A`oodhu billahi min ash-Shaytaani ’r-rajeem. Bismillaahi ’r-Rahmaani ’r-Raheem.
Alhamdulillahi Rabbi’ l-`Alameen, wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa ashrafi ’l-mursaleena Sayyidina wa Nabiyyina Muhammadin wa `alaa aalihi wa sahbihi ajma`een. Alhamdulillah wa ’s-salaatu wa ’s-salaamu `alaa rasoolillah. Ayyuha ’l-haadirun, ayyuha ’l-mustami`oon as-salaamu `alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakaatuh.
Everyone is speaking about Islam these days and what concern us as Muslims, what we must know, is hikmati ’l-eejaad, the reality of the appearance of the universe, Creation, because Allah (swt) said:
إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلاَفِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لآيَاتٍ لِّأُوْلِي الألْبَابِ الَّذِينَ يَذْكُرُونَ اللّهَ قِيَامًا وَقُعُودًا وَعَلَىَ جُنُوبِهِمْ وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا اطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
Behold! In the Creation of Heaven and Earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding, those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and contemplating the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth, (saying), "Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose! Glory to You! Give us salvation from the torment of the Fire.” (Surat Aali `Imraan, 3:190-191)
“:Those Muslims, Mu’min that do dhikrullah, who remember and meditate on the Creation”, so our duty, our way of understanding Islam is to look at the Greatness of Allah: what He can do, He is the Creator, He can take away or keep this life, take away Creation and bring another Creation, so then we have to know the wisdom of His Creation is to show humanity, “ I am The One that created you to dress you with the heavenly Manifestation of My Mercy!” Allah did not create human beings to torture them, He created Creation to reward them! Anyone that says that Allah created Creation to punish them is deviating from the Mercy of Allah with which He dresses His servants, which is why in a Holy Hadith from the Prophet (s), Allah revealed to him:
خلقت الخلق فبه عرفوني
I created Creation and through it they know Me. (Hadith Qudsi)
In our understanding, everything that ‘appears’ is created and anything that does not appear is not created, but there might be some other things that are created, such as void, empty space that actually might be full, so hikmati ’l-eejaad, the wisdom of appearances, is to know Allah (swt), as He said:
كنت كنزا مخفياً فأحببت أن أعرف فخلقت الخلق
I was a Hidden Treasure (and) I wanted to be known, so I created Creation. (Hadith Qudsi)
We call it `treasure’ but really it is ‘a Hidden Reality’: “No one knows Me. I wanted to be known to praise Myself to Myself regarding what My Greatness, what great things I can do, alhamduillah!” Allah (swt) is saying to Himself, “Praise to be to Allah!” He says to Himself, “SubhaanAllah, glory be to Allah!” and “Allahu Akbar!” That's why it is said:
If anyone recites these four words from the Holy Qur’an, “Subhan Allah wa ’l-hamdulillah wa laa ilaaha illa -Llah wa -Llahu Akbar,” Allah forgives his sins and dresses him from the reality of His Names!
إن الله اصطفى من الكلام أربعا: سبحان الله، والحمد لله، ولا إله إلا الله، والله أكبر، فمن قال سبحان الله، كتبت له عشرون حسنة وحطت عنه عشرون سيئة، ومن قال الله أكبر، فمثل ذلك، ومن قال لا إله إلا الله، فمثل ذلك، ومن قال الحمد لله رب العالمين من قبل نفسه كتبت له ثلاثون حسنة وحطت عنه ثلاثون سيئة
Allah has purified four words of speech: Subhan Allah wa ’l-hamdulillah wa laa ilaaha illa -Llah wa -Llahu Akbar. Whoever says “Subhan Allah”, twenty rewards are written for him and twenty sins are removed from him, and the same for whoever says “Allahu Akbar”, and “Laa ilaaha illa-Llah”, and whoever says “Alhamdulillah” from his inner self, thirty rewards are written for him and thirty sins are removed from him. (Ahmad)
So hikmatu ’l-eejaad is to dress us from His Realities, to manifest on us what we cannot achieve through our ijtihad, reasoning, or by struggling against our ego to become mujtahideen, to achieve something from religion. Al-mujtahid is the clever one, and the one who is most clever in Allah's view is the one who knew him and reached his place that he was unable to see anything accept Allah (swt) through his heart, through his mind, through his eyes, and that is Sayiddina Muhammad (s). Many scholars said Prophet (s) saw Allah with the eyes of his head, `aynay raasihi. In Imam Nawawi’s commentary in Sahih Muslim it says, ra’aa rabbahu bi-`aynay raasihi, “He saw his Lord with the eyes of his head. Prophet (s) reached that level, Qaaba Qawsayni aw Adnaa, and still he is in Ascension! Allah (swt) prepared these Manifestations that for to everyone to know Him, but everyone knows Him differently as it is impossible for all of us to know him the same. Every person knows him differently, because:
لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللّهُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ
On no soul does Allah place a burden greater than it can bear. It gets every good that it earns and it suffers every ill that it earns. (Surat al-Baqarah, 2:286)
Allah does not order someone more then he can carry, so when we began to meditate, tafakkur, and begin ijtihad, when you struggle against your self and your desires, and no one can say they don’t have desires, everyone has desires as Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur’an:
فَأَلْهَمَهَا فُجُورَهَا وَتَقْوَاهَا
He inspired the self of its good and its bad. (Surat ash-Shams, 91:8)
He showed to the nafs, the ego, the soul, the characteristics of the self that inspires with the good and the bad, so everyone for sure has desires for good and bad. If it’s for good, that means you are struggling against your ego and you'll be rewarded, and Allah leaves you to struggle. This whole dunya is struggling, there is nothing else. That's why Allah (swt) said:
رَبَّنَا آتِنَا فِي الدُّنْيَا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ حَسَنَةً وَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ
"Our Lord! Give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter, and defend us from the torment of the Fire!" (Surat al-Baqara, 2:201)
Yaa Allah! Give us in dunya a power to come against our ego! Hasanah is a good thing, good tiding, something good that you can do, and the best you can do is to clean yourself. You cannot clean the community and you are dirty! First clean yourself in order that Allah will dress you. Everyone receives according to how much they are struggling and Allah leaves that person struggling, struggling, struggling; everyone struggles according to his love for Allah (swt) and his love for Prophet (s), that's the mi’yaar, measurement. Do you love Allah and His Prophet (s) more, or you love your dunya more?
He loves Allah and His Prophet, I love Allah and His Prophet, but everyone's love is different because Allah gave us limits and until we reach it, Allah looks at that person bi-`ayn al-inaayah, with the eye of care. Awliyaullah and `Ulama al-Ummah know that fact: they struggle and reach a place where Allah begins to look at them because of that struggle. Awliyaullah struggle more, they continue struggling, then Allah (swt) gives them more than `ulama, which is why you see many `ulama around the world but you cannot see a lot of Awliya because some of them were able to cross the finish line, they reaches their target for `ibaadah, worshipness, they reached their level to now receive heavenly knowledge. That is being kept for you, because the Day of Promises Allah (swt) gave everyone according to the love they showed Him. When He asked everyone, men and women, jinn and angels, Alastu bi-rabbikum qaaloo balaa:
أَلَسْتُ بِرَبِّكُمْ قَالُوا بَلَىٰ
[Allah asked] “Am I not your Lord?” They said, “Yes!” (Surat al-Araaf, 7:172)
Everyone said ‘yes,’ but different from one to another, `ishqun ilaahi, some expressed minimum love, some said ‘yes’ because they were obliged as servants of Allah (swt), so what you receive depends on your level of love. When you reach your ‘finish line’, you will be dressed with inaayat Allah and if you finish what Allah dressed you with from His Mercy, Qudra, the `ilm, it opens for you another page, a new opening. If you go in and reach the finish line in that second opening, they will dress you with a higher level and then you will be able to know the heavenly knowledge, like when Allah sent Sayyidina Musa (a) to Sayyidina Khidr (a):
فَوَجَدَا عَبْدًا مِّنْ عِبَادِنَا آتَيْنَاهُ رَحْمَةً مِنْ عِندِنَا وَعَلَّمْنَاهُ مِن لَّدُنَّا عِلْمًا
So they found one of Our Servants on whom We had bestowed Mercy from Ourselves and whom We had taught knowledge from Our Own Presence. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:65)
Sayyidina Musa (a) found “one of My servants”. What did Allah give him? He didn't get it by himself. Allah (swt) said in this ayah, aataynaahu, “We gave him,” not that Khidr ‘got it’ or ‘made it’. If Allah wants to give, He gives. Sayyidina Khidr (a) was able to drink from the Fountain of Youth, as was narrated in Surat al-Kahf. Allah said, aataynahu rahmatan min `indinaa, “We gave him Our Mercy”, that's it: what you need is rahmah! If rahmah came on the Ummah today all these wars would stop, but Allah wants us to show us to struggle, good against bad, evil. Good people come against their desires, like on a Saturday evening when they want to a football game on TV but instead they come for dhikrullah. They will be rewarded, and when Allah said, “I will reward them”, that is not like someone gives you a million dollars, when in comparison doesn't mean anything. Allah’s rewards are endless! He will open a new page for you, a new ma`rifah, but He wants you to struggle, He wants to see how far you can go! Can you reach your finish line?
That's what they consider. Sayyidina Muhammad (s) reached the line, Qaaba qawsayni aw Adna. Allah (swt) raised him. What did he say?
قُلْ إِنَّمَا أَنَا بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَيَّ أَنَّمَا إِلَهُكُمْ إِلَهٌ وَاحِدٌ فَمَن كَانَ يَرْجُو لِقَاء رَبِّهِ فَلْيَعْمَلْ عَمَلًا صَالِحًا
وَلَا يُشْرِكْ بِعِبَادَةِ رَبِّهِ أَحَدًا
Say, "I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me that your Allah is one Allah. Whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness and in the worship of his Lord admit no one as partner. (Surat al-Kahf, 18:110)
“Say, ‘Muhammad is like you, a human being”, but what he (s) did? Allah raised him because He dressed him with rahmah. Sayyidina Musa (a) was dressed with rahmah, aataynaahu rahmatan min `indinaa, We gave him, it's not from him but he has to struggle. Dhu `l-Qarnayn is mentioned in Holy Qur’an, both of them running for the water, Fountain of Youth. Who got it? Sayyidina Khidr (a)e was dressed with rahmah, he can carry now. Wa `allamnaahu min ladunna `ilma, We taught him from heavenly knowledge.
So no one can come and say, “I have heavenly knowledge.” Did Allah manifest on you from His Beautiful Names, Attributes, and Secrets? Did you cross your finish line? The biggest or smallest `alim must leave their personal opinions and follow opinions of Awliyaullah. Those who have been appointed by human beings must make sure they have been received at that finish line correctly. Many people around the world say, “This is a wali”, but we have to look at his actions. In the time of Sayyidina Muhammad (s), non-Muslims said he is al-Ameen, “the trustworthy one” even before Islam came, so when non-Muslims say you are trustworthy, for sure Muslims also say it. What do you think about a Muslim or mu’min that says, “My Prophet is the most trustworthy person.” Will Allah will like it or not? Allah likes it, because the Prophet (s) showed us his reality when he said:,
أدبني ربي فأحسن تأديبي
My Lord perfected my good manners and conduct. (Ibn `Asakir)
“Allah (swt) completed my perfection.” For all of us, the message of Islam is based on adab, good manners.
انما بعثت لاتمم مكارم الاخلاق
I have been sent to perfect the best of conduct (your behavior and character). (Bazzaar)
“I have been sent to complete and perfect good manners in human beings”, so Islam is the good manners Allah wanted for his Ummah, his servants. Prophet (s) showed good manners to his Sahaabah (r) and from them to al-A’immah, from them to `ulama and Awliya, from them to humanity. therefore, our duty is to reach our finish line by perfecting our manners. If we don't perfect your manners then may Allah forgive us as there is nothing else for us to say. May Allah forgive us! Allah gave us a way for forgiveness, He said to Prophet (s), “I'm giving you Ramadan!”
شهر رمضان أوله رحمة وأوسطه مغفرة وآخـــره عـــتق من النــــار
The first (ten days) of the month of Ramadan is mercy, the second (ten days) is forgiveness and the last (ten days) is salvation from the Fire. (Bayhaqi)
In the first ten days, Allah dresses you to reach your finish line with rahmah. Aataynaahu rahmatan min `indina for Khidr (a), so for Ummat an-Nabi (s) will He not give? The first ten days rahmah, the second ten days maghfirah, the third ten days `itqun min an-naar, no sins from Hellfire, you will never be punished, you will go to Paradise! On the Day of Judgement a voice says, ayna `s-saa’imoon, “Where are the people that fasted Ramadan? Let them enter!”They come from the Ummah. There is a door called ‘Rayyan’, “the sweet door” through which Allah orders the saa’imoon to enter and as soon as they enter they reach their paradises! When the last of those who fasted Ramadan enters with no account, the door will close.
If you study these two Hadiths together you will understand more. The Prophet (s) said:
رجب شهر الله، وشعبان شهري، ورمضان شهر أمتي
Rajab is Allah's month, Sha`baan is my month and Ramadan is the month of the Ummah.
(Abul-Fath ibn Abi Fawaris in his `Amalee from al-Hasan, mursalan)
If you look at the first Hadith, the first ten days is rahmah. Who gives the rahmah? Allah, which means whatever Allah wants to give from Rajab, He will give it to you in the first ten days of Ramadan. That's why he said, rajabun shahree, “Rajab is My month in which there is no end for My giving for mu’min and Muslim.” Then Prophet (s) said, Sha`baan shahree, which is maghfirah in second ten days of Ramadan, as Allah (swt) said in Holy Qur’an:
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ إِذ ظَّلَمُواْ أَنفُسَهُمْ جَآؤُوكَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ اللّهَ وَاسْتَغْفَرَ لَهُمُ الرَّسُولُ لَوَجَدُواْ اللّهَ تَوَّابًا رَّحِيمًا
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)
“When they sin they come to you, yaa Muhammad, they have to make istighfaar, repent to Me in your presence and you do it on their behalf, then I will accept and they will go with no account, I will forgive them!” So in these days ten days of Sha`baan, Prophet (s) prepares whatever he wants to forgive, to intercede for the Ummah in Ramadan.
Ramadan shahr al-Ummah, “Ramadan is the month of the whole Ummah”, so the last ten days is innocence from Hellfire, so that means for everyone who fasted Ramadan there no punishment, they are granted innocence from Hellfire.
May Allah (swt) forgive us and bless us. The reality of Islam is not by saying it, it is by action, so what have we learned from this lesson today? Everyone has a finish line that he reaches with his good manners. Allah look at him bi-’ayn al-’inaayah, the eye of taking care of. If Allah looks at you with that eye, it means you are perfect. Allah doesn't look at something dirty. He cleans you first, then He sets you out of Hellfire. He cleans you from the first ten days, He cleans you the second ten days, then sets you free the third ten days.
May Allah forgive us, and we ask him to make this Ramadan easy for us and to grant us freedom from Hellfire.
Bi-hurmati `l-habeeb, bi-hurmati `l-Fatihah.
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