YOU AND ALLAH — Transcript

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1. 0:39Alhamdulillah.
2. 0:39I begin this with verses from in verse  number 21. Allah subhana wa ta'ala
3. 0:48speaks to all of the believers  and he says to the believers
4. 0:57don't follow the footsteps of shaitan.
5. 1:01Whoever follows the way of  Satan whoever follows his way
6. 1:07just know that he will guide you or  lead you to indecency and evil actions.
7. 1:16I want to begin this lecture focusing on the  mistake that El made. For those who know the
8. 1:25story of El is a tragic one. The narrations  tell us thatl was a worshshiper of God.
9. 1:35Some narrations say there wasn't a span on the  earth that he hadn't did a saga to Allah subhana
10. 1:40wa ta'ala. Yes, this very shaitan that we curse  and we're told not to follow and be careful of,
11. 1:47he was a high worshipper of God and  he had reached such ranks in worship
12. 1:52that he was put in charge of mala of  angels and as we all know in the early
13. 1:59verses of the Quran Allah subhana wa  ta'ala tells us that something happened.
14. 2:04Allah subhana wa ta'ala tells us that this moment  came where Allah was creating our father Adam
15. 2:10and in that moment Allah subhana wa ta'ala he says
16. 2:18Allah subhana wa ta'ala said to the mala to all of  the angels and to all of the jin everyone when I
17. 2:25create this Adam when I make him when I fashion  him and I blow my spirit and my soul into him
18. 2:33I want you to do one thing. I  want you to bow down to him.
19. 2:38It was in this moment that Shayan was  tested. And my hutbah today is about
20. 2:46in every relationship that we have. Whether it's  a relationship of us and our brother, our sibling,
21. 2:53whether it's a relationship between me and my  father who's aging, whether it's a relationship
22. 2:58between me and my wife. In every relationship,  the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam has taught
23. 3:06us a profound insight. And the insight is that  relationships are not based on my relationship
24. 3:13with the person, but the relationship is based on  my relationship with God and my proximity to God.
25. 3:20The key mistake thatl made is in  that moment he looked at Adam.
26. 3:26He got the order from God, but he looked at Adam  and he sized them up. He sized them up. He said,
27. 3:35"He's made out of dirt. I'm made  out of fire. I'm this. He's that."
28. 3:41And in that moment, when he sized them  up, he came to a conclusion. He said,
29. 3:46he said, "I'm better than him. I'm not going  to bow down to him." And in that moment,
30. 3:51Allah subhana wa ta'ala in the Quran in another  verse he says is a mara after I've told you this.
31. 4:00He failed to realize the quintessential point of  my today. He failed to realize that this moment
32. 4:06was not about his relationship with Adam. This  moment was not about who's better. It wasn't about
33. 4:14how much he was going to get along with Adam for  the course of eternity. This moment wasn't about
34. 4:19him and Adam. This moment was about him and  his relationship with Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
35. 4:25And so in that moment when he thought it was about  him and Adam, he forgot who it was really about.
36. 4:31It was about him and Allah subhana wa ta'ala.  And as a result, he fell distant. You know,
37. 4:38the other day, some of y'all know my kids.  Basim, he ain't here, so I can talk about him.
38. 4:46He was uh you know doing the sibling  thing, fighting with his sister.
39. 4:52I said, "Why you hit your sister for the  10th millionth time?" And he said to me,
40. 4:58"Oh, his friends are here. Don't tell him I said  this." He said to me, "Baba, Dad, she hit me."
41. 5:07And I said to him, I said, "That's not what I'm  asking you in this moment. I'm asking you about a
42. 5:14relationship between me and you. I told you don't  hit her. But you made this about you and her.
43. 5:20The relationship right now that I'm talking to you  about is about me and you, Habibi. Has nothing to
44. 5:24do with your sister. It has everything to do with  me and you right now. In that moment, messed up.
45. 5:30But it's a mistake that all of us make every  day. Your relationship with your father that
46. 5:35is strained right now. Your relationship with  your son that is strained right now. the little
47. 5:40bit of drama at home between you and wifey right  now. The problem is that both of you have failed
48. 5:45to realize that the relationship isn't predicated  on the relationship between you two. It has to do
49. 5:50everything with a triangulation. It's how much you  two both are looking at Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
50. 5:56Let me drive this point home a bit more. In the  very next verse that I recited, Allah subhana wa
51. 6:02ta'ala, he tells us about this amazing event that  happened in the here's the backdrop of the story.
52. 6:10Rumors were spread about our mother
53. 6:16that she had committed zena. These rumors  were spreading all throughout Medina.
54. 6:23They were spreading like wildfire. There's a long  backdrop to the story, too much to explain in a
55. 6:29but we'll get the main point of it. So rumors  are spreading. The prophet sallall alaihi
56. 6:35wasallam is confused. How are people accusing  my chasteed amazing mmin wife of such things?
57. 6:42Eventually the verses are revealed  exonerating Aisha completely absolving
58. 6:49her of everything that everyone said about  her completely. She did nothing like that.
59. 6:55But what happened in the process is  that the people who spread the rumors
60. 7:01their names became known. One  such person, his name was Mista.
61. 7:08And I say that loudly because he is still a great  Sahabah of the And so we have so much respect
62. 7:15because as the poem says, every  stallion trips up every now and then.
63. 7:20So he made a mistake. But what did he do? He he  was part of the one spreading these rumors. Yo,
64. 7:26did you hear? Did you hear? Did you hear? Now,  what's interesting is that Mista was the nephew
65. 7:32or second cousin of Abu Bakr. For those  who don't know, Abu Bakr is Aisha's father.
66. 7:40And so that means, let's connect the dots. That  means that the young man who I give a stipen to
67. 7:46every single month, I pay his rent, I pay for his  food, that same individual is the one who's now
68. 7:53spreading rumors about my own daughter. I ask you  what would a man do for his daughter? Anything.
69. 8:01Anything. [clears throat] The prophet sallallahu  alaihi wasallam in his for his daughters is subhan
70. 8:06Allah. So Abu Bakr like any one of us in the room,  he's thinking like us in this moment. He goes,
71. 8:16"The man that I pay his rent, the man that I  give money for food, I pay his college tuition,
72. 8:23he does this to me. Stipen his clothes. no  more money from me like any one of us would do.
73. 8:30But Allah is teaching us something so clutch.
74. 8:34In every relationship, it's not about you  and the person. It's about you and Allah.
75. 8:40It's not about you and your mom not being there  for you or your father being absentee when he was
76. 8:46raising you. What you do for him or what you do  for her is not about that horizontal relationship.
77. 8:54It's about a vertical one. So a verse is revealed  where Allah addresses Abu Bakr and he says
78. 9:09let not those people of bounty and wealth let them  not take an oath that they won't spend on the poor
79. 9:19immigrants people and family members.  It is explicitly speaking to Abu Bakr
80. 9:25and it is explicitly mentioning mist. Allah  is telling him you shouldn't be doing this.
81. 9:32This isn't this isn't your level. And  then the verse goes forward because
82. 9:37this is something that will help each and every  one of us in such critical relationship moments.
83. 9:43Allah subhana wa ta'ala says,  "Bro, you got to forgive."
84. 9:49Yeah, but she but he just he just backbit bit  my daughter in the community on WhatsApp. Like,
85. 10:00yeah, but I was paying his rent. Who were  you paying it for? Him or Allah? Who was the
86. 10:09action for in the first place? So, you know what  Allah says next? He says, "No, forgive. Overlook
87. 10:22overlook and look at the crime committed against  him. He's being told to forgive. But look what
88. 10:28Allah says next. Asam was saying, "But she  hit me. She hit me." I said, "Son, look here.
89. 10:35Son, look here. It ain't about  her. It's about me. You love me.
90. 10:41You respect Baba. You love dad."  Yeah. Yeah. Okay. What did I say?
91. 10:47You said don't hit her. Okay. Allah says,  listen to the words of Allah. He says,
92. 10:58do you not want Allah to forgive you? Look at the  scenario. Allah says, forgive. Forget overlook.
93. 11:04Ya Allah, why should I? Allah says, look  at me. Do you not want me to forgive you?
94. 11:09You know when the verse was revealed, Abu Bakr  heard the verse. The moment he heard the question,
95. 11:15this is a question. Do you not want Allah to  forgive you? The moment he heard the question,
96. 11:19do you know what he said? He said, he said, "Yes,  Allah, I want your forgiveness." Yes, Allah,
97. 11:25I want your forgiveness. See, it's vertical now.  And so, what does he do? What does how does that
98. 11:30impact the horizontal relationship? You know how  it impacts it? He says, "Can someone call mist?
99. 11:35Can someone call him?" Ma comes. He says, "Mister,  I wanted to let you know I've doubled your stipen.
100. 11:43I've doubled your stipen. I'm doubling it now.
101. 11:50Why? Because in that moment, Abu  Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him.
102. 11:58He learned something and through his  proxy, we learn it today,400 years later.
103. 12:04El didn't understand. It wasn't about  you and Adam. It was about you and me.
104. 12:12It had nothing to do with you and your  dad. It's about you and Allah. Sister,
105. 12:18it's nothing to do with you and your husband.  It's with you and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
106. 12:25Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this story has  reminded us. But this is exemplified in the
107. 12:32life of Allah because sometimes the people  around you will want you to do something
108. 12:40but for the sake of Allah you can't.  I take you back to the moment in the s
109. 12:46whereas Allah it has just started spreading  this message. He's knocking on every door. He's
110. 12:52spreading the message. He's soapbox preaching  if you know what that means. He's giving this
111. 12:56message to everyone and it's causing a havoc in  the in the community. It's causing a disturbance.
112. 13:05He's making fun of the idols and he's  calling people to this new religion.
113. 13:10So his uncle comes to him. I want you to look at  this moment closely. His uncle who loved him so
114. 13:16much, loved him so much, protected him in every  instance, had his back when nobody had his back.
115. 13:26His uncle comes to him and he says,  "Nephew, sit down. I need to talk to you."
116. 13:33Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam, he comes over.  He sits down. And it's a heart-to-heart moment.
117. 13:40Heart-to-he heart moment. He says,  "Nephew, you know how much I love you.
118. 13:46You know I'm always here for you. You  know I'll always be here for you."
119. 13:50Horizontal, right? I'm always here for  you. But I need you to do something.
120. 13:56I need you to stop this message. I need  you to stop preaching this message.
121. 14:02I need you to just go back to the old ways where  everybody loved you, where everybody loved me,
122. 14:09where where we had no drama. Please, for my sake,  horizontal. For my sake, please stop this message.
123. 14:18And here's the test taught to us by the  beloved. He looks his uncle in the eyes
124. 14:25and with tears in his own eyes. That's the  beautiful part. With tears in his own eyes,
125. 14:33he says the most profound statement that we've  heard since Sunday school. He says, "Uncle,
126. 14:40if you ask me anything, anything,
127. 14:44I'll do it for you. If you asked me anything,  I would do it for you. But regarding what
128. 14:50you're asking me now," he's looking vertical.  Allahbar, he's looking vertical now. He says,
129. 14:58"If you took the sun and put it in my right  hand and the moon and put it in my left hand,
130. 15:03wall, uncle, I'm never stopping this message." And  he gets up, tears rolling down his eyes because
131. 15:12I would love to do whatever you want me to do,  but now I'm triangulating. I'm looking up now.
132. 15:20Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam is  telling us I'll do anything for you
133. 15:25but I won't risk my relationship exact  opposite ofl just do one sagda but look at him
134. 15:36it's about me no but look at him I  can't do it look at him I can't do it
135. 15:43my dad I want to bring this home how many of us  struggle in our families with family issues and
136. 15:49and and and and and drama. How many of us are just  looking horizontally and not looking vertically?
137. 15:58I used to contemplate and think when you go to a  nikah, right? You come to a nikah and Jacob Daser
138. 16:03is conducting a nikah mashallah and he reads there  are three verses recited at every nikah almost
139. 16:11every single marriage and every single one of them  has the frame of reference of tawa tawa and I used
140. 16:18to wonder well yo we're about to get married  why isn't that tawa shouldn't it be the ayah
141. 16:27shouldn't that be the verse for a marriage  shouldn't it be the verse about, you know,
142. 16:32the spouse being a place of tranquility. Uh-uh.  Because in that moment, Allah taught us something
143. 16:40and he reiterated it that the foundation for you  to be a righteous husband, the foundation for you
144. 16:47to be a righteous son, the foundation for you  to be a righteous father is for you to always
145. 16:53be God conscious. You're always looking at the  vertical relationship. That is the message that
146. 16:58we learn through Abu Bakr in this moment. And so  when he set this sunnah for the next 1400 years,
147. 17:05he says, I want everyone conducting a marriage  to remind the two people in that marriage that
148. 17:11the foundation of this horizontal relationship  is based on their vertical consciousness of God.
149. 17:18Now I want you to selfanalyze. Now I want  you to self assess the relationships.
150. 17:24I want you to assess the relationship between  you and uh your boss, Roger. You know, Roger.
151. 17:32Oh, yeah. I ain't got Roger at work.
152. 17:36I always say Becky, and people made fun of me,  so I said, I won't use Becky's name, no more.
153. 17:41I want you to take this to your relationship with  a coworker you have who's always hating on you.
154. 17:48And I want to ask you now, if you  stopped focusing on the horizontal
155. 17:53relationship and focused on the vertical  relationship, what would you do for Roger?
156. 17:59You might bring him some samosas tomorrow.  Might bring him some biryani tomorrow.
157. 18:07Roger gave you no reason to like him.  Roger gave you no reason to be good to him.
158. 18:16The same way The same way Mista gave  no reason to Abu Bakr to like him.
159. 18:24But how do we become almost superhuman? Super  human. One of our teachers they explained
160. 18:35that there's which is oppressional which is fair  and vul is to oppress someone to to to to treat
161. 18:47them ill. A Muslim is far away from that. We try  every moment to be far away from oppression. Adal
162. 18:53is to be fair. Roger sends you a salty email, you  send a salty email back. That's the Islam that we
163. 19:02have is beautiful because it allows to it allows  because sometimes Roger needs to be set straight.
164. 19:11But there's a higher level that every Muslim  strives for. It's calledanan. And the meaning ofan
165. 19:19is goodness to those who wrong you. But I ask  you, I've heard this before, shake. I've heard be
166. 19:24good to those who wrong you. I'm trying to teach  you how. Where's the motivation come for that?
167. 19:30The motivation came in this verse where Allah  said the motivation came when I looked at Kasim
168. 19:36and I said don't look at Karima look at mehabibi  look at me do you love me do you respect me he
169. 19:43goes yes I do in this verse Allah said to Abu Bakr  don't look at mist don't look at him look at me
170. 19:53do you want me to forgive you right away  Abu Bakr said yes I want you to forgive me
171. 19:59how Do you doan in every relationship? You have  a father that was absent your whole life, bro.
172. 20:08You have a he was present, but  you know, emotionally. You have
173. 20:13a sibling that's been hating on you and jealous  of you since y'all hit puberty. I don't know.
174. 20:19You've been struggling with these family  relationships for so long. And you've been told,
175. 20:24"Be good to those who wrong you. Be good to those  who wrong you." Where's the motivation? Come. The
176. 20:29motivation comes from a vertical triangulation.  Keep your eyes focused on the prize.
177. 20:36Keep your eyes focused on the prize.  And when we're able to do that,
178. 20:40we're able to please Allah subhanahu  wa ta'ala. Imam Ahmed bin Hulah.
179. 20:48He's one of the four great  imams of and jurist prudence.
180. 20:52But he went through a great great trial. A great  trial because he was holding on to certain beliefs
181. 20:59and he was lashed. Public lashing  extremely painful and humiliating.
182. 21:05After it was over, they asked him, "So, how do you  feel about was the Khalifa at the time?" He said,
183. 21:12"How do you feel about him?" He  said, "Oh, every time I got hit,
184. 21:17by the time the the the Jawat the person jalad  by the time he lifted his hand, I forgave him.
185. 21:23He would hit me. By the time he was lifting  his hand again, I was forgiving him."
186. 21:28They said, "Whoa, that doesn't make sense. What  type of human? Well, how are you rational? What's
187. 21:32going on in your brain?" He said, "Oh, I was  thinking about the day of judgment. Martism is a
188. 21:37descendant of the prophet." And I said to myself,  what would it look like in front of the prophet
189. 21:42if it's announced on the day of judgment that Imam  Ahmed bin Humble did not forgive a family member
190. 21:47of Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. So by the time  he lifted up this the the the the whip to hit me
191. 21:53again, I had already forgiven him for the previous  whip. It's a vertical look. It's a vertical look.
192. 22:00He's looking at a and that look of is making him  interact in such a beautiful way horizontally.
193. 22:08And so when we talk about character development  and we talk about overcoming and being good to
194. 22:14people, it won't happen as efficiently as it  will happen with what we have in our dean.
195. 22:21And the dean keeps you focused on what God  wants from you. And so I began with a hadith of
196. 22:30where he said
197. 22:39He said, "Have have a heart that is forgiving  to the people on earth." Look at the ending
198. 22:45the hadith. That's horizontal, right? Look at the  ending. Because the one in the heavens will have
199. 22:52mercy upon you. Why did you bring Roger samosas?  I really Roger, this is about me and Allah. Yo,
200. 23:00Roger, this is about me and Allah. If you really  want to know, yo, I've been so mean to you. I've
201. 23:03been so ill to you, but you've been so kind  to me. Why? Trying to be like my prophet.
202. 23:08I'm trying to keep my eyes focused on  what would please Allah subhana wa ta'ala.
203. 23:13Now, there's another side to this coin. Sometimes  we can be hyperfocused on our ibada worship
204. 23:21and forget what God truly wants from us. Listen  closely. This is the other side of the coin.
205. 23:29Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. I I'll  begin with a narration of Ibn Abbas.
206. 23:34Ibn Abbas is a they call him Quran because  he had so deep knowledge of the Quran.
207. 23:42So one day he's doing this is after the prophet  passed away sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He's infat
208. 23:48means he's in seclusion in the masid. And you  know when you're in seclusion in the Ramadan you
209. 23:52can't you're not supposed to leave the masid. So  someone comes in the masid he says Abbas Abdullah
210. 23:59I need to talk to you. what's up? He goes,  I'm having this issue at home. I'm having this
211. 24:04my dad this can you come and talk to my dad for  me. Ibn Abbas, he goes, "Yeah, sure. Let's go."
212. 24:11So, Ibn Abbas begins to walk with this man  out of the masid. Walking out of the masid,
213. 24:20right when they get to the door of the masid, the  man stops. He has an epiphany. He goes, "Wait,
214. 24:24wait, Abdullah, aren't you in I I actually  I know I asked you, but I forgot. You're in.
215. 24:31You're about to walk out of the masid, meaning  you're engaged in this, this worship right now.
216. 24:37You're engaged in this worship vertical, right?  You're engaged in this worship and I'm bringing
217. 24:42you horizontal. I'm bringing you to come help  me. Don't you realize you're about to step out
218. 24:47of the masid?" He goes, "Hold on, hold on." He  goes and he points to the grave of the prophet
219. 24:53sallallahu alaihi wasallam because he wants us  to know where he got it from. He says,"I heard
220. 24:58my friend who's buried right there in the  grave say the one who walks with their brother
221. 25:05to help them in their necessity, Allah will  give him the reward of a 100s." Let's go, bro.
222. 25:15The horizontal relationship he left. what  would look like vertical to me and you
223. 25:21to me and you. You're in Ibad.  How dare you disturb my ibad?
224. 25:26Baba's in, you know, Baba's in his  little, you know, got his test be.
225. 25:30You walk over, you're like, "Yo,  dad." He's like, "Don't you see
226. 25:39was in prayer one time leading the salah? Leading  the salah. I want you to understand how a good
227. 25:47relationship with Allah should not break you  from the horizontal was leading the salah.
228. 25:52The salah got long sahaba after the  prayer they said yasool Allah what
229. 25:56happened that was a long saga yasoolah  what happened did a new verse come down
230. 26:02did Gabriel come he said no my grand my grandson  was on my back and I didn't want to pull him off
231. 26:09I didn't want to make a negative correlation  to prayer and his connection with me
232. 26:14I waited till my grandson got off my back and then  I came up from some from sujud Iban Abbas walked
233. 26:22out of that masid because he understood that  that good relationship was not going to break his
234. 26:28ibada. It was going to be the best form of ibada.  There's a story and I'll conclude my time is up.
235. 26:36There's a story about a man named Jur. It's in  Sahib Bkari. It's in all the books of hadith.
236. 26:43And Jur is from Benny is from the old nations.  And the prophetat wasam he taught us this story
237. 26:51for such a deep implication that I'm going to  that relates to what we're talking about today.
238. 26:56Jur had chosen a life of monasticism. He was a  abid a worshipper of God. He was you know when
239. 27:03those you know mashallah when the 18-year-old  guy kind of wakes up and he's on his dean now.
240. 27:09You know what I mean? Now y'all  ain't seen it. Okay whatever.
241. 27:12He's like and remember you were in college  freshman. You like going mashallah. Right.
242. 27:17So Jur is at his at his like sophomore year MSA  type dude, right? He's going hard and he starts
243. 27:26praying Allahbar and the hadith says he's in  his he's in his his his his room of prayer.
244. 27:34His mother walks over and she knows he's  there in his room praying and she says
245. 27:43and he says that jur says in his mind he says
246. 27:52my mom but my prayer my mom but my prayer.
247. 27:59He continues to pray. He ignores his mother.
248. 28:04The narration says that around the same  time the next day Jur and me sophomore
249. 28:11going he starts his prayer Allahbar  ironically mother come same time same time
250. 28:21he's in his prayer and this is my  connection with Allah I'm here he says
251. 28:34He keeps praying. Third day, same exact  thing happens. And in that moment,
252. 28:42his mother just out of her frustration, she  makes a dua against him. And I don't have time
253. 28:48for the whole story, but he goes through a lot of  difficulty. And the scholars, they say that he had
254. 28:55vertical, but no understanding what  God wanted from him in the moment.
255. 28:59When Ibn Abbas walked out of the masid, he was in  Ibada, but he understood what God wanted from him.
256. 29:05When the prophet was praying salah and his  grandson was on his back, he was connected
257. 29:08vertical, but the vertical connection never  disconnected him from the horizontal and
258. 29:13doing what Allah wanted from him in the moment.  Mybah today is simple. Brothers and sisters,
259. 29:21all of our relationships need to be based on  this question. What does Allah want from me
260. 29:28in this relationship right now? Don't look  at the person. Look at your relationship with