Reminders
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You Are Responsible, but Not in Control | Daily Reminders
Measuring our success in our efforts of Dawah or otherwise requires a better understanding of the source of success.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Alright, Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu A'udhu Billahi Minash Shaitanir Rajeem Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen Wa la'adwana illa AAala al-zalimeen wa al-aqeebatu lil-muttaqeen Allahumma salli wa sallim wa baraka ala abdika wa rasulika Muhammadin salallahu alayhi wa sallam wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim tasliman kathira So, I want to welcome you all inshaAllah ta'ala to what will be just some nightly reflections and some reminders and just talk about what this is going to be like inshaAllah and of course, you know, this was something that when the COVID-19 era started I did nightly reminders thinking it would be a short affair not realizing it was going to go for a very long time then Ramadan came around then after Ramadan we had the Keeping Connected with the Quran campaign and now here we are, we're still we're still, you know, for the most part stuck at home and, you know, it provides us an opportunity inshaAllah ta'ala to really just get to reflect together and go over some crucial lessons together So, here's what this is going to look like inshaAllah at least for the next few weeks Monday nights, Wednesday nights and Thursday nights I'm just going to go live and reflect a bit on particularly Surah Ibrahim Now, it's not going to be a tafsir it's going to be more of reflecting on a particular lesson you know, drawn from an ayah but it's not going to be diving deep into any ayah or anything like that so I might spend, for example, three nights talking about one ayah or one particular thing that sticks out from the ayah at a very practical level or I might just jump through the surah and talk about some other things and a few years ago, actually ten years ago exactly Dhul Hijjah ten years ago in New Orleans I actually had my community memorize Surah Ibrahim together over the course of Dhul Hijjah as we went over the tafsir of it in a deep way It's one of my favorite surahs in the Quran an extremely comprehensive surah particularly when it comes to life advice and rectifying our perspectives on life It weaves in so many things beautifully and brilliantly
So that's what we're going to be doing insha'Allah ta'ala Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays Now, Tuesday nights, and I know I probably am going to confuse you all so I'll say this once or twice insha'Allah Tuesday nights starting next Tuesday night because I calculated wrong the three Tuesdays before Dhul Hijjah Tuesday night starting next Tuesday night insha'Allah I'm going to do a few long sessions on the life story of Ibrahim alayhi salam Okay, so that will start on July 7th insha'Allah and then we'll go three Tuesdays and that will take us right into Dhul Hijjah In the month of Dhul Hijjah, the first ten of Dhul Hijjah I'll have a special series insha'Allah that's going to be coming out and the scholars and fellows at Yaqeen insha'Allah we also have a collective series which I'm sure you all will enjoy bindi'l-illah ta'ala Fridays, we'll still do at 2pm Eastern insha'Allah ta'ala the virtual khutbah So anyway, that's just a bunch of logistics So what that means is that tomorrow night will just be another nightly reminder insha'Allah But then next week, that Tuesday night insha'Allah at the same time, we'll have a long session for those three Tuesdays talking about the life of Ibrahim alayhi salam Some of you have asked about the series about the firsts The firsts will continue after Dhul Hijjah insha'Allah on Tuesday nights insha'Allah So I'll get back to that series after that bindi'l-illah ta'ala So with all that being said, like I said, let's just reflect together on a few elements of this surah and I'll probably spend a few nights just on this first ayah insha'Allah ta'ala and then we'll jump around a bit with the surah, surah Ibrahim And I'll just say about surah Ibrahim, something that one of my masha'ikh said which is very beautiful that Ibrahim alayhi salam is not mentioned much in surah Ibrahim But when you start to actually look through the themes of this surah every one of the themes is so relevant to him, right? And it's relevant to all of us, but there's something that creates an immediate connection to something in his life
And so the very first verse of this surah where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says Alif Lam Ra kitabun anzalnahu ilayka li tukhrijal nasa minadhulumati ila nur bi izni rabbihim ila siratil azizil hameed Allah says that this is a book which we have revealed to you that you may bring forth mankind from every kind of darkness into light and direct them with the permission of their Lord to the way of the Almighty and the innately praiseworthy I'm going to talk about those later on So we know Ibrahim alayhi salam obviously struggled because he wanted his father so badly to be guided to this path and that was not given to him So what is this? What do I want to talk about tonight from this particular verse? Allah says kitabun anzalnahu ilayka We have revealed this book to you, O Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam li tukhrijal nasa that you may bring forth mankind from darknesses minadhulumati ila nur darknesses into the light and then direct them with the permission of their Lord to Allah's way This is a really powerful expression Why? Because Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is tasking the messenger peace and blessings be upon him to pull people out of the darkness into the light Pull people out of the darkness into the light But though the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is being spoken to here as the ultimate da'i as the ultimate caller, as the ultimate vehicle of guidance The vehicle by which all of us hope to just be messengers of that messenger Though the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is being spoken to in this capacity and though he is the only one who the Quran was revealed to and then we are simply messengers of the messenger when we take on the noble work of the messenger salallahu alayhi wa sallam Allah is saying to the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam
li tukhrijal nasa that you may bring people out from darkness into light Now we know in surah al-baqarah Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says allahu waleeyu allatheena aamanu yukhrijuhum minadhulumati ila nur That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the walee He is the protecting friend of those who believe and he pulls them out of darknesses into light yukhrijuhum minadhulumati ila nur So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who pulls people from darknesses into the light and we also know subhanallah that Allah says to the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam innaka lantaahdi min ahbaabt That you don't guide whom you will but rather it is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who guides whom he wills and this is a powerful message Why? Because here yukhrijuhum nas that you may bring people out from darkness into light in surah al-baqarah Allah makes very clear that he is the only one that can bring from darkness into light and he also makes clear that though the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is a guide that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the ultimate guide that Allah is the source of guidance Now there is just one particular thing I wanted to reflect on here which is the language and this idea of responsibility taking things upon yourself, making yourself responsible while at the same time understanding that it is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who does the ultimate guiding that it is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who is actually fully in control and this is especially true in regards to da'wah but it's true with everything else it's true with everything else it's true with every good effort and I want us to think a little bit about how we measure success and let's think about it in a few ways you know, we should take good or the efforts of good very personally and we should assume full responsibility and put forth our best effort in every way possible
whatever that is, whether it's in the cause of da'wah it's in the cause of justice anything that is fee sabeelillah, under the umbrella of in the cause of God in the cause of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we should assume full responsibility and so whether you're talking about advocating for the madlumeen for those that are oppressed we're looking at what's coming out of China and the oppression of the Uighurs and the annexation of Palestine and all these things that's overwhelming we should assume the full responsibility and do the absolute best that we can but know that Allah is in control know that Allah is in control and so the mindset of when I assume full responsibility is that I'm going to do my absolute best but at the same time I know that my human potential reaches a limit and even the potential that I do have is only within what Allah permits is only within what God permits and so I'm going to work and work and work and work and going to trust Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with the results many times we falsely equate success with the results with the worldly outcome but when you are working for the hereafter then the results are meant to be seen meant to be realized at least in the sense of reward in the hereafter and so there are a few layers of this one of them for example is that if a person does da'wa if a person calls people to Allah calls people to the light calls people to the way of God and they die and they have not succeeded in bringing but one or two people but they were sincere, they were sincere they did their absolute best to be a part of calling people to Allah they did everything they possibly could they were sincere in that and the results in the worldly sense didn't really you know demonstrate success
but on the day of judgment there will be prophets that stand in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that did not have but one or two followers and some with even no followers, right? and so their success is with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala on the other hand by the way it could be a person that guides many many many people but fails to nurture that light within themselves and so what is the point if on the day of judgment may Allah protect us a person is dragging their intestines is exposed and punished for their own insincerity while guiding others to clarity may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us so a lot of times you know we get disappointed, we get deflated because we think we're doing our absolute best and it's not translating into anything or it's not translating in the way that we wanted to translate in this world and that's okay we have to disconnect ourselves from the outcomes of these things in the same way that when it comes to the individual work that we do our individual you know our individual acts that tawakkul in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala trusting Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with the results with the outcome meaning means that you you stay in your human lane, right? you stay in your human lane and so I think that you know what I just wanted to reflect on tonight is this this idea, right? like Ibrahim alayhi salam and we'll talk about the life of Abraham peace be upon him Ibrahim alayhi salam you know he was so eloquent he did everything right but if you ask him at that point when he is walking away from the fire that his father just launched him into and walking away from his people and he only has you know his wife as a follower and Lut alayhi salam that's you know that's got a sting, right? but at the same time Allah is in control Allah is in control Allah is always in control and so there's no contradiction sometimes we excuse ourselves from putting forth our best effort by saying yeah well Allah is in control anyway
no here you have to assume full responsibility like you oh Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam and those that want to follow Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam are responsible for bringing people out from the darkness into the light but at the same time understanding and coming to full terms with Allah is the one who brings people from darkness into light and so again whether we're committed to causes of da'wah and causes of justice all of that under Fi sabili Allah, under the cause of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does what he does and we do the best of what Allah has allowed us to do for the cause of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so may Allah make us sincere and steadfast and allow us to do our best for causes of good Allahumma ameen so I'll see you all tomorrow night like I said tomorrow night inshaAllah just gonna do nightly reminders for the next four nights inshaAllah ta'ala and then next week, Tuesday we'll switch to the story of Ibrahim a.s. but we'll continue doing this inshaAllah ta'ala Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and then Tuesday nights next week inshaAllah we'll do the story of Ibrahim a.s. Friday we'll just have the virtual khutba inshaAllah ta'ala and who knows, I've got a nice setup now I hope you guys noticed I've got a nice setup so JazakumAllahu khayran and I'll see you all tomorrow inshaAllah Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
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