Itaat wa Ittiba

Auto-generated transcript:In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We seek refuge with Allah and His Messenger. After that, Allah said, Indeed, Allah and His angels send their blessings upon the Prophet. O you who believe, send your blessings upon him and give him your blessings. O Allah, send your blessings upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as you sent your blessings upon Ibrahim and upon the family of Ibrahim. You are the Most Glorious, the Most Glorious. O Allah, bless Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad, as you blessed Abraham and upon the family of Abraham. May you be blessed with a happy life. My dear respected elders, brothers, sisters, I want you to remember two words. The first word is itaat. Itaat. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned this word many, many times in the Quran related to Himself, Jalla Jalaluhu, as well as His Habib, His Habib, His Nabi, His Messenger, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. For example, in Surah Al-Hazab, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentioned in the ayah which you hear almost every Jum'ah, وَمَن يُطِي اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا The one who obeys Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His Rasul alayhi salatu wa salam, only that person is the one who will attain and reach and get ultimate success. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, وَمَن يُطِي الرَّسُولَ فَقَدْ أَطَى اللَّهُ The one who has obeyed the Rasul alayhi salatu wa salam has obeyed Allah. And so on. Many places in the Quran, this word إِتَعَت is mentioned with respect to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So obedience to the Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is وَاجِب فَرْض لَازِم on every Muslim. And without that, nobody can hope to succeed either in this life or in the year after. But there is another word which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used in the Quran with regard to Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, قُلْ إِن كُنْتُمْ تُحِبُّونَ اللَّهَ فَاتَّبِعُونِهِ يُهْبِبْكُمُ اللَّهُ وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ وَفُرْرَهِيمُ Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, which means, say to them, Ya Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, say to those who claim to love Allah, Allah, say to those who claim to love Allah, فَاتَّبِعُونِهِ Allah did not say, أَتِعُونِهِ He didn't say, tell them to obey, you know. فَاتَّبِعُونِهِ Tell them to make, tell them to make your itibah. Tell them, follow me, emulate me, imitate me, act like me, talk like me, walk like me, look like me. Emulate me. فَاتَّبِعُونِهِ And what do you do? And what will happen? يُحْبِبُمُ وَاللَّهُ Allah will love you. Allah will love you. And if Allah loves you, what is the first boundary condition? يَخْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ وَاللَّهُ غَفُرُ الرَّهِيمُ All your sins will be forgiven. Allah is the most forgiven and the most merciful. So two words. One is itaat, obedience. The reward for obedience is Jannah. The other one is ittiba. Emulation. And the reward for emulation is Allah Himself. It is the love of Allah. Allah loving me. Now, what is the difference? Why this difference in these two words? Why is Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala using these two words? Itaat or obedience is obviously it is necessary it is critical. Without obedience you cannot have any system you cannot have any nizam you cannot have any administration. No matter what it is. There has to be a chain of command. There has to be somebody who gives an instruction or an order. There has to be somebody who obeys. But obedience is something which is dependent on obedience. On what? For you to obey me what must happen? Rayyan? Just to respect you. You respect me? No. Even if you don't respect me even if you hate me that's a good answer. Even if you don't respect me even if you absolutely detest me I can make you obey. Yes or no? Aha. You bet. You bet. You will hate every minute of it but you will obey. Because the consequence of not obeying will be so painful. How do you think people who live in most of the world? Most obedience in the world is done by compulsion. Right? How many of you would drive who would gladly drive through a red light if there wasn't the camera on that on that pole? There is no one who would drive you that would drive you to a red light. So what is required for obedience? Anybody? Huh? Submission. No? Submission, no. Reward. Reward, no. Huh? Patience. No, no, no. Man. Fear. Punishment. No. Huh? Punishment if you don't know. Establish the rules. Establish the rules. No. Tawakkul, no. Very simple. Respond to that. Raiya, you're not obeying me. What do you want me to do? Shake my hand. No, no. What do you want me to do? Listen, I'm being... Don't get sidetracked by that. What do you want me to do? So what is required for obedience? Instruction. Wait, wait, wait. SubhanAllah, you haven't even eaten food yet. Instruction. Obedience is impossible in the absence of an order. Obedience is impossible in the absence of a command. Obedience is impossible in the absence of a request or an instruction. Yes or no? I'm telling Raiya, you are not obeying me. He says, what do you want me to do? Simple. Give me an instruction. Then I will choose to obey you or not obey you. But you haven't... You haven't told me anything. And you are telling me you are not obeying me. Is it fair? It's not fair. It makes no sense. How can I tell him he is not obeying me? I have not told him anything. Listen carefully. To obey, an instruction is required. So obedience is dependent on an instruction. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, for example, I will tell you this. Let us establish right now Salatul Isha. Is it possible? One more even. Let us right now establish Salatul Fajr. Is it possible? Why not? It's not time. The hukam for Salatul Fajr is not valid just now. So for obedience, a hukam is the shart. But, have you seen a... There is absolute profusion of this beautiful... Moroccan soaps from a particular date. Can someone tell me what is that date? Even if not exact date. From when? Everybody is wearing Moroccan soaps. From when? Today something is wrong. What's wrong with you? From the time Sheikh Abdullah came here. Right? Everyone loves Sheikh Abdullah, so you want to look like Sheikh Abdullah. Now there are many ways of looking like him. One of the better ways is to learn Quran and to learn to recite like him. But wearing Moroccan soaps is easier, right? What am I getting at here? Let me give you some more examples. You have people who are interested in basketball. You have people who are interested in basketball. You have people who are interested in basketball. And then you will see them wearing a Chicago Bulls hat, turn backwards with a peak at the back, and they walk like they have shock absorbers in their legs. Like this. Why? Because that's how Michael Jordan walked. Right? Now, somebody who is wearing that hat and somebody who is walking like that, if you ask him, does Michael Jordan even know that? Does Michael Jordan even know that you exist? Obviously not. So Michael Jordan didn't call you and say, Rehan, wear this hat, walk like me. No. Why do you do that? Why do people have weird haircuts? Why do people have weird clothes? What is the biggest, today, what is the biggest psychological sickness, which is resulting in, an absolute epidemic of suicides among teenagers? What is it? It is so-called influencers on social media. So-called influencers on social media. There is somebody there, on social media, who is showing their body, or showing a certain kind of fashion and whatnot. And especially teenagers, and I'm not saying only teenagers, because most of the social media is watched by people who are over 60 years old. But especially things like Instagram and Snapchat and so on, people are trying to emulate them and in that process, they are going into health issues, they are going and many of them are going into depression and so on and so forth, because they are trying to live up to those models. Now, that influencer, so-called, on social media, do they even know who exists? Who is trying to follow them? They don't know. They do not know the individual. They know, okay, I have a million followers. Who are those? Name three. We don't know. Why? That is the meaning of itiba. You know why it happens? Because you love that. Because you love that person. Because you believe that acting like that person, emulating that person, imitating that person, somehow adds value to you. So you emulate them. That person didn't tell you to do that. That person does not even know you exist. But you are trying to be like that person because you love that person. Yes? Now, how about that person being Muhammad You have to imitate somebody. You have to emulate somebody. Aristotle said this more than 2000 years ago. He said there is nothing new in the world. Everything is an imitation. He said everything is a repetition. So if you have to imitate somebody, imitate Rasulullah because the reward of that is Allah will love you. Itaat is dependent on a hukum, on an instruction. Imitation is an example of pure love. Itaat can be forced. Itaat can be compelled. Not emulation. Emulation happens for one reason only. And that is because I love the one I am emulating and I believe it adds value to me. Why do people Why do you wear brands? The dumbest thing in the world is to wear a brand. Because you are paying premium price to advertise somebody else's logo, to advertise somebody else's product for free. That is very stupid. That is very, very stupid. If you are wearing, for example, Hoka shoes because you need the shoes to walk and you have an issue with your feet and so on, understandable, no problem. But you are wearing a Nike shirt, for what? You are wearing this brand and that brand for what? You carry a Louis Vuitton handbag which costs Louis Vuitton is not luggage. Louis Vuitton is not handbags. McLaren is not transport. A Rolex is not one to tell the time. It is one to tell the world. And Armani is Armani.