Between Two Worlds

[Music] [Music] and today my discussion will be confined to the topic that was chosen for me between two worlds what do you think the two worlds how do you perceive that and one brother said you know dunya versus you know the worldly life compared to the grandeur of the next life another brother he said no no it's the dunya but the struggle to not go too far in this worldly life that you ruin the next life and another one he said no it's you know the dunya it's not just about this life but it's about what you want and your ambition in it and not to lose other aspects that are also important and the overall arching theme is the quest for success and i want to begin with surat al-fatiha and i want you to kind of think about the gravity of why it is the opening chapter of islam see the book of allah the quran which is the source for us as muslims as the stepping stone the cornerstone of all success so whenever you and i want to measure success and success is something metric you can measure it how successful are you financially i can measure what you have in your bank account what kind of car do you drive what's your postcode it's measurable how successful are you academically what are your credentials what are your qualifications and not just what they are but where did you earn them which university rather than which but one of the things that is not measurable is the effect of success in your life and there's many people who have and live between those two worlds and that's where i want to confine my discussion the pursuit of this worldly success but not at losing the contentment of heart and satisfaction of love and family allah begins the quran as a kitab you know the concept of a book is a very sacred concept for us as muslims at the time of the prophet sallam there wasn't one volume there wasn't one muslif where all of the quran was in one place every verse was written gathered and collected in the hearts of people and on leaf on bark on deer skin on many places but it wasn't kitab in the concept of kitab you and i have as one volume but it had a coherence and the coherence is not chronological the quran unlike the bible does not begin in the beginning and end at the end the quran begins with al-fatiha the opening and you begin with the name of god bismillah and you acknowledge allah as the lord of mercy the giver of all mercy who is especially merciful to those who distinguish themselves there's an excelling cascading effect of mercy that you have between you and allah that you can attain alhamdulillah i'm thankful to the opportunity to be able to worship you and recognize you an opportunity that many are denying and of the greatest of the greatest blessings graces and the concept of is something you are given that you haven't earned you didn't do anything really to earn it had you not been given faith and led to it you would not have come to it we ask allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to increase our hidayah and have our children and children's children so you praise the almighty alhamdulillah the lord of all existence because he is you know that word al-rahman is the only name of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that used unilaterally all of the other names and attributes of allah are used in combination but that word is the only one that on its own is meaningful that whether you invoke allah as allah in all of his might or you single out the conceptualization in your heart that he is the giver the lord of all mercy whichever name you choose of him you will find him the one who answers those who turn to him in invocation i recognize that your mercy in this life must be thanked and i understand that on the day of judgment i'll stand before you and be questioned about my existence and my being my life the same word the lord of all existence to him alone is my devotions and prayers my sacrifice my whole existence and my life and death for him alone the lord of all existence and you come to that recognition that he is thematic the dominant on the day of judgment the one you are accountable to for the little and the small take possession of your book you'll be enough sufficient of a judge for or against yourself on that day so it's at that moment in my prayer in your prayer 17 times a day i begin to ask allah for something and i want to sign a contract after recognizing the one i'm obligated to i ask for my first request lead all of us look at the wording it's not idini every other aspect of this surah is very personal you and allah alhamdulillah i acknowledge god i unilaterally me myself but then you come and ask for something that you want to give universal as a value all of us everyone i've met and haven't met those who are near and those who are far those who hear and those who can't those who read and those who are unlettered lead all of us to a straight path a path between two worlds subhanallah a path that isn't innovative and new it doesn't go up and down and left and right it's a path that leads you if you follow it if you put your step where he steps it will lead you to where your destination is but recognize that where he stepped was not a new step he stepped where abraham stepped and he stepped where moses stepped and he stepped where adam stepped and therefore you say god oh allah almighty lead me to a path that others who were favored before me followed by not a path that has been tread upon by those who angered you you know that word those who earned your anger those who you showed your wrath to in this life and in the next life who are those who anger allah they are those who know the path and choose to walk off it they say i know this is the path but i'm going that way and no one will tell me how to live my life but me i'm not a submitter i'm not a surrenderer which is the correct meaning and translation of the word islam many people find it difficult really fasting you know i have non-muslim friends that say so by being hungry that's going to give you peace by waking up every day before the sun rises five in the morning four in the morning in the summer that gives you peace doesn't that make you grumpy and tired by giving from your wealth that you worked so hard to earn and you're making ends meet and you share it with others that's going to give you peace don't close our heart and our sight to the path that makes us angry angering to you the other world is not just simply that you anger god because you know what you should do but the other path is that you don't seek misguidance is that you don't know which way you're going but even though i know i don't know where i'm going and i know who i should ask to find the direction i intentionally go it alone i intentionally go blind to the signs of god to what my heart recognizes as truth that my heart tells me this is where you should be these are the people you should be with everything indicates to a truth and a submission to god but i say if i know that i'm obligated i'd rather be done deaf and blind so their mind is of no value allah doesn't say that their eyes are blind but the heart is darkened to such a degree that it purposefully chooses to become unaware of its relationship with its lord almighty and the moment you make that dua you and those who hear it from you say amin which means oh my lord give me what he asked even if i didn't speak those words and you're standing behind me in salah and i recite it aloud you say i mean oh allah i didn't read it but give me what that man asked for it is the most comprehensive seven verses as saba al-mathani al-imam he says that all of islam is the quran and everything in the quran is that opening chapter of al-fatiha and everything in that chapter is that one ayah so if you were genuine and you were truly of those who ask allah for that success to be guided to a path that you won't discover unless he turns your heart to it unless you seek to be from those who limit your anger of allah and those who seek to have an enlightenment that you know you can find and need to search for that requires effort and energy allah says you want it turn the page with these letters subhanallah you know a lot of people that try to shake faith they'll come and they'll say do you know everything that's in the quran i say to you that there is no human being on the surface of the earth who can say to you i know the minute details of the quran ask them [Music] i am sought what does it mean all of the sahaba different opinions could you imagine if i walked in a church as a pastor and i stood in front of the congregation and i began by saying x q b y c i'm reading to you the word of god they'd be like this man has lost his mind but you mean the word of god and you as a muslim you have no problem with that disjointed letters are letters that are confined in the speech of god that the quran to us is not just the meaning of the word of god see if i ask our cousins in faith if i come to a pastor and i say reverend did god say in the beginning to begin the bible to begin the torah you'll say no that's the writing of man giving you the meaning the intent of the message of god so the bible is god's word in meaning but not literal and i say well that's a difference between you and i i actually as a muslim i believe that the letter cath is from god sent and because i don't know it there's many other things that i don't know in the quran and i'm comfortable with my faith that i don't need to know every single detail about it so allah begins with these letters i'm going to give you this final scripture it will make up a book you will find in it no contradiction and one that is not open for you to question if you seek its blessing don't approach it with an insincerity of heart don't approach it approach it with fact finding with mistake finding don't approach it where your intent is i'm going to disprove it approach it with a piety of heart where you seek to read it in its entirety understand its coherence you will then find it is a guidance but not for everyone hudan exclusively to those who come to it with a piety of heart in surat allah makes it even clearer in this book it is the reminder that mankind needs meaning it's things you already know that has been sent to people who came before you it's things that your fitra your natural inclination and human disposition calls you to it is a thick limanco for the one who possesses a heart subhanallah the first condition for you to benefit from the word of god is that you need a heart that's alive you need a compassionate heart one that wants to know and care and feel for yourself and others for the one who searched for their heart and gives it their full hearing full attention shaheed and they come to it hoping to bear witness to its trueness and therefore you find that what galvanizes faith is not just simply the word of god but the preparedness for you to surrender yourself to the will of allah and therefore we exist between two worlds a world at times and for muslims and non-muslims that seeks to lure us away from the word of god not just the scripture that muslims have but the very essence and principles what we refer to as that are of the judeo-christian doctrine and the doctrines that are unanimously agreed to as universal values today you find a world where the very underpinnings of what is moral is shifting and changing where there's a cloudiness and a murkiness between what is ethical and what is not where it's okay to speak half truths to represent one side and not the other where it's okay to prejudice and prejudge and stereotype where it's okay to characterize and hold accountable a person who has nothing to do with the crimes of others the quran commands which is best in all things the summary of the ayah is allah wants you not to do what's right but to do the best of what is right that's a very strange concept in the type of world that we live in today it's something you don't see it's not just i'm gonna do what's right well that's right you know i'm just gonna do it i'm to do the least of what's right well i didn't lie i didn't cheat i didn't take it all i didn't eat it all i didn't move i didn't in fact your faith compels you to do the best of what is right and it asks you not just to stay away from what's wrong but to stay as far away as you can from what is wrong to be as transparent as clear and as abhorrent as whatever it is you find is something that is sinful practice to be as clear of it as you can i'm going to leave you with one final verse from the quran that worldly next life the life that we all seek you know that place in paradise allah says i have dedicated it prepared it for those who do not seek ascendancy in this life alone if your only claim to happiness if your only claim to success is material is temporal is in the here and now if your only success is in the things that you can hold things that you can make use of and you haven't had savings for that which is beyond this life know that there's an imbalance and you preferred one life over the next not just that they don't want to have supremacy in this earth but they don't want to cause any trouble and havoc for others live with this maxim of our law i want to leave this life you your aim to leave this life where nobody owes you anything and more importantly that you owe nobody anything that you leave a soft footprint that not even a tree has been cut down unnecessarily by you one of my teachers in medina i remember we were eating and the last few scraps of bread crumbs you know you break bread on a table and there's a few breadcrumbs he would take out his handkerchief and he would pull them into that little handkerchief and i thought that's a very strange thing to do i said to him sheikh what are you doing he said it's a charity like charity who are you gonna feed breadcrumbs to and then i noticed as we were walking he would take out discreetly and just empty it out on the ground where he saw ants or little you know insects that were roaming it was this act of charity even in that compassion that's the ideal of a muslim that's a heart of someone who submitted their affair to allah who understands that akbar allah is the greatest you

Channel: Islamic Guidance

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Length: 20min 0sec (1200 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021