Zhuhr Suhbah at Manor House
As-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuh.
There are problems in our personalities; the problem is that everyone thinks he is something, that he is someone that his desires might overwhelm him to believe that he is doing good work and he deserves something. In reality, we don't deserve something because we are sinners. Someone whose boss tells him, “I am trusting you with this amaanah, keep it safe,” and when the boss goes, that person’s desires tell him this and that, and he begins to takes from that amaanah, even if his boss didn't come and he is late by one year or two or three, he thinks, “O my boss went to a country where there is war and maybe minefields, might be he died, so I will use the amaanah.” When he uses it, he betrays and if he did that his whole business goes down. So every one of us betrayed in some way and that is why we need to say, “astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah.” Why we betrayed? Because Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur’an:
إِنَّا عَرَضْنَا الْأَمَانَةَ عَلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالْجِبَالِ فَأَبَيْنَ أَن يَحْمِلْنَهَا وَأَشْفَقْنَ مِنْهَا وَحَمَلَهَا الْإِنسَانُ
إِنَّهُ كَانَ ظَلُومًا جَهُولًا
Inna `aradnaa al-amaanata `ala ‘s-samaawati wa ‘l-ardi wa ‘l-jibaali fa-abayna an yahmilnaahaa wa ashfaqnaa minhaa wa hamalahaa ‘l-insaanu innahu kaana zhalooman jahoola.
We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains, but they refused to undertake it, being afraid, but Man undertook it. Lo! He hath proved a tyrant and a fool.
(Surat al-Ahzaab, 33:72)
That ayah gives a description of our personalities, so no one can say, “I am different.” Allah is saying that, “We offered Our Trust to be kept by the mountains and the Earth and they refused to carry it, but human beings were ignorant and accepted to carry the Trust.” Allah offered, inna `aradnaa, He offered and, “We showed it to them. This is My Amaanah I am entrusting, O Heavens.” In Heavens there is no sin, infallible, angels are there, “I gave you the amaanah to angels, to Heavens.” (They said,) “Yaa Rabbee no, no, please,” not that they refused because they cannot refuse, but they said, “Yaa Rabbee, we cannot carry.” Angels cannot carry? They carry the `Arsh, eight angels carry the `Arsh! When they carried the `Arsh by Allah’s Order, it was up and Allah ordered the `Arsh to be so heavy that the strong angels began to feel they were falling down from their positions. So who was carrying who now? The `Arsh was carrying the angels!
So Allah offered the amaanah. Amaanah is good manners, to keep `uboodiyya to Allah (swt). Angels said, “No, yaa Rabbee, please, we cannot!”
Allah said, “With what I gave to you, you cannot?”
They said, “We are afraid, unable.” Allah offered it to them where there is no sins, they said, “No, yaa Rabbee, we are afraid!”
Allah offered it to the Earth and the Earth said, “Yaa Rabbee, I cannot,” because the Earth knew who was coming, who was landing by Allah's Order and there was going to be bloodshed. The Earth said, “I cannot. Already I am heavy with sins of human beings, I cannot.”
Allah created mountains like pegs to balance the Earth, because when Allah created the Earth it was shaking with earthquakes, shaking in every position, so Allah put mountains and Allah ordered the mountains to be pegs, huge mountains to balance the Earth. In the spiritual meaning, it is not mountains but He put awliyaullah on Earth!
The pegs said, “Yaa Rabbee, it is difficult, we cannot.” Inna `aradnaa al-amaanata `ala ‘s-samaawati wa ‘l-ardi wa ‘l-jibaali fa-abayna an yahmilnaahaa wa ashfaqnaa minhaa wa hamalahaa ‘l-insaanu innahu kaana zhalooman jahoola. When they said, “No, yaa Rabbee, we cannot carry it, we are afraid from it, we don't want to look at it,” but human beings carried. “When We offered to humans,” (they said,) “Of course, give with all shayaateen, we will take it with all richness of dunya, give, give as much, millions!” If someone has ten thousand dollars or pounds he will say, “O, I am looking at my objective for 2020 and it is to have one-hundred thousand dollars.” That is their plan, and someone who has one million says, “My objective for 2020 is to have ten million,” and the one who has ten million will say, “My objective is to have one-hundred million.” Others say one billion. What do you want to do with it?
You know Onassis, the richest petroleum (tycoon) who married John Kennedy’s wife after he died? He had a son and was giving his son everything, as much as he could and he loved his son, giving him not billions, but hundreds of billions! One day his young son who was maybe in his twenties went into his helicopter from his yacht, and might be his yacht was a million dollar yacht, and the helicopter fell and he died. What to do with the money? Nothing. It went to whom? It went to the dogs, do you know what that means? The money went to the dogs and cats because they have orphanages in the West for dogs and cat; if they find a dog in the streets they rescue it and put it in an orphanage, they take better care of dogs and cats than humans! We don't say not to take care of them, but they take care of cats and dogs more than human beings. So what is the benefit? Most of his money went to these orphanages. What did he benefit? What did he benefit except the food he ate? You, how old are you? [Twenty-seven.] In twenty-seven years you had many nice times and they are gone now, do you feel them any more? Twenty-seven years of his life and now he is zero. If you do for Akhirah you are rich, but twenty-seven years in dunya is gone.
So Allah (swt) offered it to Heavens, to Earth, to mountains and they said, “Yaa Rabbee we cannot, excuse us from this responsibility.” Who took it? Man. It means men and women, insaan, human beings, wa hamalahaa ‘l-insaanu, we carried it! What Allah describes means, “We carried every possible sin to be done, we did it!” Don't say, “We have no sins.” Anyone that has no sins, raise your hands? So what we say? “Astaghfirullah,” and your sins are removed. Now do you have sins, raise your hands if you have sins now? You said ‘astaghfirullah’ so finished, it is gone, all what happened before; we said, “Astaghfirullah, yaa Rabbee,” as Allah said, “when you want to make istighfaar, go to Prophet.”
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآؤُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ اللّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُواْ اللّهَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا
Wa law annahum idh zhalamoo anfusahum ja’ooka f ’astaghfaroollaaha w ’astaghfara lahumu ‘r-rasoolu la-wajadoo ’Llaaha tawwaaba ‘r-raheema.
If they had only, when they were unjust to themselves, come to you and asked Allah's forgiveness, and the Messenger had asked forgiveness for them, they would have found Allah indeed Oft-returning, Most Merciful. (Surat an-Nisa, 4:64)
So from here (we say), “Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah! You are seeing us, we are not seeing as we are veiled, but we are saying, ‘Yaa Sayyidee, yaa Rasoolullah, astaghfirullah.’” Is that not the ayah? Correct? Do scholars teach like that? No! The teaching of our shaykh is as if you are feeling the presence of Prophet (s) or presence of awliya. You need the taste!
Ibn `Ajeeba, one of the big scholars, said, “There are two kinds of knowledge: `Ilm al-Awraaq, Knowledge of Paper, that everyone buys books and scholars teach from books, and and `Ilm al-Adhwaaq, Knowledge of Taste. He said that (knowledge of books) is not enough, you have to have taste, to taste the water that you drink to quench your thirst. If you drink salt water, still you are more thirsty, you have to have it sweet. So istighfaar erases sin. That is why we have to be careful. Are we remembering to say astaghfirullah everyday? That is important, because as Allah described in Holy Qur’an when He offered us the amaanah, we said, “Yes, we’ll take it.” So what we took?
We took everything with it, like someone says to you to buy a bank and with that you buy even all the debts. So what do you do? You buy insurance so you don’t have to pay (for a loss). We have to have insurance. Does anyone have insurance papers that we go to Paradise? No, but we have salaat `ala ’n-Nabi (s), that is our way, that is our ticket. We have istighfaar, that is our ticket to Paradise, nothing else. Human beings said, “Yaa Rabbee, we take it.” What did Allah say? “The human being was oppressive and ignorant because he said, ‘I will take.’” If we didn't say we would take it, we would be safe. Now we are not safe, like a boat in the middle of the ocean moving right and left; one time thumma aamanoo, we are believers, one time thumma kafaroo, we are doing sins.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ ثُمَّ كَفَرُواْ ثُمَّ آمَنُواْ ثُمَّ كَفَرُواًْ
Inna alladheena aamanoo thumma kafaroo thumma aamanoo thumma kafaroo.
Those who believe then reject faith, then believe (again) and (again) reject faith.
(Surat an-Nisa, 4:137)
One time doing good and one time doing...’kafar’ has many meanings, not like Muslims used to say that ‘he is out of Islam,’ but sometimes we say “kafart,” it means you made a mistake, to deny something. Kafara bi shayy means “you rejected it,” you didn’t want it because it is bad. So one day we are believer and one day not, that we are non-believer as in “not on the right track.” So that is what Allah wants us to know, that we are oppressive to ourself and we are ignorant, so no one can say, “I am perfect or half perfect or 1% perfect.” As long as we make sin we are not perfect, we are sinners. I am not frightening myself or you, but this is reality, what we are facing. Alhamdulillah you are coming here and it is a sign that still people like you, you have a good, firm infrastructure that you are standing on, that you are saved, because you have that faith to come and sit in such associations. In any masjid when you sit and try to learn that a sign of good faith, a strong faith, or else you would be like the others, going around especially with the nice weather, going around doing all kinds of sins. You prefer to come here in order to listen, me and you, to say something that benefits us.
We have to know that our desires always bring us down. Don’t let your desire to control you, bad desires control everyone. Allah (swt) said:
فَلَا تُزَكُّوا أَنفُسَكُمْ
Fa laa tuzakoo anfusakum.
Don’t praise yourself. (Surat an-Najm, 53:32)
“Don't give excuses to yourself or praise yourself.” Don’t say, “I know.” You know nothing, you know only ignorance. Allah said in Holy Qur’an, “He (Man) is oppressive and he is ignorant,” He didn’t say, “You are not oppressive.” We, all of us, are ignorant and oppressive, no mind, because of what we are doing, men and women. We have to pull out. Too many things today take you into problems. I mention this a lot: do you like to eat halaal food or haraam food? Halaal, especially Pakistanis, if the animal is not slaughtered correctly they don't touch it. Arabs don’t care, they make fatwa for themselves. You like halaal so everything halaal we run after it and for everything haraam we run away. Is a masjid halaal or haraam? Halaal. Is a movie theater halaal or haraam? Haraam. So why do you go there? Why do you go to a movie theater? Is the television halaal or haraam? In any way, as soon as you open it you go through many stations to reach the station you want, so is it halaal or haraam? Haraam. Is iPhone halaal or haraam? Haraam! Why it is haraam? Until you reach what you want to reach, there are many pictures on the side, advertisements, that is if you don’t go to something other than advertisements. So it is halaal or haraam? So we are carrying something haraam all the time with us and they are monitoring us through that haraam telephone, they know where you are, what you do, which country you are in and everything about yourself is known.
Allah (swt) said wa laa tajasassoo, don't spy! It’s all spying on each other.
وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا وَلَا يَغْتَب بَّعْضُكُم بَعْضًا أَيُحِبُّ أَحَدُكُمْ أَن يَأْكُلَ لَحْمَ أَخِيهِ مَيْتًا فَكَرِهْتُمُوهُ
Wa laa tajasassoo wa laa yaghtab b`adakum b`adakum ayyuhibbu ahadukum an yaakulu lahma akhihi maytan fa-karihtumooh.
And spy not on each other behind their backs. Would any of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? No, you would abhor it. (Surat al-Hujuraat, 49:12)
So it is haraam or halaal? Haraam. So to make it halaal since we carry it, and we know it is haraam, we have to make benefit out of it. Shaytan is after us in every moment trying to deviate us from the right way. So now we want to use the iPhone to come back to normal track because we don't remember. So we program our telephone as we do for adhaan, we program our telephone to remind us to say astaghfirullah every hour. So the phone makes a buzz to “Say ‘astaghfirullah’,” and you say, “Astaghfirullah.” You sit in the movie theater and the phone rings like an alarm system: say astaghfirullah and you say, “Astaghfirullah.” So use what Allah has given of technology in His Way to become halaal. As we say, this is not allowed, it is haraam or this is halaal, so make your telephone halaal by reminding you to say astaghfirullah, or else your telephone will take you to something wrong. So make that iPhone, when using it and when Shaytan is playing with us, to remind us to say astaghfirullah.
قُلْ يَا عِبَادِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسْرَفُوا عَلَى أَنفُسِهِمْ لَا تَقْنَطُوا مِن رَّحْمَةِ اللَّهِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ جَمِيعًا إِنَّهُ هُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
Qul yaa `ibaadiya ’Lladheena asrafoo `alaa anfusihim laa taqnatoo min rahmatillaahi inna Allaaha yaghfiru ’dh-dhunooba jamee`an innahu huwa ’l-ghafooru ‘r-raheem.
Say, "O my Servants who have transgressed against their souls! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah, for Allah forgives all sins for He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.” (Surat al-Zumar, 39:53)
“Say to them, yaa Muhammad, ‘O My servant! Don't lose hope of Allah's Mercy, Allah will forgive all sins.’” So when the telephone rings to say astaghfirullah and you say astaghfirullah, that is what Allah wants you to say and it reminds you every hour to say and inshaa-Allah we get forgiveness from Allah by reminding ourselves through technology. You can remind yourself through the telephone to say “shukran lillah or alhamdulillah, or Allah Akbar or subhaanAllah.” At least you remind yourself of istighfaar, not to be under the control of Shaytan every moment because we are human beings and we don't remember to say “astaghfirullah.” I can ask some people, how many times do you remember to say “astaghfirullah” during the day? How many times? Not even one time except in the prayer, except when you pray!
Why Allah made five prayers, why were there fifty prayers? Because every prayer takes ten minutes on average, fifty prayers will take five-hundred minutes, divide it by sixty, it is nine or ten hours, so your whole day is for praying and the rest sleeping. So originally it was fifty prayers, there was no time to go entertain yourself in a disco or in front of the television or in a movie theater or anything, always praying, praying, praying...Prophet (s) was praying until his feet were swollen. Must we not follow him (s) in his way to pray? But out of shafaka, mercy, Allah reduced it by Prophet (s) requesting to reduce all the way to five prayers, but in the Scale, al-meezaan `amaalakum, in your Balance it is written as fifty prayers, not one or five. So fill your time with “astaghfirullah.” If we feel we are unable to remember, program your phone to remind you to say “astaghfirullah,” as when for the adhaan it comes to tell you it is adhaan time, make it also for istighfaar. Not every moment you are worrying and holding the masbaha and saying, “astaghfirullah, astaghfirullah;” you will forget and sometimes you don’t do it, but by reminding yourself, Allah likes that.
وَذَكِّرْ فَإِنَّ الذِّكْرَى تَنفَعُ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ
Fa dhakkir fa-inna ’dh-dhikraa tanfa` al-mu’mineen.
Remind people that dhikrullah is piety of the believers. (Surat adh-Dhaariyaat, 51:55)
“Remind them, yaa Muhammad,” is a verse of Holy Qur’an, “Remind them and for them to remember it will benefit them.” So it is a general order to benefit from anything we can carry, benefit from anything Allah gave to you. May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us and we need always to be together as mu’min, as Muslims, as muwahhid. It is not necessary that everyone comes to tariqah; as long as we are Muslims, that’s it, we are under Islam. Tariqah is between you and your Lord, your Creator. It is not for people, but to pray, it must be they (your family) have to see you praying as it is an obligation and your family and children have to pray, so for you to remember it is our duty, an order for us to remind ourselves to recite istighfaar.
May Allah forgive us. May Allah bless us. Inshaa-Allah, Sadaqah Jaariya, a flowing donation, can take a lot of our problems, a donation that is given to a masjid, so they will pass these buckets and anyone can give sadaqa now before I continue with the second program.
Wa min Allahi 't-tawfeeq, bi hurmati 'l-habeeb, bi hurmati 'l-Fatihah.
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