allah being innately praiseworthy and independent of need cause a person to find independence of others?
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Alright everyone, Salamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakato. A'udhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wa ala adwani illa a'lal al-alameen. Wa ala aqibatuhu lilmuttaqeen. Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka wa abdika wa rasulika wa muhammadin. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala anhihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman katheera. First of all, before I start tonight, I want to talk about what I just actually posted about an hour ago, which is about the murder of our brother Abdullahi Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him. Very disturbing news. I've spoken to, I'm in touch right now with his family and his attorney is actually Lee Merritt, who's a dear friend and someone who's represented the families of many victims of police brutality, including George Floyd, in fact, was there in Minnesota and a part of that entire process, represented the family of Maude Arbery and then here, both from John Jordan Edwards and so many others, Tatiana Jefferson. SubhanAllah, a lot of times people die in prison and there is absolutely no recourse whatsoever. You don't hear about what's happened or anything of that sort. Here you have a brother and it speaks to the heart of the argument of defunding the police in removing some of the funds that are used towards policing and putting them towards mental health, for example, since there's a disproportionate effect on people with mental health issues. Here you have a brother who escaped war in Somalia to come to this country and was suffering from mental health issues. He himself checked himself into a mental health hospital and the police were called to check him back in when he left after doctors told him not to and then he was taken to jail and apparently killed in a confrontation with the guards. It's an absolutely tragic incident. May Allah have mercy on him, make it easy on his family. It's a tragic incident and there have been
three deaths in Tarrant County Jail just in the last week alone. And so it speaks to a larger issue and I pray that, inshallah, if we amplify his story and we'll be talking about this in the next few days, that we want this to be a national story. We need people to know about what's happened to him. So please follow that, inshallah, and amplify it as much as you can. And in the next couple of days we'll be putting out some more information in terms of calls to action and things of that sort. I'm going to speak now to Surah Ibrahim and continuing on some of the reflections on it. We were talking about the first verse for the last few nights and particularly here we talk about Surat Al-Aziz Al-Hamid where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says that this is the path that you guide people from the darkness to the light to the path of Al-Aziz Al-Hamid. And if you read any translation of the Quran, you're going to have a different translation for these names of Al-Aziz Al-Hamid. But Al-Aziz is the Almighty and Al-Hamid is the one who is innately praiseworthy. I'm going to talk about why I choose these names and what the implications of them are. Al-Aziz here refers to the one who is Al-Qahir. He is all-powerful, he is Almighty, and he cannot be overcome. No one gives Allah his strength or power. He is the source of power and strength. He is the source of dignity and honor. He is dignity, honor, power, and strength. And so no one can give that to him, nor does he need that from anyone else. Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala is Al-Aziz. And so Al-Aziz is mentioned here and then Al-Hamid is the one who is all endowed with praise.
It's different from Mahmood. Mahmood is someone who is praised. Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, the name Muhammad is the highly praised. He's praised by Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala first and foremost. Al-Hamid is the one who is praiseworthy whether you praise him or not, whether anyone praises him or not. There are many narrations of hadith to this effect. Hadith Qudsi were the first of you and the last of you, the human of you and the jinn of you to be the most righteous, as righteous as the most righteous person or the opposite of that. And I'm paraphrasing if everyone was to be as wicked as the most wicked person, it would not increase or decrease the kingdom or the Majesty of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala in any way whatsoever. So it is Sirat Al-Aziz Al-Hamid. It is the path and this path is the light. It is the path of the one who is all endowed with praise and the one who is all endowed with strength and nothing that anyone else does affects Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's might or his being praiseworthy. Now, what are the implications of that? Well, a person who takes this path finds Izzah and finds praise. They find a sense of strength. They are Aziz Bi Izzatillah. They are made dignified and strong by Al-Aziz and they become praiseworthy by virtue of them praising the one who needs no praise but who is worthy of all praise. They themselves become praiseworthy and they become dignified. Very famous statement of Umar Ibn Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala Anhu that we are a people, A'azzanallahu Bil-Islam, Wa Ibtighayna Al-Izzati Bi Ghayrihi Adhallanallahu That we are people who Allah honored through Islam when we seek honor through anything else, then Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala would cause us to be humiliated. And so Al-Aziz Al-Hameed,
what this is referring to is that a person that takes this path gains a sense of independence, gains a sense of strength, gains a sense of honor that cannot be found in anything else. When we talked about Al-Dhulmat to Al-Nur, darknesses to light, we talked about how there are insecurities and there are pitfalls and disappointments in all of those other forms of darkness that every time a new curtain is drawn, every time a new path is taken away from Allah, that a person finds themselves obstructed from fulfillment and happiness and purpose. This is going to the next level. This is going to a sense of self-actualization. If you look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the top of that is self-actualization. And the peak of self-actualization is that a person becomes independent of the good opinion of others, that a person finds a great sense of dignity and honor and validation and that is independent of others, of the creation of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You find it only in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, not in other people. So it's growing from a sense of purpose to a sense of actualization of that purpose or through that purpose, through a sense of self-validation. And that's why we find in the advices that Jibril alayhi salam giving to the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasallam, Wa'lam an ash-sharafa al-mu'min, know that the nobility of the believer is his qiyam at night, is his standing up in prayer at night, and his izzah and his sense of dignity, his sense of honor is istighna'ahu an-nasa, is his being independent of the people, right? His being independent of the people. And so by again, connecting yourself to the one who is almighty and who is the source of all power and might, a person gains a sense of strength. And connecting yourself to the one who needs no praise
but is worthy of all praise, a person gains a sense of becoming praiseworthy by that themselves. They become honorable, they become dignified in that path. And this is something that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gives as a gift to us. This is also connected to, you know, Irhamu man fil ardi, irhamu man fil sama'a, show mercy to those on earth and the one in the heavens will show mercy to you. That if you are generous, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will shower you with generosity. Here Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will elevate the one who praises him, will elevate the one who praises him and who lives a life in praise of him, even though Allah does not need any of that from us. And so it's just a powerful lesson for us to think about that Allah does not need us yet Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala calls us and we need Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, we need him and we are completely dependent upon him. He is completely independent of us yet Allah extends, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala extends his mercy and forgiveness to us and his pleasure and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is happy and pleased when we turn back to him, even though he does not need us. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves us, especially as we turn back to him and we seek that place of dignity and we seek that place of fulfillment and we seek that place of self-actualization and I'll talk a little bit more about this tomorrow insha'Allah ta'ala but this is really, you know, when you think about when Allah talks about the qualities of the believers and the last one he mentions is وَلَا يَخَافُونَ لَوْمَ تَلَأْنُ They don't fear the blame of the blamer. They are in a different place. They don't fear the blame of the blamer. They are pleased with the praise of the praiseworthy and as long as they are doing the actions that would earn them that, then that is enough to keep them fulfilled and to keep them in a place of self-actualization and to keep them in a place of validation, independent of the creation.
We ask Allah to grant us that station. We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala knowing that our praise will never be enough. We thank Allah knowing that our gratitude will never be enough and we praise Allah for the ability to praise Him. Alhamdulillah for the ability to praise Him and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to allow us to live a life praising Him and to allow us to die praising Him and to be raised up to a praiseworthy station in the presence of the praiseworthy Prophet ﷺ مقاماً محموداً A praised station, a station that Allah has honored the Prophet ﷺ with. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala honor us and elevate us to that station on the day of judgment to be in the presence of the Prophet ﷺ in Jannatul Firdaus. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllahu khayran once again. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
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