Awareness of Allah ⁠ﷻ

Auto-generated transcript:As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Wa alaykum as-salamu alaykum. Bismillah wa alhamdulillah. Amdan kathiran tayyiban mubarakan fihi. Amdan yaliqu bi jalali wajhihi wa bi yadhim sultani. Wa sallallahu ala khairi khalqihi Muhammadin as-sadiq al-amin. Al-mab'uthi rahmatan lil'alamin. Wa ala alihi al-tayyibin al-tahirin. Wa ala ashabihi al-ghurri al-mayamin. Wa man tabiahum bi ihsanin ila yawm al-deen. Allahumma kthubna minhum. Ameen. Qarallahu subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ya ayyuhu alladhina amanu taqallaha haqqa taqati. Wa la tamutunna illa wa antum muslimun. We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala who is deserving of all praise. No matter how much we praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it is not enough. Ahmad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, the one who praised Allah more than anyone else, said, Ya Allah, I cannot praise you as you deserve. You are only praised as you have praised yourself. And we send peace and blessings on the basis of the diam. best of his creation, khairu khalki, our beloved, our habib, our maula, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his noble family and his ahlul bayt. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to open our hearts to that which is useful for us in our relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, that helps us to come closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in this dunya before we are presented to him in the akhirah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us, actually commands us to have taqwa and we are reminded of this ayah every Juma. Ittaqullah, have taqwa of Allah, haqqa tuqati, what Allah deserves, what is deserved. What he is deserving. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is commanding us to be in a state of taqwa throughout our lives and to die in that state because if you are in a state of taqwa, you are going to die in a state of loving submission, Islam. وَلَا تَمُوتُنَّ إِلَّا وَأَنْتُمْ مُسْلِمُونَ Having submitted completely to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That we submit without questions, without whether it's easy, whether it is difficult, whether we are living in a non-Muslim country or we are living in the haram. Under all circumstances, to have taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. To be aware of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, to be conscious of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala at all times. Aware. That Allah watches me at all times. إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, and certainly Allah over you is Ar-Raqeeb, one of the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Ever watchful. Allah not only sees the external actions, but Allah sees what thoughts come to my mind. What I entertain, what I plan, what my aspirations are, what my goals are, what my likes and dislikes are, what moves me to action, what makes me feel lazy. Be aware, Allah says, be aware that Allah knows. So we must live our lives at all times with this awareness. What I'm thinking, what my goals in life are, what my likes and dislikes are, the choices I make in my life, all of that is an open book to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, even though the one sitting in front of me doesn't know what's inside me. It's open to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So live in that state, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says. So whether it is in times of difficulty. Or in times of ease. Duniya is darul bala. You are going to be challenged. That is normal circumstances. This is not jannah. So if you face difficulties, and difficulties come in different forms. It could be health challenges. It could be family challenges. It can be economic challenges. It can be social challenges. Living in a different kind of environment. All difficulties are from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to test each one of us. What is our true worth? Because everyone claims to have Iman. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the Arab, the Bedouin said that we have believed. Aamannah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that we have believed. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells them. No. Iman has not even entered your heart. All you can claim is that we have accepted Islam. That we have accepted Islam. So the internal states are known only to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And ultimately where is that? As he said. inside the heart. But that then controls us to our학교 beementhang. This state. My book. Honestly, my book is only from Salman Abdullah Zahra. Now there is an older, my book is more newer, recent. my thought processes, what I'm thinking, what I'm planning, what my goals in life are, likes and dislikes. All of that has to be within that envelope of taqwa and awareness of Allah. Keeping that in mind, in the last day or two, we have witnessed what Allah has written in the universe. Allah says, إِنَّ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ لَآيَاتٍ لِأُولِي الْأَلْبَابِ Allah says, In the creations of the heavens and the earth, space is the creation of Allah. وَاخْتِلَافِ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ And the alternation of day and night, which is creation of time. Allah is the creator of time and space. Everything other than Allah is His creation. Everything. And we don't know everything. We have no clue of what's out there. So Allah says, Indeed, in the creation of the heavens and the earth, there are signs for people who have lubb, who have understanding. Not superficial IQ of passing an exam, who have true understanding. So, were you aware that you have just completed a journey of approximately 584 million miles in the last year? Were you aware of that? That you have traveled in an elliptical circle around the sun one solar year? No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. is about 25,000 miles. So it's spinning, if you're near the equator like we are in this part of the world, you're spinning at approximately, how much? A thousand miles an hour. And we are traveling through space around the sun about 30 kilometers per second. Are we aware of this? Everything looks still. So a person who thinks, says what I see is there is stillness. Nothing is moving until I move. Like we tell children in this class, sit still. Nobody can sit still. We are moving in time and space without our control. So Allah is saying what is truly happening in the batin, in the unseen, is very different than what you are seeing. So don't, today we say seeing is believing. Our position should be hearing is believing what we hear from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Either directly in His kalam or through His Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. That is what we have to believe. Because if you just look at the zahir, you will be consumed by the world. Because that, that too, is one of the tests that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has created for us. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says He has beautified this dunya for you. That's a challenge. Do you get attracted to it? Does that become the goal of your life? That this is my goal? So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that these are reminders. So when we see or we experience or we are given the gift of seeing another new, what we call solar year, then time belongs to Allah. Lunar months belong to Allah. Solar months belong to Allah. It's all His creation. What does it do? What is there to celebrate? It is a time to take accountability. It is a time to take accountability. Muhasaba. Allah gave me one more year. How many of my companions and my relatives did not live to see this year who were here last year? I would then think what have I done? What advantage have I taken of that extra time that was given to me this year? What do I have to show to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? So these are moments of reflection of muhabbub. Muhasaba of taking accountability. Am I using my time in the way that is optimal for my akhira? Because time is going to pass. Sometimes when we were younger and more foolish than we are now, we are trying to pass time. Time will pass. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala swears by His creation when He says wal asr. He takes everything. An oath on time. And when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses the qasam in the Quran, it is to bring focus. First of all, to honor what He has sworn by time is valuable. It's a creation of Allah. But also to bring focus on the jawab al-qasam, what is going to come after that. إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ With emphasis. إِنَّ for ta'keed. Emphasis. الْإِنسَانَ الْإِفْلَامَ of استغراق. أُمُوم All of mankind. لَ Again, ta'keed. فِي خُسْرٍ Is in a loss. All of mankind in terms of time, it's a losing battle. You're losing. Why? Because every second your life that is programmed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is ticking away. Whether you like it or not. You're losing. You're losing it. Then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes taqsees. He makes an exception. إِلَّا الَّذِينَ Except those. آمَنُوا وَأَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ Some of our early salaf have said that if Allah did not reveal anything else other than this, it would be sufficient for us. Because everything, جَوَامُ الْقَلَمُ of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in few short ayat, everything is there. The only one who is not in a loss is one who is in a state of iman. And how do we understand iman? We say, well, what is iman? We have memorized as a child without knowing what it means. أَمَنْتُ بِاللَّهِ We believe in Allah. We believe in the angels. We believe in the books. We believe in the messengers. We believe in يَوَامُ الْآخِرَةِ life after death, destiny. So we know it by memorization, rote memory. What is meant by iman is that we live in an envelope knowing I am living in the presence of Allah. Allah is aware of everything. الرَّقِيبَ as we said. I am living in His Kingdom. There is Allah. No matter who says what. In Jinnah. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is As-Sabur. They say there is no God. We don't know. This is this. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala lets it go. He gives them more.