In the Names of Allah - 01 - Introduction Part 1

as we wait for more people to come online i'll just greet those who are already online and who are joining hannah sharif ramadan mubarak to you also fathum or fatum ramadan mubarak to all to you also mahadu salim ramadan mubarak and if you can put the countries that you're coming from you know that way we know where you are in the world it would be nice but anyway um continue to give uh salams to idris abdul malik idris and khadijah again from mauritius okay good to know that's where you came from barcelona we have maryam salam i assume you're from india remember people just put where you're from so we can share we are from kenya welcome from nairobi i've been there before barakallahu kum years back beautiful place and um as the names uh continue to join salams in sha allah we pray that allah will make this session a productive one from the first day of ramadan and that the following sessions throughout ramadan inshaallah will be beneficial we have tariq sardar from west bengal ajmal from pakistan greetings to you both ramadan greetings and welcome greetings to the session we have umir alam from sheffield the uk greetings to you also and we're still waiting for more to join muhammad from australia abdullah is reaching out we ask allah to make this ramadan a productive and beneficial ramadan for all of us from all aspects of what ramadan is supposed to be about we also have sister aisha from sweden inshaallah will begin shortly all praise due to allah and may allah's peace and blessings be on the last messenger of allah this is the first session of our series in the names of allah and we will begin with an introduction to the names of allah to understanding how we are to address them how we are to approach them to set the stage for studying the 99 names of allah so this is the first part of our introduction and we begin by just grasping where does this title come from and this series the concept in the series or behind the series where is it coming from it is coming from the quran itself from surah that is the seventh chapter verse 180 wherein allah has said to us the most beautiful names belong only to allah father so call on him by or with them walillah the most beautiful names belong only to allah so call on him by or with them calling on allah is the most obvious and basic act of worshiping him so what does it mean to call on him by or with his names a 14th century muslim theologian suggested that making supplication to allah using his names has two fundamental levels one supplication of praise and glorification and two supplication of requesting and pleading so the first phase praise is indicated by allah's instruction to his creatures to glorify and praise him frequently as in the following verse all believers remember allah often and glorify his praises in the morning and the evening this is in sura chapter 33 verses 41 and 2. we also find from the sunnah abdullah bin masrud quoting the prophet salallahu salem as saying because no one is more displeased with misbehavior than allah he forbade public and private corruption and because no one appreciates appropriate praise more than allah he praised himself this of course does not mean that allah desires the praise of his creatures but that he is very pleased when his creatures praise him because their praise is one of the main ways to worship him which is itself a fulfillment of the very purpose of their creation the second request is indicated by allah's instruction to his creatures to only call on him in prayer and to ask him for their needs as in the following verse from surah al-rafir verse 60 your lord said call on me and i will answer you indeed those too proud to worship me will enter hell utterly disgraced and on one occasion the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam gave special advice to ibn abbas as a young boy saying to him if you ask ask only allah and if you seek help seek it only from allah and he elevated this to the point where he said that whoever can guarantee me that he will not ask anybody for anything i will guarantee him or her paradise now the appropriate divine name because the names are beautiful names you know about them they're 99 and we'll be looking at that later but scholars spoke about the appropriateness of allah's names who was from the 14th century 14th century theologian as we mentioned further proposed that one should strive to ask for each and everything one desires using an appropriate divine name related to the request so it's not just random names anyhow anyway at any time for example one should say forgive me o allah and have mercy on me because you are the oft forgiving the most merciful instead of saying because you are the all-hearing and the all-seeing can we understand that the name and its usage should be appropri appropriate for the circumstance for what it is we're asking about there's a connection it's real it's not like magic you know magical names you just say the name anyhow anywhere anytime and the name is going to you know like abracadabra or iftahiya open sesame and the cave opens up it's not this kind of usage of allah's names if one reflects on the recorded supplications of the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam he or she will find that they conform to these principles for example the recommended prayer which the prophet saws gave for the night of destiny when aisha asked him what should we say if we feel or realize that this is the night of qatar he said to say allahumma innaka afun to indeed you are forgiving and you love forgiveness so forgive me this is a perfect example ibn al-qaeda further suggested that for every one of allah's attributes there are particular acts of worship related to that particular attribute and necessitated by it let's look at that again suggested what that for every one of allah's attributes names and attributes the attributes are a consequence of the names there are particular acts of worship related to that particular attribute and necessitated by it actually an earlier scholar from the 12th century a spanish muslim scholar by the name of ibn al-arawi also stated that allah should be called upon by and with every divine name that is appropriate for example he went on to say you should say o you who are merciful have mercy on me or o you who are wise decide my affair for me or o provider provide for me or yet oh you who guides guide me see the connection between calling on that name recognizing praising allah in his glory in that name then requesting what is relative and relevant to that name so this is something uh you could say digested we've understood it it is part of our natural way of reaching out to allah however ibn al-arabi pointed out that some names like allah and rabb lord are general and all inclusive and as such can be used for supplication in all situations and for every matter saying oh allah have mercy on me oh allah guide me allah decide for my affair oh it works so where the name is general then what we're asking for is covered where the name is specific then what we're asking for should be related to the name that that's that's to utilize the name properly you know that is utilizing that name properly as allah told us call on him who call on him with them or buy them so we do it in a way which is sensible it's not non-sensible nonsense just using the names randomly anyhow anyway you know and we'll be looking at this random use of allah's names you know and how that is in fact displeasing to allah it is abuse of allah's names anyway let's move on to the issue of the appropriateness of the names because we are supposed to live a life of worship and allah instructs the believers to call on him by his names so somehow the various aspects of our lives of worship should be connected with his names in practical terms all elements of the believer's life should manifest and reflect the worship of allah most great and glorious this concept was expressed in the quran in a direct address to prophet muhammad sallallahu sallam and his followers which remains enshrined in the quran until the last day allah said to prophet muhammad salati say indeed my prayers my sacrifices my living and my dying are for allah lord of the worlds who is without partner this is what i have been commanded to do and i am the first of those who submit the ultimate goal of human life is to make every aspect of living pleasing to allah pleasing to god by that is meant that life should be lived to the fullest in accordance with god's instructions living life to the fullest does not necessarily mean doing everything that one can possibly do as there are many harmful things which should not be done living a life a full life means doing everything islamically permissible recommended obligatory which one can do while avoiding everything disliked and prohibited by the ultimate legislator allah himself so worshiping allah through his most beautiful names means living righteous lives in the glorious light of the divine names of allah that will involve knowing the names because if you don't know them how can you live according to them understanding them relative to allah and relative to his creation again if we don't understand them we're using them randomly and out of place and out of sequence or whatever and deducing how to apply them in our day-to-day life that requires a proper understanding much has been written on the names and their understanding consequently in this series we will focus primarily on realizing the most beautiful names of allah in our daily lives understanding them and learning how we can utilize them in our day-to-day lives this is the main focus of this series now the status of knowledge concerning allah's beautiful names is something that we should be clear on why focus on allah's beautiful names why not focus on what allah has instructed us to do what he has instructed us not to do halal haram etc the bottom line is that when we're looking at seeking knowledge which has been made obligatory for every muslim male and female when the prophet saw sallam said seeking knowledge is compulsory for every muslim he said that knowing that knowledge has many branches and numerous levels however we have to prioritize because people use this hadith talab which is true authentic solid islamic but they used it to go running off doing anything and everything in search of knowledge and the most critical things are thrown to the wayside are meaningless not beneficial reality is that we have to prioritize the various branches of knowledge in order to acquire the most important areas of knowledge before the less important areas putting the cart before the horse we know what happens chaos the cart is supposed to go after the horse so the horse leads and he pulls the cart you put the cart in front of the horse what is he going to do he's going to trample the cart it's chaos so we have to put things in their proper order in fact there are even areas of knowledge which muslims we as muslims are advised to avoid for example knowledge for the sake of knowledge which is a popular saying in the west i heard it said to me numerous occasions when i studied in university in canada islamically speaking it's not acceptable the acceptable way for knowledge the gaining of knowledge is gaining knowledge for its benefit yes that takes priority over everything else knowledge just because you wanna know you gonna go and get this knowledge just to know well if you have nothing else left to do in life well no problem but if you still have a life to live you should prioritize your knowledge gaining knowledge for its benefit is a basic islamic principle which is based on a well-known hadith narrated by jabir ibn abdullah he quoted the prophet saying nasi [Music] the best people are those most beneficial to other people to the mass those who are most beneficial to the mass are the best so it's about the benefit they're using their knowledge in a way that they benefit the greatest numbers of people they are the best in the sight of allah ultimately where people understand their benefit they are also the best in the sight of people at the same time prophet muhammed also taught his followers to seek refuge in allah from useless knowledge use this knowledge he said allah i seek refuge in you from knowledge which is of no benefit knowledge which is of no benefit one may ask what do you mean by that knowledge which is of no benefit well it can be of no benefit from two perspectives one it's false knowledge misguiding people or two it is inappropriate knowledge knowledge being given to those who can't comprehend it or at the wrong time etc etc so knowledge which is like false knowledge we all know evolution right darwin's theory of evolution which claims that we evolved from the same uh origins as monkeys monkeys our cousins our uncles grandfathers etc you know we're just part of that tree of life this is nonsense also knowledge which is of low benefit like in madrasa in schools where we're teaching kids in grade one about hajj we have some teachers gustas teaching the little kids in grade one hajj tamato hajj ifrad hajj tehran wait these kids haven't even made hajj they have it's not even obligatory on them and you're going to give them the details of hatch the fine details this is useless knowledge for them this is useless knowledge whether you just grade one you know had you going around the kaaba just the rights of hajj and we pray to allah that's enough for them so it's appropriate knowledge knowledge at its or in its appropriate time so if we look at the benefit of knowing allah's names and attributes why we should prioritize them we have to grasp the fact that we were informed by allah i only created the jinn and humankind to worship me alone we were not created to eternally toil and struggle in this transient material world this is not what we are created for we do it it's part of our existence but the core what's most important is worshipping allah so if worship of allah is the most important concern of human life knowledge of exactly who god is and who he is not becomes a precondition in order to fulfill this necessary responsibility in human lives so religious knowledge beginning with knowledge of tawheed that is islamic monotheism the core of the islamic concept of allah and existence should be given priority over all other knowledge in the education of a muslim that's the bottom line because if we become doctors lawyers engineers and whatever else is considered great and important in this life but we haven't haven't understood who allah is and implemented that knowledge in our lives then our lives are wasted they're useless we will have failed in the sight of god we may have succeeded in the sight of people people will look at us as great scientists great doctors great this and that and the other but in reality we have failed that poor farmer in the fields planting rice each day making his prayers or her prayers turning to allah worshiping him regularly etc he has succeeded or she has succeeded where those who are considered successful in this world have not so tauhid or knowledge of allah's unity his unique unity not just his unity but his unique unity why add that because of course christians say god is one god but he's made up of three gods in one god you know so we're talking about when we're talking about the oneness of god monotheism from the correct understanding the understanding which was held by jesus and moses and the prophets before may god's peace and blessings be upon all of them not something made up by muslims today it's it's one belief this unique unity which covers his dominion over creation his special names and attitude attributes and how he is to be properly worshipped how this would be maintained in all aspects of human existence it has various fields of knowledge and all of these fields together comprise the science of tawheed the quest for knowledge should begin when we look at all the various aspects he said the quest of knowledge should begin from tawhid al-asma wasifat he said in actual words the excellence of a field of knowledge is determined by the importance of its subject matter therefore since the creator is the highest and most excellent subject worthy of consideration knowledge of his names must be the highest and most noble branch of knowledge for this reason the verses and chapters which acquaint human beings with allah's names and attributes are the most excellent passages of the quran for example that's verse 255 of the second chapter of the quran this is affirmed in authentic hadith as the most virtuous verse in allah's book the prophet sallam's companion obeyed who was well known as one of the best reciters of the quran the best among those who had memorized and taught the quran he said allah's messenger asked me o abu do you know which verse of allah's book is greatest relative to you is relative to you i replied allah and his messenger know best he again asked o do you know which verse of allah's book is greatest relative to you i said again allah there is no god but he the ever living the subsisting there upon he patted my chest and said may knowledge always be pleasant for you this verse what we call ayatul kursi this verse is an in-depth description of allah and his attributes worthy for every muslim to have gone through and the prophet saw sallam used to recite it every night before going to bed and he encouraged encourages all to do the same recite it and reflect on it not just recite it as a ritual did you do your idol course yeah yeah i did it no recite it having reflected on its the meaning of each sentence or sector of this whole verse it's a long verse furthermore according to the prophet sallam the 112th chapter surah at tawhid commonly known as surah al-ikhlas companions used to call it surat now today if you ask anybody do you know surah tahit they're going to say huh is this a surah called i never heard that well surah al-ikhlas is what we know it as now because it became more popularly called by that name but the name commonly used amongst the sahaba was surah said that it equals one-third of the quran he narrated that a companion of the prophet sallam heard another companion repeating repeatedly say he allah is unique the first verse of surah at tawhid over and over during the night when the morning came he went to the prophet sallam and derisively mentioned it to him he thought the prophet saw was going to you know say what an idiot why is he doing this the prophet sallam instead responded to him saying by the one in whose hand lies my soul indeed it is equivalent to one third of the quran abu sayid also stated that on another occasion allah's messenger asked his companions isn't any of you able to recite one third of the quran in a single night this is a big challenge the companions when they heard the prophet saw them say that what recite one third of the quran in a single night because they found this difficult because he expected they were going to find it difficult he replied who amongst you is able to do that no the companions asked who amongst us is able to do that or messenger of allah and he wanted them to ask that question because he wanted this message to sink into their minds quran he called us allah the unique the self-sufficient is one-third of the quran some scholars explain that the verses of the quran mainly address three basic elements laws promises and warnings and the laws names and attributes and abu dharda also narrated from the prophet sallam something similar he said that the prophet sallam said indeed allah almost great and glorious divided the quran into three parts and made say he allah is unique one of the parts of the quran so what we're stressing here is the chapter about allah's tawheed his attributes the verse greatest verse in the quran about about allah's tawheed his unity his monotheistic unique oneness this was the greatest verse of the quran so knowledge of allah's names is critical people cannot realize the reality of worship and fulfill it in both word and deed if they do not have knowledge of allah's names and attributes when the angels wondered about the consequence of human creation on earth allah enlightened them by teaching adam the names of everything since knowledge of allah is the root of all knowledge the divine names would have been the first names which allah taught adam that knowledge elevated adam above the rest of creation and made him be fitting for the angels and the jinn to prostrate in honor before not prostrating worship or straight in honor faith increases with knowledge and action is the general principle in islam the more a person knows about allah and the verses of his book and applies them in his or her life the more he or she increases in faith in the same way if a person responds to allah's commands his or her faith increases knowledge of the names of allah of allah's names and attributes understanding their meanings acting according to them and supplicating to allah with them produces in the hearts of the worshippers glorification and exaltation of the creator veneration and love of him hope for his mercy and fear of him as well as a reliance upon and turning to him in this way a person realizes belief in the uni unique unity of allah in the depths of his or her heart he or she achieves true worship of allah and submission to him and his or her heart finds contentment in allah's as i mentioned earlier following the understanding of the importance of knowing allah's names since knowing allah is the most important thing that we can achieve in this life all success is based on knowing allah and all failure is based on not knowing allah either in practice or in faith and understanding both actually have to be there knowledge and practice i did mention earlier as you all know and all as you all are familiar that the prophet sallam had spoken about allah having 99 names everybody is aware of the 99 names of allah and in many copies of the quran they'll have at the end the last two pages the 99 names listed what is the importance of it well if one memorizes the names of allah understands their meaning and acts according to them they will receive the ultimate reward of paradise it's as simple as that right memorizing the names knowing them understanding their meaning being able to contemplate on them acting in accordance with them will give us ultimate success all the narration says man whoever memorizes them but in this narration and this narration is found in sahih al-bukhari indeed allah has 99 names whoever counts them will enter paradise whoever counts them will enter paradise so there is a number out there mentioned in this hadith however is allah's names and attributes limited by this number well we have a clear indication from prophet muhammed that 99 is not a limitation it is only a designation 99 99 of allah's names and actually when you go and see the compilation of the 99 by reliable scholars etc who trace the origins of the names back to their sources etc you may find variances in the list you know maybe 90 percent of them are the same and this is a 10 you'll find in one list and not found in another list et cetera et cetera but there's a well-known hadith in which the prophet sallam supplicated saying o allah i ask you by every name belonging to you with which you named yourself or you revealed in your scripture or you taught to anyone of your creatures or you kept with yourself exclusively in your hidden knowledge what is that there is there are names of allah which were kept exclusively to himself in the hidden knowledge so what allah has kept exclusively to himself and the knowledge of the unseen cannot be limited or known the scholar abu bakr al-arabi who i mentioned from the 12th century spanish scholar he mentioned in his book called he's a great scholar he had his own taser of the quran this book that some scholars gathered from the quran and the sunnah over he mentioned in it that they gathered over 1 000 names of allah and we were talking about 99 he mentioned from the various scholars over the years up to the 12th century when he made his research he identified more than one thousand names of allah imam anawi claimed a consensus among scholars that the intent of the number 99 in the hadith which i mentioned in the beginning that allah has 99 names this mention was not to limit the number of allah's names but to inform that whoever guarded them would enter paradise so of the names any 99 that one guards protects and we look at what this guarding and protecting the names mean would be guaranteed paradise allah has 99 names one less than a hundred whoever guards them will enter paradise and the law is an odd number that is he's one not three but an odd number the one odd number first odd number and he loves odd numbers the scholar al-khattabi said that counting them had three possible meanings we're going back to the first narration one in bukhari muslim he said to count all of them is the first meaning and call on allah with them without excluding any second meaning to be able to fulfill the rights of the names and do deeds according to their implications and thirdly to understand their meanings [Music] he stated there were three meanings possible meanings and they were to understand their meanings first that was number three for al-qaeda number two believe in them and number three to act according to them other scholars like he stated that it simply meant to do deeds according to them doing deeds that's how you protect them you you count them you make them a reality by doing deeds according to them for example the name the all-wise meant that one should accept all divine commandments because they are based on allah's hikmah his wisdom and the name for example al-qudoos the holy meant that one should reflect on the fact that allah is free from all deficiencies and worship him and act according to that understanding on the other hand ibn al-batal he held that they had four meanings the first those suitable for following of allah's names those suitable for following should be adopted allah is allah for example they're all forgiving we should strive to be all forgiving forgive as many people as we can as much as we can forgive the second meaning for those which are restricted those names which are restricted to allah adoption should be avoided and they should be confirmed humbly for allah alone like the giver of life the life giver we don't adopt that we're not life-givers when anybody who claims to be a life-giver you know we should challenge them reject their claim this title only belongs to allah the third those names containing promise or they imply that there is hope and promise we should have hope we should find in it hope whenever allah says that he is the most merciful then we should have hope we should never fall into the state where we feel that the law will not have mercy on us because we've just done too many sins no that's incorrect there's hope there when allah says he's the most merciful or he is the most forgiving that contains hope in it and those names which in which allah implies warnings names which imply that we can't escape his knowledge he is al-basir he sees everything so that's a warning it contains that warning in it that hey you can't hide from allah no matter where you are how you are what you're doing allah will know he sees whatever you're doing wherever you're doing it whenever you're doing it so there's a warning in it so from it we should develop a fear of allah which oversees the fear of his creatures it should be above and beyond our fear of the creatures around us so this uh description actually of is the one that we will be utilizing throughout this series to understand allah's names and [Music] how we should apply them in our lives the ideas found in the other descriptions given by other scholars they are contained this is a very concise compilation of all the key areas that we should know with regards to the implementation of allah's names in our lives now on the other hand we also have been warned by allah against those who misuse his names but shun those who deviate regarding his names for they will be punished for what they do we will be looking at this concept of misuse of allah's names in the second part of our introduction to be held in our next session session number two and for now we will stop and allow some opportunity for questions asking allah first and foremost to forgive our misunderstandings with regards to his names if we have had them inadvertently and we ask allah to give us especially in ramadan the proper understanding of his names and attributes and how we should implement them in our lives and as we read the quran we will come across his names and attributes constantly that we internalize these names and afterwards and make them a part and parcel of our deen of our religion of our way of life islam so that that way of life will be real pleasing to allah and beneficial to us throughout our lives insha allah so at this point inshallah we will stop and we will shift to questions and answers but before doing that before moving on to our question and answer portion what are you going to break your fast with today what will you eat for soho a majority of us can easily answer these questions but there are young children starving in the rohingya and uighur muslim communities in this ramadan you can help through charity right in order to feed a child for a whole year all you have to do is raise 150 dollars with the help of your friends and family please pledge today to become one of the 1 000 people across the world who will take on this global challenge for the sake of allah our beloved prophet muhammad said the best of you are those who feed others so will you become the best of us this ramadan it only takes one minute to sign up but the rewards are eternal please click the link in the video presentation and sign up now inshaallah we will now begin our q a session job what we will do is of course focus first on books that have been written on the subject the question first question are questions as i said sorry questions which will be focused on the subject of the 99 names of allah and there are books there's a book written by sheikh al-usaimin which is on the 99 names of allah it's available it has been translated and also dr omar he also did a well-known work on the subject it is also my intention that upon completion of this project i would also publish this material as a book inshallah to add to these available books okay question number two at question number one i don't know where it came from but question number two is from should we invoke allah's beautiful names during school sure why not utilizing allah's names is should be part of our daily lives just subhanallah allah's name allah is there subhanallah when something happens amazing subhanallah we are utilizing allah's names throughout the day general question can i recommend books in english on the history of islam syrah of the prophet saws that are easy to understand well at the relative point easy to understand [Music] on the history of islam there is a book which we use in our bachelor's of arts and islamic studies program the bais program at the international open university which used to be known as islamic online university we utilize a book by mubarak puri on the history of islam it's published by darus salam so it's an english medium available in terms of serum the prophet saw sallam easy to understand the seerah of dr sallabi and libyan scholar is probably one of the best because it also focuses on the lessons to be learned from the seerah because this is what's most important it's not just reading the syria like a story and knowing the details of that story but the prophet saws life was an example there was in the messenger of allah for you as allah said a good if not the best example so this is the importance of knowing his hero another general question what's my opinion the question says what is your opinion on abu hanifa or imam malik uh their jurisprudence oh why didn't you add a shafi and imam all of them these are the famous four i believe in their jurisprudence i respect their jurisprudence i learn from their jurisprudence they are the scholars that preceded us many generations before it is the duty of muslims to benefit from all that they have conveyed not to just grab onto one and say okay i'm hanafi or i'm a shafee or i'm a humbly or i'm a maliki no no there's no harm you've studied under scholars from the maliki madhhab you're in the sudan so that's what you studied you're in egypt you studied under shafi's college you were in pakistan india you studied under hanafi scholars you're in syria or you're in saudi arabia you study under humbly scholars no harm but if you study under them honestly you should study especially their books in which they discuss the opinions of all the other scholars not just the ones that may be just prepared for schools where they're only giving one set of opinions because reality all of these scholars they held one opinion one time and changed their opinions and some of their students focused on one opinion and focus the others focus on another opinion so you know we have to be very careful the only one that we can say okay we're just going to follow this one only this one is rasulullah he's the one that we say only him because obeying him following him is obeying and following allah without any shadow of a doubt so everybody else you know oh but if he was the first of the four imams okay what about abu bakr we've forgotten the abu bakr madhhab or the umar madha or uthman's mother or ali's mother that's a shia no no no no the shia are not following the madhhab of ali the son-in-law of prophet sallallahu alaihi so islam calls us to openness not closing doors on those who don't share our exact opinion according to how it was taught by the particular scholars that we studied under this is not islam that is some kind of fanaticism and we don't need it go back to prior to 1925. do you know that for hundreds of years prior to 1925 muslims used to pray four prayers around the kaaba in makkah when the time for prayer came from fajr was each time there would be four prayers prayed one led by an imam from each of the four different math can you believe that no dr bilal is making up stories now please just go and look at the early pictures of the kaaba prior to 1925. they have early pictures you can google early pictures of them of the kaaba and you'll see around them the four maka mat the four places of standard we know makam ibrahim this is well known but there were other makaams which were set up in ibrahim everybody shares but there was a maqaam maliki and a makham hanafi and a maqam shafi and a makham hambali and for each prayer there were four that was ignorance at its peak that was ignorance at its peak we don't want to go there again alhamdulillah we got out of it the so-called wahhabis the bad guys in the eyes of many they're the ones that destroyed the makons they broke them down and said one imam everybody prays behind him whether he's humbly is hanafi shafi or his maliki everybody prays behind him simple as that end of story so if they didn't do anything else we pray allah to reward them for having brought to ummah back together at the core the center makkah next question uh tabia top tips what do you recommend the best ways to teach children the names of allah oh boy well you know i'm not a child teacher though i've had a number of kids and i do try to teach them however i would say that connecting them this is you know having been a teacher i'm just giving from my general knowledge and probably teachers who specialize in the teaching of children could best answer this question but let me just give a little something my idea is that to teach the names of allah to the children it would best be with connecting them to the reality around them you know um they are not intellectual although the little minds do work and you can see them busy working away so sometimes you watch these kids uh masha allah allah gave them skills you know and and a little a level of of mind brain power which sometimes amazes us but they're mostly dealing with the physical world what they can see they can hear they can touch you know these are the things that i think have the biggest significance to them that's why when they make books for little kids you know the most successful books are the books that when you open it up there's a lot of color so you're seeing they even have little touch pads you can touch it things you know yeah these these types of books which are physical are most effective but anyway then you know if we connect uh you know when you're going to allah for example you know that everything we see you know belongs to allah because they understand belong this is mine i mean again you're depending on what age groups you're speaking about but this is one of the first things that they seem to learn this is mine they don't want to share this is mine okay this is my brothers this is my sisters this is mommy's this is daddies so this is a loss yes that is also but it's allah's allah gave it to daddy allah gave it to mommy allah gave it to you he gave it to your brother and your sister belongs to allah help them through what they can grasp the level their minds can grasp it's not about just learning to memorize them you know wrote 99 age memorized 99 names you could memorize those 99 names and grow up forget them or even if they still in their brains it doesn't impact on their actions because they haven't understood them they had no real meaning to them so i would say teach the young children the names even if they only learn in a month five or 10 they know them what they mean what it means in terms of their practice but it means in terms of their worship of allah more important than to learn the 99 have no idea what this they mean no uh understanding of how it impacts in their lives etc etc okay um can we name a child abdul ahad or abdul kudus yes these are among the names of allah we're going to move on question is it correct to say if you focus on your dues with a particular name like yahweh dude you will find this love in your life or that do's but it's supposed to be duas i guess if you focus in your duas on a particular name like yahwah dude no this is this is going into the area of abuse of allah's names we're gonna cover that cover that tomorrow inshallah amin muhammad asks allah is what you think of him correct this you know there's a hadith could see in which the prophet sallam had quoted allah as saying i'm as my slave thinks of me that's a correct statement but the issue of course is what is meant by that you know if you think of him incorrectly is he as you think of him no so it means if you think of him correctly think of him as he should be thought of than he is whatever you think of him secondly another question can i call my cat abdi nasir no don't do that why why would you wanna that's a human name you know that's a particularly human name um uh that's this is an area you wanna call your cat khalid well to be honest um i guess i've never really thought about it i know people do that it's common in the west um but from the practice of the prophet saw sallam and his companions i don't really really recall them calling the animals by the names of humans human beings i don't recall it you know it doesn't mean that it wasn't ever done to be safe you know i i would better call call them according to nature you want to call them poppy it's a flower or sunflower or these other kind of names i think that's safe nobody is gonna question you about that one faisal ali is asking when your book on the names of allah comes onto the market i'm eagerly waiting to buy it okay inshallah inshallah you'll get the first edition ah tips top tips what do you recommend the best way to teach children oh it's the same question again um question what name should i invoke of the 99 of allah when seeking housing for myself when seeking housing for yourself is seeking a place to live in etc you know you ask you can call on allah in terms of any any of the names which indicate his giving you know the names of of giving what's good what's appropriate so any of the [Music] the names nothing actually comes to mind specifically you know morty he's the one who gives so names of that nature would be appropriate if one never next question if one never finds a spouse husband or wife in this life will allah punish us for never getting married no marriage is not an obligation it is a recommendation i get worried because never i've never been married and i'm getting old but name to call upon allah to help me again is any of the names of giving granting providing any of them would do uh general questions is grave worship shirk or haram you know this is something circulating around now um my opinion based on the quiet text and i did a program on it with the kareem abu zaid is that grave worship that is calling to the dead calling on the dead is shift because the calling is done through dua and the prophet saws and we all know that making dua to other than allah is core the essence of worship that's what the sallam said so if we are directing worship to other than allah that is the basic definition of shirk another question where should we first start when seeking knowledge in islam what will he mention a good start is with tahit understanding allah first and foremost that's appear then go on on to tafsir quran and hadith and then fit mama farah can you recommend a resource for teaching our children about the names of allah as a part of our homeschooling program i don't know of such particular resources sorry about that if i come across any i will mention it inshallah sadia where should you first start when seeking knowledge in islam well that's the same thing you mentioned earlier that you begin with allah that is the beginning of worship um next question what is the ruling on young adult women or men moving out i guess moving out of their home shouldn't they live at home until they get married from um um i don't know if we can say that for women because of the mahram issues of wali and you know um guardian guardianship etc men living outside their family home tends to be more accepted acceptable whereas females because of the potential dangers that exist in the society women living on their own um unless they're in compound safe etc etc then uh living with the family is better so i don't know if we can make a hard and fast rule is it permissible yes it is permissible is it recommended may not be depending on the circumstance so inshallah we will end our questions now i'd like to thank you again for attending this session and uh inshaallah we pray that you will continue with us throughout the rest of ramadan and inshallah we pray that it will be beneficial for you as it was for many who followed the program last year um you might be wondering why am i doing it again couldn't you just play what you recorded last year well unfortunately allah's other the recording was terrible the internet was very weak so though it was saved etc you know we couldn't generalize the benefit so this is one of the reasons why rather than just finishing off the remaining names there are some 30 34 names 35 names that remained from the 99 which i i did 60 64 last year of the names recovered why go back and do them again well as i said because the recording was not of such quality that it could be shared you know and benefit a greater number it also gives me a chance to revise what i prepared improve on it etc so though it will be fundamentally at least two-thirds of it will be fundamentally the same uh there will be a third which is completely new thank you for being with us and i did you all farewell now subhanallah foreign you

Channel: Bilal Philips

Views: 15,698

Rating: 4.9268293 out of 5

Keywords: Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips, Bilal Phlips, 99 Names of Allah, In the Names of Allah, Ramadan, Ramadhan

Id: T4pf-Zz_rjk

Length: 99min 25sec (5965 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 13 2021