Allah SWT Loves That Which Is Pure | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | Pearls of Faith 2019

Allah Loves That Which Is Pure

Before I start, I would just like to say that I'm always put in a very bad situation in these conferences. They always put me second last at the end. And they sandwich me with people that I really love and look up to.

So Shaykh Sulaimanullah will be speaking after me and I've been listening to him and reading his work since I was a child. So I don't really think that I deserve to share a stage or a podium with him, truthfully. And then before me we have Shaykh Naveed Aziz, Shaykh Abdullah — all these great scholars. So, insha'Allah, whatever I can share with you, insha'Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 12, Hadith 2214)

"Indeed Allah is pure and He only accepts that which is pure."

The Story of Abdur Rahman Al-Jazari and Al-Hisn Al-Hasin

My dear respected brothers and elders and sisters in Islam, about 600 years ago, there was a man by the name of Abdur Rahman Al-Jazari, رحمه الله. He was sitting in a small area which had a roof, a structure. As he was sitting there he heard people crying outside of this structure, he heard people dying outside the structure, he heard the noises and sounds of fear and terror and tyranny and he didn't know what to do. Should I run out of this structure? Should I run for my life? Should I dig a cave and hide? Maybe I'm gonna die today? He had no idea what was going on.

So all of a sudden a thought comes to his mind and he says: what I should do is — Allah has inspired me with some hadith that I memorized, du'as that I memorized — so let me start writing these du'as down. And if I have to die I will die, and if I will stay alive I will stay alive, but I don't want these du'as that I have memorized to die with me and go with me in my grave.

So he starts to write this book. In the beginning of this book he writes an introduction. He says: I'm not even sure if I'm gonna live to the end of this book. So imagine what this man's state of mind is at this point — you know, emotional intelligence. He doesn't even know if he's gonna be alive to the end of the book. And he says that the Mongols — Hulagu Khan — at that time have surrounded where I am right now and they have butchered Muslims all around me, and I'm sitting in this little place. I don't know if they're gonna come to me, but it has come to my mind to just write down whatever I have memorized out of the du'as of the Prophet ﷺ so this could help the Muslims after me.

So he starts to write down these du'as. One day goes by, the second day goes by, and he sees a dream in which he sees the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ asks him: "Abdur Rahman, why do you look so worried?" He says: "I fear for my life. I don't know if I'm gonna survive."

The Prophet ﷺ says to him: "Should I make du'a for you? That Allah protect you, Allah save you, Allah give you peace?" And he says: "No, I don't want a du'a for myself specifically — but I ask you to raise your hands that Allah protects the entire Ummah, and the Muslims who are suffering, that they get out of their suffering." And the Prophet ﷺ raises his hands, he makes du'a, he wipes his beautiful face.

One day later — on a Saturday — the entire army of Hulagu Khan left this premises, and he survived. And this book was compiled. The name of this book is Al-Hisn Al-Hasin — The Protected Fortress.

The World Is Looking for the Next Abdur Rahman Al-Jazari

Today, brothers and sisters in Islam, the world is looking for the next Abdur Rahman Al-Jazari. For the next person — that one person — like we heard all these great speeches today about Allah loving tawakkul, of sabr, of duha. We heard these things. But really, as we're sitting here today, my heart is truly soft about this topic because I was there in these places where people were tyrannized and killed and martyred — when I was in New Zealand and I went there after the massacre, a few days after. I hear from far about what's happened to our Muslim brothers and sisters all the way in Kashmir. I hear about things that are happening in Gaza. We all hear about these things in Syria and Yemen.

Now when we hear about these things — where is that one sister or brother? Yes, we're making du'a. Du'a is important, it's very very effective. But Allah in the Quran mentions it so many times, and in the hadith the Prophet ﷺ says: inna Allaha tayyib — Allah is pure — and Allah only accepts pure things.

What Does Tayyib (Purity) Mean?

Just like when someone buys an iPhone thinking it's an iPhone but next thing you know it's a phone from China looking like an iPhone — you know how stressed and depressed they get. Or if you have a friend who you think is really a good friend of yours, who's coming up to you, they love you — but behind your back they're talking negative about you, they don't like you, they have ill feelings in their heart about you, spreading rumors about you. And you find out about it, and that person is exposed.

In real life, if a person is exposed of his evil or her evil — once this person is exposed, the person who has ill feelings about the other cannot even muster the courage to go up to that person to ask for a favor. Once you've done wrong and you've been exposed and you're not pure anymore — so if next time you need something, you want something, you will hesitate to go to that person for help. You will say: "You know what, he found out, she found out what I said about them." And you will not muster the courage. And even if you do, the person who found out that you said that about them will think a hundred times before helping you out.

And here we are sitting here today — and again I don't want to make this a topic where we can't take something back home right away. We're sitting here, masha'Allah, in a comfortable hall, heard beautiful recitations, ate food, gonna go back to our homes. But the thing that's different is: why today? Why today are all the Muslims and all of us sitting today — why can't our du'as affect people all over the world like the du'a of Abdur Rahman Al-Jazari? What's wrong?

It is that today Allah loves the pure. Allah says in the Quran:

"Say: The impure and the pure are not equal, even though the abundance of the impure may impress you."

Never can الطَّيِّب — the pure — and الْخَبِيث — the impure — be equal. And Mufradat al-Quran defines what purity means: a person who hidden inside him — من تعرّى بالجهل والفسق والعصيان — from inside this person has this double life. Allah save us. You know, I stand here and I made du'a Allah saves us.

The Du'a of Ibn al-Jawzi

Ibn al-Jawzi, رحمه الله, used to make this du'a. He used to say:

"O Allah, do not punish a tongue that used to speak about You. Do not punish an eye that used to search for knowledge — opening the Quran and hadith to inform Your creation about You. Do not punish a hand that used to write the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. O Allah, forgive me, do not punish me."

So Allah — don't punish me. I know I'm weak. Maybe I'm not طَيِّب, but oh Allah, don't punish the one whose tongue spoke about You once in his life. Don't punish the one whose eyes used to search for knowledge of the Quran and hadith to inform Your creation about You. Oh Allah, don't punish the one whose hands used to write the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. Oh Allah, forgive me, don't punish me.

And I stand here today saying that a hundred percent — we're standing here, but we have this double life where we are humble in some places, but when we're in Umrah or Hajj or in Tarawih we will be a certain way. The moment we walk out of the masjid, it's as if we have this halal scene and haram scene, as if we worship Allah selectively and disobey Allah selectively. And then we ask: why doesn't Allah listen to my prayers? Why doesn't Allah change what's happening with me in my life? Why can't I affect people all over the world?

Pure People Are Ready to Sacrifice Everything

Pure people — pure people are ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of Allah. What is one girlfriend or boyfriend? What is one side of illicit things online? What are these things? They are nothing.

When Asma bint Abi Bakr was hugging her son — Shaykh Salman talks about this incident — it is mentioned that she hugged her son when she was 100 years old and she was blind. And she knew that this son of hers will no longer come back home and that he's gonna be killed today — martyred by Hajjaj ibn Yusuf. And she hugs him and she feels that he's wearing armor. She says: "Why are you wearing armor?"

Abdullah ibn Zubayr says: "My mother, I'm not afraid of death. But I'm afraid of the difficulty of what they're gonna put me through — chop me into pieces. I don't know what they're gonna do. I'm afraid of the pain that they're gonna put me through."

And the mother said: "Oh my son, the sheep doesn't feel the pain when it's getting skinned. The sheep doesn't feel the pain when it's getting skinned — its soul has already left the body."

The Reflection of Allama Iqbal

Here we are sitting here — Allama Iqbal says, speaking to himself: "I once questioned myself and I said: Oh Iqbal, why isn't your prayer being answered? Why aren't things changing for you? Why can't you be a difference for people all over the world?"

And he says: "Oh Allah, please listen to my prayers. I've done so many sajdahs. I've prayed so much Tarawih. I've gone to Umrah every year. But things are not changing for me in my family." So I complained to Allah. And then — he says what I was inspired by — he says this heart of yours, Oh Iqbal, it is not pure.

And the heart can only be pure once it's broken. It's the only mirror that's effective and valuable when it's broken. It's more valuable and effective than a real mirror that's not broken.

Dawud al-Ta'i — on his eulogy, Ibn al-Sammak says: "You broke yourself. You broke your heart, your nafs and your desires. But in reality, you wanted to honor it."

So here we are — he says, at the end, after complaining to Allah: "I'm doing sajdah and I hear a noise or sound from the earth saying to me: Oh Iqbal" — he is a great Urdu poet — "your heart is not pure."

What Does Tayyib Mean in the Quran?

A person talks about what does طَيِّب mean in the Quran. طَيِّب means a person who internally is clothed and embedded with فِسْق — major sins — حَسَد — jealousy — and illicit relationships internally he is like this. And a person who adorns himself like this — Allah says and the Prophet ﷺ mentions that Allah is pure, Allah only accepts pure things from us.

So my brothers and sisters in Islam, we need to look internally and say: I can't be living a double standard life. I don't appreciate a friend who's double standard. I'm not gonna go to the store and buy a knockoff — there's real branding: Jordan, Versace, Gucci, and then there's the knockoffs. If you go to Pakistan, there's a place called Bolton Market in Karachi. They have the first copy, second copy, third copy, fourth copy — you can find five different copies, but they're not the original thing.

So Allah is demanding — Allah loves pure, Allah is demanding from us purity — and then this du'a of ours that we make, when we raise our hands, will not only change our lives, but it can change the fate of someone so far away from us that maybe in our entire life we will never be able to hug them, see them, embrace them. But because of this du'a of ours that left this pure heart, you never know how this can affect someone all across the globe.

The Distance Between the Servant and Allah

Ahmad ibn Hambal, رحمه الله, was asked: "What is the distance between a servant and Allah?" And he said: "The distance between the servant and Allah is a pious du'a from a pure heart."

Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.