Audhu billah min ash-shaytan ir-rajeem
Bismillahi 'r-Rahmani 'r-Raheem
Nawaytu'l-arba`een, nawaytu'l-`itikaaf, nawaytu'l-khalwah, nawaytu'l-riyaada, nawaytu's-salook, nawaytu'l-`uzlah lillahi ta`ala fee hadha'l-masjid
Ati` Allah wa ati` ar-rasula wa uli 'l-amri minkum
Every gathering, alhamdulillahi rabbil-`alameen was-salaat was-salaam ala ashrafi’l-mursaleen Sayyidina Muhammad (s) wa ala alihi wa sahibihi wa sallam
Alhadulillah illadhaee hadaana li’l-islam wa maa kunna la-nahtadee law laa an hadaan’Allah.
Every gathering has a beginning and has an end. Everything in this universe, Shaykh Hanif, has a beginning and has an end. There is nothing that has no beginning and no end, except Allah swt.
هُوَ الْأَوَّلُ وَالْآخِرُ وَالظَّاهِرُ وَالْبَاطِنُ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
Huwa al-awwalu wa’l-akhiru wadh-dhaahiru wa’l-baatin wa huwa bi-kulli shayin `aleemun
He is the First and the Last, the Evident and the Hidden: and He has full knowledge of all things. Al-Hadid [57:3]
He is the One that He was and never was anything with Him and He is as He was, and He is always and will be as He was and He never changes. We change. Human beings, and the universe changes.
And some time ago people were not so much in advanced in technology. So when they look at the stars they look and they cannot understand how they are seeing these stars, but it might be these stars are not there. Wa alaykum salaam.
You might look at a star, and you see the light, but it might be that star is not there anymore. Correct? Because the light of that star, if that star is too far, they found that there are stars that are 2 billion years far. Not million. 2 billion light years, not like our years. They are not any more there, but they are far, but the light is there because the light is moving 300,000 kilometers per second. If there is a lamp, a strong lamp, and if that lamp is 300,000 kilometers away. In one second you must see the light if you have good vision. The moon is 300,000 kilometers away. In one second you can see the moon, because the light travels with that speed. That star which is far, might be extinguished, the light in it is gone; Allah dissolved it, but still we are seeing it, but it is not there anymore. So it has a beginning and it has an end. Everything has a beginning and an end.
ثُمَّ ارْجِعِ الْبَصَرَ كَرَّتَيْنِ يَنقَلِبْ إِلَيْكَ الْبَصَرُ خَاسِأً وَهُوَ حَسِيرٌ
Thumma irji`i al-basara karratayni yanqalib ilayk al-basaru khasiyan wa huwa haseer.
Again turn thy vision a second time: (thy) vision will come back to thee dull and discomfited, in a state worn out. Mulk 67:4
You are looking at the stars, and then you look one time, you look two times, then you look again, you know nothing. You are so small you are smaller than you think. If you look at this whole world that human beings are fighting for it. Look how many living on it, everyone living on it, each one wants to take the big share. They don’t leave you even a small carpet even. They say no, the whole carpet must be for us. Everyone is fighting for what? For that carpet. Means for that dunya. How big is it compared to this universe? You don’t see it. The sun you see it because It is bigger than the earth, hundreds of times. Go to the sun and look at the earth, you might see it a dot, a small dot. Scientists are Mutahayariyya. Confused, stunned, What is this? You cannot imagine, you cannot think what you think is dropping down. Whatever you think of Allah’s Greatness, still you are not knowing Allah’s real Greatness. Allahu Akbar. Subhanallah, when you say Allahu Akbar, you are saying that nothing can limit that greatness.
That greatness cannot be explained. Al-`adhamatu lillahi - Greatness is for Allah. There is no greatness for anyone.
Look this planet, this earth. So small,… it looks like an atom even from far away. Is it not? You know the atom? What the atom is? It is a small, the smallest possible particle in an element. Is it living or non-living? If we say copper - is the atom of copper a living substance or non-living? If we say iron, is it living or non-living? Fish, birds, animals, trees, living… Yeah, trees, animals, human beings are living species. Copper is living also. They say “no”, but in reality it is.
Iron, yes, it is living, yes. Everything is living.
تُسَبِّحُ لَهُ السَّمَاوَاتُ السَّبْعُ وَالأَرْضُ وَمَن فِيهِنَّ وَإِن مِّن شَيْءٍ إِلاَّ يُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدَهِ وَلَـكِن لاَّ تَفْقَهُونَ تَسْبِيحَهُمْ إِنَّهُ كَانَ حَلِيمًا غَفُورًا
Tusabbihu lahu as-samaawaatu as-sab`u wa ’l-ardu wa man feehinna wa in min shayin illa yusabbihu bi-hamdihi wa laakin laa tafqahoona tasbeehahum innahu kana haleeman ghafoora
The seven heavens and the earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: there is not a thing but celebrates His praise; And yet ye understand not how they declare His glory! Verily He is Oft-Forbear, Most Forgiving! Al-Isra [
Everything is praising Allah swt but you cannot understand their praise.
That is why when the Prophet (s) passes by jungles, mountain, rocks they used to hear the praising. Even the praising of the food in hand of Sayyidina Muhammad (s); even the praise of the rocks in hands of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), praising Allah swt in the hands of Sayyidina Muhammad (s).
That is why wa in min shayin illa yusabbihu bi-hamdihi wa laakin laa tafqahoona tasbeehahum.
Copper is living or non-living? [living]
What is the proof? Go back to the atom. What happened in the atom. If something is not living it means it is something that is still; it is not moving. Is the atom moving or not? Are not electrons encircumambulating the mass, the nucleus? Yes.
SubhanAllah human beings make tawaaf around the Ka`ba. And they encircumambulate the nucleus anti-clockwise, against the time. The time moves this way [clockwise], and the electrons move the opposite way. Allah is showing His Greatness in the atom - He is reversing time in the atom. Can anyone reverse time? Sayyidina Muhammad (s) did reverse it. Allah gave him the power.
One time the Prophet (s) was tired and had a headache and was putting his head on the lap of Sayyidina `Ali (r), taking a nap. And Sayyidina `Ali (r) didn’t pray `Asr. Already the Prophet (s) had prayed. And the Prophet (s) had a headache and he put his head on Sayyidina `Ali’s right leg. Then the Prophet (s) woke up and it was sunset. And he looked at Sayyidina `Ali (r) and said, "did you pray ``Asr?” He said, "Ya Sayyidee! Ya Rasulullah, You know better, I didn’t.”
You have to answer. Adab is to answer. If you don’t know say, "You know better." If you know the answer, then answer.
He gave the adab, you know better but I didn’t. he looked at the sun and said, "for the sake of your Lord move back up.” And as if the time of `Asr, the sun moved back in the sky and he said to Sayyidina `Ali (r) “pray your `Asr.” Then when he finished the sun went down.
Allah gave to the seal of messengers, that power. But all of this the Prophet (s) was hiding. With all the miracles of the Prophet (s) that cannot be counted that he did, the Prophet (s) was so humble he doesn’t want to show. But they are obvious, they are so big. The biggest the most obvious is the Holy Qur'an. No one brought like the Holy Qur'an. So everything is living but we cannot understand. So in the end then Allah showing time, I am reversing it.
Therefore it doesn’t perish, it doesn’t disappear. Because time is perishing. It is going to an end. Time has a beginning and an end. Because time is imaginary. In physics you know time doesn’t exist. What exists is the three dimensions. Time is the fourth dimension, you cannot see.
Today they say to you “go to a movie, it is three dimensions.” It means it shows completely as if you are in it. But the time is not there, it is not the dimension, it is the unseen dimension. That one day is going to end. As it ends the three dimensions fall down behind it.
That is why the universe has a beginning and an end. That is why Allah will order Sayyidina Israfil to blow in the bukh, and then everything dies. No more trees, no more people, no one except whom Allah wishes - illa man sha’ Allah. Whomever He wants to leave He leaves. Then Allah says, from Himself to Himself,
يَوْمَ هُم بَارِزُونَ لَا يَخْفَى عَلَى اللَّهِ مِنْهُمْ شَيْءٌ لِّمَنِ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ
Yawma hum baarizoona laa yakhfa `ala Allahi minhum shayun limani 'l-mulku 'l-yawma lillahi al-waahidi al-qahhaar
The Day whereon they will (all) come forth: not a single thing concerning them is hidden from Allah. “Whose will be the dominion that Day?" That of Allah, the One the Irresistible! Ghafir [40:16]
“To whom is the kingdom this day?” and answers Himself to Himself “lillahi’l-waahidi’l-qaahaar – it belongs to Me.” No one can raise his head that day, no kings, no president, no… no one, even the Prophet (s). No one is there.
So Allah wants to show His `adhamah – His Greatness.
So do we say this earth is living or non-living? It is living this planet. It is living. Why is it living? A simple question to ask is, “why do we say it has to be living”?
First of all there are on it oceans, there is air, oxygen, there are all these gases there are all these minerals. There is oil that people are fighting for it today. The whole economy is dropping up and down, because of what they are fighting for oil. Not olive oil. I wish it was olive oil.
For jinn oil. For something that polluted the whole world. For something that destroyed the whole world. Allah gave it, but use it in Allah’s way. Don’t use it in the way you like. That is a trust; it is not your property. Allah will ask on Judgment Day: “What you did with all that oil I gave you?” They will say, "We saved it.” Saved it in banks, is it not. “We saved it in yachts.”
It is not a passenger ship; it is not a merchant ship. For what? For naked men and women. For what they have these yacht ships? And we look at them and say, "we wish we had like them.” So you are partner with them because you wished to be like them. We wish we have money then we can be like them.
We can have a movie, we can have a disco, we can have a bar. Then Allah will ask, “What have you done? Is it for your pleasure or Mine?”
The profit that they made on oil, from 50-100 dollars a barrel, if they give it to poor people in
Look Allah gives, gives them time to repent. He gives them time to repent. Those who repented, alhamdulillah. Those who didn’t repent, what do they have to do? They have to think about it.
This crisis is a sign.
So in this earth Allah made many living species. Even the earth itself. How you know it is living? It is in continuous rotation. In rotation around what? Around itself. Around its axle it is turning.
So is it living or no-living? Who gave that power to the earth to turn? He made us to turn. We are turning. Our life is a turning, always, non-stopping. You wish there is not 24 hours in a day you wish there is 48 hours in a day, to keep running. Sayyidina Nuh was living 950 years saying, "O Allah it is enough.”
Is anyone going to live longer than Sayyidina Nuh ? Where he went?
الَّذِينَ إِذَا أَصَابَتْهُم مُّصِيبَةٌ قَالُواْ إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
inna lillaahi wa inna ilayhi raaji`oon
"To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return" Al-Baqara [2:156]
If you have 5 years or 90 years you go back to where you were. At that time your whole life is like one second. Why did you waste your time? You are able to eat simply. When I travel, like traveling to here, or father even to
If we don’t have chicken, I don’t know what we have tonight, if we don’t have chicken, dove, pigeons… ! No fish, no vegetable, no rice, no bread [we say:] ooooh. And we don’t say “alhamdulillah” even.
And this earth is rotating , rotating around what even. You bring a globe they sell in the market. It has an iron bar in the middle. What is holding this earth? Allahu Akbar.
What is holding it in its place? Not falling up or falling down a little bit, but constant. Turning around its axle to make day and night. SubhanAllah look if the earth doesn’t turn around its axle there is no day and no night. There will be one time zone. Either one part of earth will be day and one will be night. But Allah made day and night.
رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقِ وَالْمَغْرِبِ
Rabbul- mashriqi wa’l Maghrib - Lord of the East and the West . [Muzzammil 73:9]
And in another verse:
رَبُّ الْمَشْرِقَيْنِ وَرَبُّ الْمَغْرِبَيْنِ
rabbu’l-mashriqayn - Lord of the two Easts and Lord of the two West. [ar-Rahm?n 55:17]
And in another:
فَلا أُقْسِمُ بِرَبِّ الْمَشَارِقِ وَالْمَغَارِبِ
rabbu ’l-mashaariq wa’l-maghaarib - Lord of all points in the East and all points in the West . [al-Ma‘arij 70:40]
And how many easts and wests are there? As the earth is turning it is creating a new east and a new west. As it is turning there is a new risings of the sun and settings of the sun. So as it is turning there is sunrise and sunset somewhere, even on every millimeter of earth. So there is as many mashaariq and maghaarib - settings of the sun are infinite. Not only that it is turning around its axle and at the same time, as a whole now, from the earth turning around itself, and the whole is turning around the sun. How?
Two movements to create for you the year. So the earth makes day and night. Its movement around the sun makes the year and toe make the month Allah swt made the moon to turn around the earth to makes for you a month.
And that moon is in its turning around the earth it creates a month. That is why Allah said:
إِنَّ عِدَّةَ الشُّهُورِ عِندَ اللّهِ اثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا فِي كِتَابِ اللّهِ يَوْمَ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَات وَالأَرْضَ
Inna `iddata ash-shuhoori `inda Allahi ithna `ashara shahran fee kitabillahi yawma khalaqa as-samawaati wa ’l-arda;
The number of months in the sight of Allah is twelve (in a year)- so ordained by Him the day He created the heavens and the earth; At-Tauba [
And the Prophet mentioned in the hadith, and the Holy Qur'an confirmed that it is 12 months. They were saying in time of Bani Isra'il that the months were less. They count 5, 6, or 8. So Allah wants to show it is 12 months. Only in time of the Prophet (s) is it mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, not in the Bible not in the Torah.
So the earth and the moon go around the sun. And this we are speaking about our small solar system. We are not speaking about the universe yet. So look at `adhamatullah - Allah’s Greatness. There is no limit to Allah’s Greatness. And with the earth and its moving, do you not think it is praising Allah. Of course it is praising. The moon is praising, and the sun is praising. And us… we are struggling. We are struggling to praise Allah. Between our dunya arrangements and akhira, we are in continuous struggle.
So for sure the soul wants the akhira and the body wants the earth. And soul relates to heaven and the body to earth. So the body is cage of the soul. So the soul is encaged in the body. When the body is free the soul will be free. When the body is freed from attachment of dunya the soul of that person will be free to move anywhere.
And the Prophet (s) said that in barzakh, when someone dies, then if he is a mu’min Allah turns his grave into
In the grave the body has no more power, no soul - that is why we disappear. Where does the body go? So our duty is,... We don’t want to be too conservative because not everyone can be very, very pious. You can be sincere but not with full sincerity. You can have good things and you have good and bad, in a struggle. But there are some that they are so pious and sincere that they said, "This dunya is too much for us, we don’t want to pay attention to it.” Allah made us have dunya too. But Allah said:
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
rabbanaa aatinaa fi’d-dunya hasanatan wa fi’l-akhirati hasanatan wa qina `adhaaba ’n-naar.
"Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire!" al-Baqara [2:201]
So [it means] "I know you are weak. Do for dunya and for akhira."
وَالسَّمَاء رَفَعَهَا وَوَضَعَ الْمِيزَانَ
Wa ’s-samaa rafa`haa wa wada` al-meezan.
And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the Balance (of Justice), Ar-Rahman [55:7]
That Balance is not just for akhira - it is for everything we do.
أَلَّا تَطْغَوْا فِي الْمِيزَانِ
Alaa tatghaw fil meezan. In order that ye may not transgress (due) balance.” Ar-Rahman [55:8]
Don’t accept one side more than the other. Don’t make one side more important. What did Sayyidina `Ali (r) said, "Do for dunya as if you are living forever…” Oh if we don’t continue the second part of the saying of that which is like poetry. So what he said, "do for akhira as if you are dying tomorrow.”
So what he said, "The important is for akhira - As if you are going to die tomorrow.”
You are going to die. It might be today, tomorrow, it might be after one hundred years, or one year.
So look, as we said, look around us, as we said in the beginning of the speech: this dunya is near its end. It has a beginning and an end.
Every moment passing our life is less by one second, one second. And the anti-clockwise is ticking. Tick, tick. If you count how many months it is ticking. You will think today my lie has been decreased by this amount of ticking.
You cannot say my life increased by our ticking.<