"What Does Your Right Hand Hold, O Musa!?" - Ep.3 | Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | Surah Ta-ha

From Naar to Noor: The Meeting That Changed Everything

Respected friends, we'll move on to the next portion of the story of Musa عليه السلام where he had left his family — or more specifically his wife — to go grab some fire, a firebrand, to bring some warmth to her and to him in the night, to become a means of light and warmth as well. So that's where he had gone and Allah then granted him something much different than that. This is pretty amazing what happened over here.

What is that? That he went to go get fire — he went to go get naar — and Allah granted him noor. He went to go get naar, Allah granted him noor. And this is how many times things work: you go to get something and what you end up receiving from Allah is actually much, much greater than what you expected.

And that's why they say that you should have hope in everything — never dismiss any opportunity. When something comes to you, don't ever dismiss it thinking nothing's going to come out of that. This is so true.

You don't know what's going to come out of where. Sometimes the most beautiful things happen in the most simple and humble settings. So when we dismiss a meeting with someone because he's not that great, not that famous, or we dismiss a meeting in a place we feel is not worth our time, we don't know what type of opportunities we're closing upon ourselves.

So the meeting here was simply to go get fire and what happened? He ended up receiving revelation from Allah. This is one of the things that the ulama have spoken about. The Prophet ﷺ said: do not look down upon any good deed.

Don't look down upon any good deed — even if you meet your brother with a smiling face, if you pour water into his cup, don't undermine any good deed. So that's the same thing, because we don't know which good deed will become the reason for our forgiveness.

When you're helping out someone, don't look at what this person will do for me if I help him out. Instead, look at the fact that I'm helping a servant of Allah — be it a Muslim, non-Muslim, wealthy, poor, male, female, whoever it is. If I can be of assistance to this individual for the sake of Allah and I don't want anything in return, this action itself is extremely weighty.

Sincerity vs. Leveraging: Two Worldviews

We should be reminded that while the community and the world puts emphasis on certain types of people and certain types of meetings — everything is about leveraging. Everything is: how can this meeting be leveraged? How can this relationship with this person be leveraged? How can I milk this meeting, milk this individual? How can I use this individual as a stepping stone to get somewhere else? How can I use this meeting or this individual as a stepping stone to fulfill my materialistic plans? That's the world we live in. And so the aspect of pure sincerity between meetings is rarely found.

And hence Rasulullah ﷺ said one of the most beloved actions in the sight of Allah is al-hubbu fillah — to love one another only for the sake of Allah. Where you want nothing in return. There's no catch. You're a slave of Allah. I love Allah, so I have to love you. I love Allah; you are the slave of Allah, so I have to love you.

So when this type of sincerity comes between us, my beloved friends, then amazing things will start happening. If this group of friends, brothers and sisters who are listening now, who are sitting here around me — if we start saying, I love the brother next to me, for Allah's sake. I don't know his name. I don't know where he's from. He seems to have a different skin color, a different ethnicity. However, he is with me, sitting next to me in the house of Allah, listening to the tafsir of the Qur'an. He is a fellow slave of Allah. My love should be there for him. I should be available for his khidmah and his service.

If we can create a type of community where we are not putting our love and relationship with people based on what we're getting in return — especially materialistically — then we will be able to achieve unbelievable things. This is exactly what the Sahaba were. Sahaba were people who loved one another for Allah's sake. And as they say, blood is thicker than everything else. But for the Sahaba it wasn't. Iman is thicker than blood. Iman is thicker than blood. Brotherhood based on Iman — there was nothing that could compete with that. The stories of this are just amazing, of how the Sahaba were ready to give up everything for their fellow Muslim brother, even if it meant sacrificing their own blood relatives.

The Command to Listen — and the Company We Keep

The idea here, as we're speaking about the fact that Allah gave him something great when he wasn't expecting it and gave him risalah — so he comes to Allah and Allah speaks to him. And we said, Allah says: I chose you, so listen to me. We spoke extensively last week on the importance of listening. The importance of listening to things before we follow through. If we don't listen properly we won't be able to fulfill anything — including teaching our children how to listen properly.

Allah explains: I am Allah and you have to worship Me, and establish salah for My remembrance. And the Day of Judgment has been hidden. Do not allow the people who have two traits — those who don't believe in the akhirah and those who follow their desires — to turn you away. Because these two people are very toxic. Those who have these two qualities are toxic.

The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith:

(Sunan Abu Dawood, Hadith 3764; also reported in similar wording in Musnad Ahmad)

Do not allow anyone to eat your food besides a muttaqi. That doesn't mean you don't hand out tons of food everywhere — you feed everyone. But who are you going to invite to your home, honor, and spend quality time with? A muttaqi. Make sure the time you're giving to people is with people of taqwa. Why? Because we are all, believe it or not, taking from one another. There's no such thing as: I'm going to sit in a bubble in front of someone at dinner and not take effect from him. You're going to take effect. Who do you want to take effect from? You want to take effect from people who have taqwa — people who are higher than you in deen.

Those are the people that when you sit with them for an hour, you come back saying, man, that was something else. But if we sit with people who have no fear of Allah, who are simply talking about how they fulfill their desires and lustful desires and want to spend their wealth — if you sit with such people, then that's the type of jazbaat, the type of desires that will come to us.

And you wonder why you're never happy with your life? One big reason: we always tend to hang out with people who spend more lavishly than we do or who have been tested with more wealth than we do. And so when we continuously hear of how they're spending their wealth and their time, we have so much yet we become ungrateful.

I remember, when I was a student — there was one individual, subhanAllah — Allah had blessed him with a lot of wealth. And he was actually an alim, a scholar, whom Allah blessed with a lot of money. So he would take me out sometimes to lunch. I was a young 15–16 year old madrasa student. And it was just for the sake of enjoying a meal. But naturally, this person, Allah had given him a lot of money. So he would — not necessarily trying to show off, but we'd talk about this car or that car or this thing or that thing. I'm a student who's running on a $500 per year budget, $800 a year budget. So now, to sit there and listen to these stories, I actually felt that when I'd come back home to the madrasa, I would not be happy or grateful for what I had — even though what I had was literally tens of times what my classmates had.

There were classmates who would never be able to afford a burger, would never be able to afford a shoe. I remember there's one student from Tanzania who was in my class. He told me he never wore shoes or slippers for 16 years of his life — only after 16 years was he able to afford a shoe or a slipper. The first time he saw a light bulb was when he came to the madrasa. People from the villages of Africa — where would they ever dream of having $100 of their own? Now I could go buy a burger without having to worry, go buy a drink — they couldn't afford Coke, couldn't afford a burger, couldn't afford a chocolate bar. Only the madrasa would give them a stipend. The madrasa would pay their tuition and give them a stipend, and with that they'd take care of their basic necessities. So I should feel like a millionaire, right?

Surrounded by such people, what happens? But you go sit with someone who's got more than you and who talks about that — then you come back feeling like you have nothing. So then I stopped. I started excusing myself, and that was the end of that. Even though it was a free lunch, it's not worth it. Why? Your lunch will get digested within two hours. You'll forget about the taste within 30 minutes. But the feeling of unhappiness will linger on for the next week. It's not worth it.

So if we start watching the people we spend our time with and who we accompany, a lot will change. There's no way you're going to miss this dars if there's a certain group of people you stick around with. There's no way you're going to miss your salat with jama'at if there's a certain group of people you stick around with. It's all about the company we choose.

Do not allow anyone to eat your food besides a muttaqi, a God-fearing person. Meaning: don't spend quality time inviting people to your home except people of taqwa, because it's not about money — it's about your time. When you sit with someone, you are taking from them. So sit with people of taqwa.

So the Prophet ﷺ warned: those who have these two characteristics — following their desires and not believing in the hereafter — if you sit with them, they will turn you away from Allah, and you will fall into doom.

And Nabi Musa — Allah is speaking to him directly. This is the honor he has. But Allah is telling him: it's not over just because you're speaking to Me. No. You have to make sure that once you leave from here, you do not stay in the company of people who disbelieve in the hereafter and who follow their desires.

How do we think one i'tikaf for 10 days, one i'tikaf for 3 days, or one umrah, or one hajj, or one amazing spiritual experience, or one majlis, or one gathering of tafsir is going to change our life for good and make us seal-proof from being affected by the environment? That's foolishness. Of course we're going to get affected by our environment. If a Nabi is being told to watch who he spends time with, then what about us?

The Qur'anic Verse: "What Does Your Right Hand Hold, O Musa?"

This is where today's tafsir title comes from: "What is in your hand, O Musa?" Allah already knows, of course, what Musa عليه السلام has — but this was a conversation that Allah wanted to have with him.

Now Allah allows him to respond, and you see here there is an amazing taste and a sweetness in this discussion — speaking to Allah, subhanAllah.

When a person speaks — let's just take a halal example. A person is going to see his fiancée for the first time. Everyone sitting here probably remembers the first meeting with their wife, and the wives remember the first meeting with their husband. It might have been 30 years ago, but there's something you remember about it — you can't forget that. And if a person has been newly married and his wife is overseas, he speaks to her for five minutes, he comes into the masjid — subhanAllah — he doesn't need to put on itr, his smile is just giving off musk. You can see it on his face, the excitement that he just spoke to his wife, subhanAllah.

May Allah keep our relationships with our spouses super strong after years and years of living together. Subhanallah, it's very scary how much effort is needed. I've told you this before: the atheism fitna, the LGBTQ fitna, the gender identity fitna, and the divorce rate are all connected. They all seem to be pre-Dajjal fitna. Shaytan is working at the highest levels to completely destroy our society. When marriage has become so hard, that's why zina has become so easy — because marriage has become so hard.

How many youngsters, mashallah, I'm so happy to see — but with so much difficulty you end up getting married, and then within one month, within two months, within three years, within five years — divorce. As soon as divorce happens, the doors of haram open up again. And number two, if you have children, what type of environment are we granting them?

When we let our nafs come in and we say, I'm out — I'm going to call the lawyer, I'm going to call the cops — you call whoever you want for yourself. But what about these poor innocent children who are going to suffer? And let's not deny this fact: today we're seeing a massive rate of divorce and also a massive rate of children going through unprecedented levels of stress. Unprecedented levels of attempted suicide. Unprecedented levels of delinquency. Unprecedented levels of fitna and fasad from young people.

And you wonder where this rage comes from. You're only 18, you're only 15, you're only 12. What has really ticked you off to this level? We all in this room know what an effect it has when there is fighting between moms and dads, between husbands and wives. The dhulm that we're doing to the kids is huge. And we will be asked about this. This is an amanah.

So that's why I beg Allah that He save our marriages and may He not allow us to become partners with Shaytan, ganging up on our spouse. When you go through a fit of rage and you're angry at your spouse — understand this is from Shaytan. Say أَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنَ الشَّيْطَانِ الرَّجِيمِ and please walk away. Control yourself. Control your tongue. Control your text messages. Control what you say.

This tongue is crazy. It is so sharp — much sharper than any sword out there. That's why they say:

The wounds of the spear can eventually be healed, but the wounds of the tongue do not heal.

And this is the issue. Men may be using their hands — Allah forbid — in some parts of the world. And women are using their tongues — in this part of the world and every other part of the world. And what they say is poisonous and will destroy generations. Men and women both need to realize that our marriage together is the biggest ni'mah we can have.

I tell you, when I see a young or old married couple with their kids in an airport, I get happy. Just happy to see a happy couple. Because that's how rare it is. Growing up, I saw neighbors getting divorced — non-Muslims — and I would see, I could hear from the next door, the fighting. And I've seen how they were husband and wife with their beautiful little kids next door to me, and how the whole family tore apart. In front of my eyes. This is a very painful thing.

To get married is easy, but to remain married is very hard. To throw a big lavish party is very easy. To throw money at a party is very easy. But to keep the husband and wife married is very hard.

So at least if 50% of us understand — if the wives who are listening understand or the husbands understand — the best scenario is both understand. But at least half of us understand that I am in an uphill battle against the enemy. My enemy is not my spouse. My enemy is Shaytan. My spouse was a very good person before I got married, or in the first years of marriage. What made them so bitter to who they are today? It's Shaytan who wants me to hate them, and Shaytan is making them hate me, and the end result is to destroy us.

The Qur'an speaks about this extensively — how anger and hatred comes from Shaytan. So when you get that urge to say something back to your spouse, when you get that urge to act out of character, for Allah's sake — control yourself. Walk out of the door and sit quietly in the car, sit quietly somewhere else, go to the basement, whatever. Separate until this Shaytani wave passes by. And the hadith teaches us all that — saying A'udhu Billah, doing wudu, performing salah, or going to sleep. It helps a lot. But whatever you do, do not act at that moment.

And many who are listening to me right now are going through divorce. I receive messages almost one a day from people I've known for so long — married with four kids, three kids, 10, 15, 20 years — and they're like, done, Mufti Sahib, we're done, khalas. But what happened? No, it's not finished. At least one of you has to have hope that we can get this done. And that's what the Qur'an says:

If both of them want to make it work, Allah will make it work. Straight from the Qur'an. But today, because of Shaytanic influence, one or both say: that's it, I'm done. I'll call the police. I'll call the lawyer. Thinking that's going to solve the problem. And then they end up suffering for 10 years in courts, losing 70–80% of assets, and on top of that, no one's happy. Everyone is bitter. Their whole lives are spent fighting against their spouses.

So this toxicity at an individual level is now affecting our whole community. We should make this a regular du'a — just like we make du'a for our iman, make du'a for our marriages. What we as unmarried young brothers and sisters may not understand, but a happy marriage, subhanAllah, is a key to the strength of your faith. It's a key to keeping away from haram. It's a key to righteous children. This is one of the greatest things you have to ask Allah for:

O Allah, please make my children and my spouse the coolness of my eyes. And make me the imam of the muttaqeen. This is a du'a we need to make regularly.

The Staff of Musa: What Does It Do For You?

So now — Musa عليه السلام gets a chance to speak to Allah. And it's so memorable for him. Allah simply asks him: what is in your hand? And then Musa begins to give a long answer. This is called itnab — making it long. He said, it's my staff. He could have stopped there, but he didn't. He said, I actually lean upon it. And I beat down leaves for my sheep — you take your staff and hit the branches of a tree, by which the leaves fall down onto the ground and the sheep and animals can eat. So he said, that's what I do. And therein for me are other uses as well.

So what does ahushu mean? One meaning is to hit the branch of the tree so that the leaves can fall and the sheep and animals can eat. The second meaning of ahushu is to take that staff and put it on the back of the animals and push them in a certain direction — like a shepherd does. He puts the staff on the back of the animals and directs them. So this is what ahushu biha means.

Now Allah asks him:

Come and throw it — throw it to the ground. He threw it down as ordered. Then suddenly it was a living snake, slithering rapidly. Tas'a means to slither rapidly. Hayya — a living snake. Some places it's mentioned as hayya, some places jann has been mentioned, and thu'ban has been mentioned. Three words for snake have been mentioned in the story of Musa عليه السلام. Hayya and jann are similar — very quick and fast in slithering. Thu'ban is a massive serpent. This is the only place thu'ban has been mentioned — when Musa threw the staff in front of the magicians. So when he threw the staff in front of the magicians, it didn't just become a small slithering snake — it became a massive serpent that, what, talqafu ma sana'u — it began to eat up all the rest of the snakes.

Okay, so when Musa saw this, that his staff had turned into a snake, Allah told him:

Seize it, and have no fear. We will return it to its former state. So the snake will once again turn into a stick.

The Miracle of the Radiant Hand

And now, the next part — Allah tells him:

He says: press your hand against your armpit — put your hand inside your armpit like this. Now after that, when you pull your hand out, it will come forth radiant and white. Sometimes a person has a skin disease because of which he loses pigment — no, that's not the case here. The hand that comes out of the armpit, shiny and white, is not because of lost pigmentation. Without blemish, without any blemish. What's this about? This is another sign. It's like bright as the sun, bright as a flashlight. You pull out your hand and people are going to be amazed — where did this come from? Why is this happening?

Linuriyaka min ayatina al-kubra — so that We may show you of Our greatest signs. Notice here, Allah is speaking to Musa one-on-one and is doing a practice run of his miracles. There is no one here to show. But He is teaching him how these miracles work, because you need to know what you're equipped with before you go outside. If you don't know what you've got, and you don't believe in what you've got, how are you going to be able to convince anyone?

Da'wah: Know Your Deen Before You Speak

So for Muslims, before we start giving da'wah, or have a desire for da'wah, learn our deen first, and have conviction in the veracity of our deen, in the truthfulness of our deen. Know all the ins and outs of your salah, ins and outs of du'a. And when you have trust in Allah, and trust in du'a, trust in salah, then your words are not what changes the hearts of the people. It is the conviction in what you're saying that changes the hearts of the people.

You hire someone to speak and he just speaks because you told him to speak — it's like a guy who's been speaking at gunpoint because he's held as a hostage. Who's going to believe what he's got to say? If we don't believe in what we're giving da'wah towards, it will fall on deaf ears. If you want change within people, the best way to give da'wah — as I told a brother who asked last week — is to delete the social media apps and go learn some Islam first. That's the best way. Stop wasting time, stop engaging with people there, and focus on learning ilm first.

It's great that we have the desire to give da'wah. You can do it with a person who's riding the bus with you, with a person you buy coffee from, definitely invite him to the masjid. Most importantly, the da'wah needs to be done through your character. But when we go out and engage with people and we're not prepared, we unfortunately sometimes end up doubting our own position because of what we hear, and we're not prepared for it.

So Allah prepared Musa عليه السلام with the miracles before sending him out. Another thing you learn from this conversation is that you are allowed to sometimes respond more than you've been asked, if you feel there's some benefit. What was the reason Musa did this? Because he wanted to prolong his conversation with Allah.

And so alhamdulillah, we have the Qur'an, we have salah. When we recite Qur'an in salah, we are communicating with Allah. We can prolong it as long as we wish. And we wonder — how does someone stand there for so long? How are they able to read three juz? The Prophet ﷺ would sometimes read six juz in one rak'ah — Surah al-Baqarah, Al 'Imran, An-Nisa, and Al-Ma'idah all within the first rak'ah. How does that happen? When you are speaking to Allah, you're enjoying it so much that time flies.

May Allah grant you and I that lazzah, the enjoyment of speaking with Allah. May Allah grant us the yaqeen that when you and I stand up for prayer, we are actually speaking to Allah, and Allah is hearing us. When that comes into us, it is easy for us to lengthen our prayers.

But that doesn't mean I'm not going to lengthen my prayers until I get there. This is also a very common question: what if I'm not enjoying my salah — what should I do? Salah is not meant for enjoyment. Salah is not some candy that you eat for the sake of enjoyment. Salah is there for the ibadah of Allah, whether you enjoy it or not. Whether it's filled with emotions or not, you've got to do it.

How are we going to move forward closer to Allah? By continuity. Sometimes continuously doing things when you don't want to do it forces you to go forward, and it inspires you and gives you a stronger level of iman. When you don't want to do something, but for Allah's sake you're doing it — there's no apparent enjoyment, but for Allah's sake you're doing it — then subhanAllah, Mawlana Thanawi says: sometimes when a person does ibadah when he's not feeling it, he'll actually get more reward than the person who does ibadah and is enjoying it.

There's another person shaking his head, crying, he's enjoying it. And you're sitting there — you're not crying, you're grumpy, you're upset, you don't want to pray, you don't want to come to the masjid — and now you're making your full four-rak'at 'Isha, multiple sunnats, your witr, and nawafil, and you go home after 15 minutes. You didn't cry a second. You didn't feel any goosebumps. You didn't feel anything special. But you did it. You may end up actually getting more from that salah than someone who was sitting there crying. You never know. Why? Because when you're not feeling it at all and you force yourself to do it, there's no reason you're doing it besides to please Allah. That's really high-level ikhlas. The nafs doesn't even get a chance to enjoy that.

A Lesson on the Method of Teaching

Musa عليه السلام says: I have more benefits from this staff. He mentioned this because it's like he's saying, I'm sorry, maybe I overspoke — I should just stop. So he doesn't list all the benefits, he just says: I have more benefits. Hence if you want to inquire more, you can ask. So this is a method of engaging with people — when they ask you something basic, if you feel a more detailed answer would benefit them, give it, but you don't have to throw everything at them. You can say: I have more details — is this enough?

A thought just came to me right now. My ustad, Maulana Riyad — one of my teachers who taught me hadith when I was studying in Pakistan — he mentioned to me about his ustad, Maulana Musa Khan Bazi. Remember this name: Maulana Musa Khan Bazi. So he was mentioning about his ustad — he said in his Bukhari Dars, he would sit and teach them Bukhari Sharif, and going through a hadith, he would say: okay, this is the first objection on this hadith. And he would say: this is the first answer. Maulana said he'd write the first answer. Then: this is the second answer. Then the third answer. The fourth answer. It was very typical for him to give between 30 to 40 answers to every objection in class.

Maulana was saying that he was known to be a sahib al-kashf, very famous for that — that Allah would inspire him with many things. Ilham and kashf — this is where Allah inspires your heart with something. This is referenced in the story of Musa's mother — Allah says: We inspired Musa's mother. She didn't receive Jibreel. This is called kashf, this is called wahi ilham.

So Maulana Riyad says: one day I was writing, and we came to like the 35th answer, and a thought came to me — man, when is this going to stop? And he said: as soon as I thought that, immediately the teacher said: there are some of us who think, "when am I going to stop?" And what you don't understand is, the opposite party will give you an answer for one, an answer for two, an answer for three, an answer for four. But if you get up to 40, then you've really broken their back. That's why I'm giving you continuous answers.

This is one of the things in ilmiyat. Have you all heard in the khutbah, amma ba'd? So he did the grammatical structure of amma ba'd. Those students of Arabic would know — is it a mubtada, is it khabar, is it mawsuf, is it sifah, is it ma'tuf, is it ma'tuf 'alayh? All the different ways the grammar of a sentence is explained. So he came up with — and I'm not exaggerating — over a million ways of tarkib for amma ba'd. Over a million. Not a hundred thousand. Not a thousand. Over a million ways to do the tarkib of amma ba'd. He has a whole book dedicated to it, hundreds of answers.

And the question is: why are we comparing the sending of salutations upon the Prophet ﷺ to the sending of salutations upon Ibrahim عليه السلام? When you compare someone with someone else, you mean that person is the ultimate — and you are almost there. So when we say:

Why do we say: O Allah, send salutations upon Muhammad the way you sent upon Ibrahim — when Rasulullah ﷺ is the ultimate model and the ultimate human being? He wrote a whole thick book on this — hundreds of answers. And he is one of the few individuals whom Allah blessed in a well-known manner: when he passed away, some 15 years ago, for months and months fragrance could be smelled from his grave. It was a well-known reality — not just some story — that everyone knew in Lahore when he was buried, that his grave could be smelled by all.

Nur and Dhulma: The Light and Darkness of the Heart

Another incident my teacher mentioned — and students of knowledge will benefit from this tremendously, as will all of us, because we are all students of knowledge. It was the first day of the final year of the Alim course — the Dawrah al-Hadith, the final year, the 7th or 8th year of the Alim program — where you study Bukhari, Muslim, Tirmidhi, Nasa'i, Ibn Majah, Abu Dawood, all the books of hadith.

He comes into class and looks at all the students sitting there to learn hadith in that final year. And he says: I see certain faces amongst you are bright and lit, and I see some of your faces are very sullen and dark — not because they didn't put cream that day. Then he said: a time will come during this year when there will be a switch. Some of the faces that were bright and full of nur will have become dark and sullen, and some of those faces that had dhulma and darkness will change and be filled with nur. That's all he said.

The year moved on. Halfway or three-quarters of the year, one day he came to class and said: the day has come where the switch has been made — not all of them, but some of them. Why? Because there were people who attended the dars who were very spiritually weak. We may be coming with extremely darkened hearts — expressed through a darkened face that the awliya can see. We can't see that, we can't even see it in the mirror. But a wali of Allah, whom Allah inspires, is able to see that darkened face — the dhulma and the evil of sin.

Believe it or not, this is not some random story. Uthman ibn Affan رضي الله عنه, the Companion, Khalifatul Muslimin — he is sitting in a gathering like this, speaking. And then some people walk in and sit down. And he gets angry. He says: why do people attend my gathering with zina dripping from their eyes? With the effects of zina dropping from their eyes? Most likely this is zina of the eye — looking at someone who is not your spouse, and then coming to the majlis. But immediately Uthman رضي الله عنه could sense it. He probably even knew who it was when they walked in, but he didn't want to pinpoint it.

So this is from the earliest era — the awliya, the ulama, and the sulaha would be able to sense things of this sort. Like a mother who sees her child — she's able to read his face, she has that sixth sense. No one can medically explain what that is. But definitely mothers have a sense. To the extent that if a child is in danger, many mothers will feel it — and later in the evening, when they meet, they'll find out that exactly at the time the mother felt that sense of unease, the child was going through danger. So many people have experienced this.

So if that exists between a mother and a son, similarly it exists between a shaykh and a student, and similarly between the awliya and the general community. What he is saying is: there are people coming to the dars of hadith with a lot of darkness in their hearts because of sins — which is expressed over their faces. But because of continuous attendance to the dars of hadith, sitting in the gathering of Qala Allah, Qala Rasul, their hearts and eventually their faces get washed clean. The filth goes away, and the nur of hadith, the nur of the Qur'an, replaces that darkness.

On the flip side — there are people who come to gatherings of knowledge in good form, with nur in their hearts and faces. But due to the disrespect of this gathering, due to the disrespect of the hadith they're studying, the disrespect of the tafsir they're studying, the disrespect of the tools of knowledge — be it the one sharing the knowledge, or even disrespect to paper, pen, book, desk, or the classroom itself — all of these factors end up becoming a reason for a person to become deprived and start going downward. It would have been better that they hadn't shown up. Because since they showed up and started showing disrespect to knowledge, that little or lot of nur they had is removed and darkness creeps in. Very scary indeed.

And so — subhanAllah — this thought just came to my mind about Mullah Musa Khan Bazi. He passed away about 15 years ago. How many of you have heard of him? Okay, mashallah, one person. So you will be blessed this weekend at this retreat — his son will be visiting us. His son will be arriving Saturday morning, inshallah, and will be here Saturday, Sunday, and leaving on Monday. He speaks fluent English, though I asked him and requested him to give a talk in Urdu — so he'll be speaking in Urdu inshallah after 'Asr on Saturday. A talk on shafa'ah — intercession. And he'll be addressing the ulema on Sunday in a special gathering.

These are people you want to shake hands with and really sit in their company, subhanAllah. If one percent of what his father had is in the son — and we all have at least a percent of our dads, don't we? Inshallah, more than that. And I asked him — when he sits with the ulema, and perhaps even the general community — to share amazing stories and insights of his father.

There is a beautiful article that was shared today about him. The website is hayatululama.wordpress.com — and the name of the article is Mawlana Musa al-Ruhani al-Bazi. Hayat ul-Ulama means: the lives of the scholars. It is like a living miracle of Allah — of how Allah grants people knowledge that is beyond us. 'Ajib.

Do Not Believe What Your Eyes Make You See

So now — when Musa عليه السلام has this miracle of the staff changing into a snake — he naturally gets scared. And what we need to understand from that is a very big portion of the story: do not believe what your eyes make you see. What you see is not always reality.

We say: everything is what Allah wants it to be. Not what my eyes see. Eyes can deceive. A lady comes to the Prophet ﷺ and says: Ya Rasulullah, where is my son? He went with you in jihad, he went to Uhud with you. He said: he is gone, he has passed away — a martyr. But I can see him in jannah. Let me make du'a and Allah will remove the veils and I will be able to show you your son right now in jannah. And her answer? My eyes can deceive me, but your words can never be wrong. I don't need it. If you said it, done deal. If you said that my son is in jannah — khalas, it is more believable to me than my own eyes.

And so we say: looks are deceiving. Eyes can deceive you. And now with the whole virtual reality — with the goggles and all that we're heading towards — it's 100% fake. You're seeing and interacting with things that don't exist. That just proves the point: eyes can deceive you, ears can deceive you, the mind can deceive you. The answer should always be: whatever Allah wants this to be, is what it is. Not what it seems to be.

And Musa's story is filled with that. Starting off with the staff — what does it do for you? Oh, this is such an amazing thing for me! It helps me in this manner, in that manner, in this manner. Okay, guess what? I threw it on the ground and it became a snake which I'm scared of. What happened to the staff being so helpful? Why are you running away? My friend, the staff cannot harm you nor can it benefit you. That is the most important part of this whole lesson right here.

If Allah wants, He makes it into a beneficial staff in one instant, and in another instant He can make it into a harmful snake. But harm and benefit are not in the hands of the staff or the snake. Just like the staff is lifeless, so is the snake. Both will only be able to harm you or benefit you only with Allah's will. This is so important for us to really soak in.

Nothing can harm us and nothing can benefit us besides Allah. Allah is the only one who gives, He is the only one who withholds, He is the only one who benefits, He is the only one who harms. My beloved friends, when that yaqeen comes into us, then we will not be awestruck by anything put in front of us, and we will not be over-excited by what our friends present to us. Everything will be taken with a grain of salt. I'm not going to get overly impressed by anything, and I'm not going to get afraid of anything. Everything is whatever Allah wants it to be.

The Staff of Musa at the Sea and at the Rock

There are many examples of this. Musa's people — the tribes of Bani Israel — are stuck with the ocean in front of them and Fir'aun's army behind. He takes the same staff and he hits the water:

What is this going to do? I have Fir'aun's army rushing behind me. My people are saying:

We're caught! We told you, we should have never followed you. And I have the ocean in front of me. And Allah doesn't say: just run, just swim, I'll make you all learn to swim instantaneously. No. Allah says: take a stick and hit the water. What is a stick hitting water going to do? As soon as he does that, the entire water turns into land. And not only that — it becomes 12 pathways, with huge waves as walls in between. And each of the 12 tribes goes into its specific pathway. So they're talking to their own family.

But what if you're feeling alone? You get scared — is my whole family going to drown? Then you look to your right and your left. There are walls, but they're see-through walls. So you can see that the rest of the tribes are also traveling with you. It gives everyone peace of mind.

Now move forward into the story. A time comes when they need water. And Allah doesn't say: go dig a well, or go to a lake. Allah says: take the same stick. And now hit a boulder. Note how bahr and hajar rhyme — ocean and boulder. Why would I hit a boulder? The boulder might break my staff. But Allah says: just do it. And 12 different springs burst out — not one, because they'd fight over that; not two or three — twelve, for twelve different tribes.

And the lesson is not: oh, now the stick has the ability to make the ocean solid ground, and now another trick is to make solid stone into water. The lesson is: the stick can do whatever Allah wants. All sticks in the world can do whatever Allah wants them to accomplish. All sticks.

The Karamah of the Two Companions

Today in hadith — in Tirmidhi Sharif or Mishkat Sharif — we covered a hadith. Two companions of the Prophet ﷺ came to speak with Rasulullah ﷺ. By the time they finished speaking to him, it had gotten late at night and they had to walk back home. These are not prophets. These are two companions. And as they're walking back, one of them — his staff, his stick, became lit up with light.

And he started walking, and the other one walked alongside him in the night because they had no lantern. Once they came to a T-junction — where one sahabi had to go one direction and the other a different direction, because their houses were in different directions — guess what happened? The one whose staff was not lit lit his from the other one. And they both went in opposite directions with their staffs lit with light, until they got home.

This is not fake. This is true. This is called a karamah. That was called a mu'jizah — this is called a karamah. Any supernatural event that takes place at the hands of a prophet is called mu'jizah. A supernatural event that happens at the hands of a believer who follows his prophet is called a karamah. And just as mu'jizat are true, karamat are also true.

Karamah will only come if you follow the Sunnah. Not that you try to demand karamah from Allah — it may not happen. But deep down, we have to have this firm belief that my stick can do what Musa's stick did. And not just a stick — anything I need, Allah will provide for me. Nothing is as it seems.

That snake was apparently harmful. Allah showed us: nope. What apparently is going to harm you will only harm you if Allah wills it. And if you're not going to get harmed, then you can be Khalid ibn al-Walid running towards death with his chest wide open, saying: death, come take me, I want to die as a shaheed. One battle, second battle, third battle — tens of battles. One man against a thousand. Hoping that eventually I'm going to die as a martyr. When death is not meant for you on a battlefield, you're simply not going to die on the battlefield — no matter how many swords come at you, no matter how many spears. He died in his bed.

But there is a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ: whoever asks for martyrdom with sincerity, Allah will give him the reward of the martyrs even if he dies in his bed.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1909)

If we ask for amazing things — including martyrdom — and we don't get anywhere near it, Allah will give us the reward for it simply based on our intention.

Is It Natural to Be Afraid?

So now the question is: is it natural to be afraid of things? Is this bad? Fear of harmful things is natural — it helps protect us from a lot of harm. A child who has no sense of fear ends up harming himself immensely: he doesn't mind crossing the street, playing with knives, climbing to heights. The absence of fear to that level is very harmful. You'll end up shortening your life or breaking bones. So having fear within us is a very beneficial thing. This is called tab'i fear — natural fear.

Musa's fear is mentioned in the Qur'an multiple places. Allah says: la taqaf, don't be afraid. And when he saw the snake, he turned around and ran. Allah says: the human being has been created weak. When evil afflicts him, he loses hope and starts crying. When problems come his way, he loses his focus, he has no control over himself, and he starts throwing a tantrum when things don't go the way he wants. And when good things come his way, he becomes all of a sudden stingy and says: it's all mine, nothing for anyone else. How quickly we change.

Go to Fir'aun — Never Write Off Anyone

Allah tells Musa عليه السلام: go to Fir'aun, indeed he has transgressed. If there was absolutely no hope in Fir'aun, Allah would not have sent him — it would be abath, it would be useless. From Musa's perspective and for the world's perspective, this is a worthy cause. In the knowledge of Allah, Fir'aun was not going to get hidayah — we know that. But for the benefit of the people, and for the benefit of Musa, Allah sent him to speak to Fir'aun.

Very interesting ayah. Allah says regarding the disbelievers upon whom Allah has already sealed their hearts:

It is the same for them — whether you warn them or you do not warn them, they will never believe. Now what the ulama say — a very beautiful point: Allah did not say sawa'un 'alayka — it's the same for you. Because it is NOT the same for you. You inviting these people who are destined to go to hell, and you not inviting them, is a big difference. You will spiritually get closer to Allah by da'wah. You will spiritually get closer to Allah by making du'a for them before they die — even for Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab and all the other leaders of the Quraysh who didn't accept Islam.

Rasulullah ﷺ was meant to invite them and make effort for them, and pray for their hidayah. Because making effort and making du'a of hidayah for everyone is beneficial for the da'ee, beneficial for the inviter — whether that person is going to benefit or not is in the knowledge of Allah. So Allah is saying: it makes no difference to them whether you invite them or not. But it definitely does make a difference to you whether you invite them or not.

So we can never write off anyone. That's why I've been telling my friends and all of you — for this upcoming retreat this weekend, make a list of 20 people that you're going to invite — 20 beloved friends, relatives. And out of that 20, if not a single one comes, you are still successful. You are way ahead of someone who didn't make a single phone call. Because Allah utilized you to connect 20 families with Him. And that's an honor you should feel. You are walking in the footsteps of the prophets.

I heard an amazing story last night from one of my students. He said: you always tell us to invite people. So I went back to my old phone book, looking for old friends, and found a friend who had left and strayed away from the deen — big time. And now, just recently, he's trying to make a comeback towards the deen. And I messaged him. SubhanAllah, this brother is so far away — the nearest airport is 3 hours away. And from that airport, he looked at the tickets: $1,000 to come this weekend. What would you do? This brother didn't give up. He's booking a bus — a 7-hour bus to one city, and from there a 14 or 15-hour bus to come here. By the time he arrives, it'll be over 25 hours of bus travel. May Allah facilitate it for him — say ameen. And may Allah allow this journey to become the best, most amazing, life-changing journey for him.

And all those like him who are trying to come for this retreat — may Allah remove all the obstacles and barriers for them and allow them to gain way more than what they expect. Like Musa عليه السلام — he expected to get fire and he got nur. May Allah give those people coming — for the basketball tournament, volleyball tournament, barbecue, bonfire, or to meet up with friends — may Allah give them the nur of iman. Say ameen. May Allah give all of us the nur of iman, and every day and this upcoming retreat, allow us to gain way more than we're expecting.

The Du'a of Musa — A Blueprint for Da'wah

So what is the response when Allah says: go give da'wah? Where do you start? The first thing you start from is du'a:

Oh my Lord, open for me my heart. And make easy for me my task. And release the knot from my tongue, so that they may understand my words.

Now some of us — if I say who's ready to invite 20 people, maybe I'll get 10 hands raised. The rest of us won't raise our hands. Why? Because we haven't bought into it yet. If you don't buy into something, you can't do it. How do you buy into something? Ask Allah.

Rabb ishrah li sadri — O Allah, inspire my heart to do this. I know this is very logical, very Islamic, the right thing to do. But I just feel lazy. So what are you supposed to do when you don't want to do something? Rabb ishrah li sadri: O Allah, expand my heart, open my heart, allow this idea that's been presented to take root in me. That's number one. You can't make a move until you actually buy into something.

Number two: wa yassir li amri. Ask Allah to make your mission easy. You might say: I don't have 20 friends. Come on. You and your mom and dad and siblings together don't have 20 friends? But again — you say, I bought into it but I don't know where to start. Turn to Allah. Yassir li amri — Ya Allah, make my mission easy for me. I know I should be doing this, I don't even know where to start. Please guide me. This is the du'a to start every presentation at work, every khutbah, every khatira at home or in the masjid. The du'a before you embark on anything big or small — O Allah, allow me to fully understand the gravity of what I'm about to do, allow me to buy into it, and allow all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place.

Number three: wahlul 'uqdatan min lisani, yafqahu qawli — release the knot from my tongue so that they understand my words. We may not actively be diagnosed with a stuttering problem or speech impediment, but when it comes to speaking about the deen, many of us end up with a short-lived speech impediment. Where we can't speak about Allah. We'll speak for one and a half hours about car exhausts, stereo systems, baseball and basketball commentary. But brother, how about you tell me about who is the God you worship? Five minutes — speak to me about the greatness of Allah. Quiet.

Because we've got nothing to say. We don't have that knowledge. And if we don't have that level of knowledge, what does that tell you about the love we will have of Him? Because there's no way we're going to love Him if we don't know Him. That's why speaking about our Allah and speaking about the deen is important. This will create love of Allah within ourselves, love of our deen within ourselves — whether anyone listens to us or not.

You have to keep on talking. You have to keep on inviting. You have to keep on reaching out. Whoever Allah gives hidayah, He gives hidayah. No one got hidayah through a text message or a flyer. No one got hidayah through a talk. They got hidayah through Allah. There's no one more eloquent, more powerful, more spiritual than our Nabi ﷺ. How many hundreds of thousands of people heard his message face to face? They saw miracles with their own eyes — the splitting of the moon, the tree speaking, water flowing from the fingers. Yet they refused to accept Islam. Because hidayah doesn't come through man.

Indeed, you cannot guide whoever you love, O Rasulullah — but Allah is the one who guides. So don't attribute the success of your efforts to yourself. And do not become despondent by the apparent failure of your efforts. As soon as you make the effort, you're already successful. As soon as you make that text message or call, you're already successful. You've done your job. Now simply make du'a: Ya Allah, all the people I contacted — soften their hearts and allow my message to reach them.

The Eloquence of the Heart — Not the Tongue

The ulama have said something beautiful here:

The most important eloquence is the eloquence of the heart, not the eloquence of the tongue. Hearts do not change by tongues. Hearts change by hearts. The tongue is simply the spokesperson of the heart. But the actual one that does the work is the heart.

If a person sits and does dhikr of Allah for 30 minutes, cries to Allah, and then speaks — or messages, or calls, or speaks to his spouse, speaks to his children — you will see the effect is far superior than someone who was watching random stuff and then goes ahead and speaks.

Once, a wa'iz — someone who simply gives advice — was giving a speech, and a grammarian was sitting there and noticed that this person was making grammatical mistakes. So he said to him: akhta'ta — you have made a mistake. And he basically shamed him in front of all the students. So this person who was giving the advice responded — and I will quote his remarkable reply in Arabic:

He responded — in a breathtaking manner — by saying: you're making fun of my fathah, dammah, kasrah. But why don't you instead — since rafa' means to put a dammah and also means to lift — why don't you do rafa' of your hands towards du'a? And nasb means to put a fathah and also means to place something in front of you — why don't you place the remembrance of death in front of your eyes? And khafd means to put a kasrah and also means to lower — why don't you lower yourself from falling into the trap of lustful desires? And jazm means to put a sukun and also means to take a firm determination — why don't you firmly determine yourself to not fall into haram?

And then he said: do you not know that on the Day of Judgment, the one who makes mistakes will not be told: why were you not eloquent in your language? Instead he will be told: why were you a sinful person? No one will be held accountable for not being eloquent — but they will be held accountable for being sinful. Then he said: if all affairs were based on eloquence, then Allah would have placed prophethood with Harun. But why did Allah give Harun prophethood as a helper to Musa? Did Allah not know that Harun was more eloquent? This is to prove that point.

That's why all the prophets have interesting elements with them. Some prophets were poor. Some prophets could not speak properly. Some prophets had sons who were the biggest kuffar. Some prophets had fathers who were the biggest disbelievers. Some prophets had wives who were the biggest disbelievers. These are all so-called weak points — you and I would say. But Allah is showing: who cares about the weak points? That's not a weak point. I give hidayah to whoever I want, whenever I want, whomever I want. Even the prophet does not have a right to give hidayah to whoever he wants. If he did, he would give it to his wife, his son, his father. But he didn't — because hidayah is in the hands of Allah.

What else do you learn? Deen doesn't spread through money. Deen doesn't spread through eloquence. Deen doesn't spread through all of these things. These are just basic means. Subhanallah. We live in a world that judges everything based on these things — emphasis on eloquence, emphasis on money, emphasis on looks, emphasis on charisma, emphasis on outreach, emphasis on media outlets. Those are means. I don't deny that. But the thing that changes hearts is what was said: fasahatul jinan la fasahatul lisan — the eloquence of the heart.

When the heart is fixated in the right place, then a simple handshake will do the job. One brother was telling me — he said his father did not have a beard. They traveled to Haram Sharif in Madinah. And Hakim Akhtar — whose book I covered after 'Asr here during Ramadan — he would always speak about the beard. He put his hand on this brother's father's cheek and said: old man, what is this? He scolded him. And the brother said: subhanAllah, it was that day. Till now, subhanAllah, his father got the tawfiq.

What happened? There was no eloquence there. But what was it? You and I say: I'm going to tell my son-in-law and my son. And it doesn't work like that. Why? Because we don't have the heart that Hakim Akhtar Sahib had. He didn't always speak like that. But when he spoke, he spoke with such fikr, with such love for the person he was speaking to, that the person would melt. He couldn't say anything.

Three Points from the Du'a — A Call to Action

So, subhanAllah, the three things we learn from this du'a are:

Number one: Ask Allah to open things to you. Open your heart to things. If you don't believe or don't understand, ask Allah to allow you to understand it. Rabb ishrah li sadri.

Number two: Ask Allah to make it easy. Wa yassir li amri.

Number three: Ask Allah to put effectiveness in your tongue. Wahlul 'uqdatan min lisani.

This work of da'wah is not specific to the prophets. It's for all of us who are following Rasulullah ﷺ. We have to do that. This is our path.

There are going to be a lot of beautiful things we'll talk about next week about how you become the beloved of Allah. But one point I want to share now is that one of the most beloved people to Allah is:

The most beloved of people to Me is the one who makes Me beloved to My creation. Meaning: speak about Allah so much that people fall in love with Him.

Three things: you've got to speak about Allah's blessings upon us, you have to speak about Allah's greatness, and you have to speak about Allah's warnings. Whichever works best for your audience. If you speak about Allah's blessings, he will feel he needs to worship Allah out of gratitude. If you speak about Allah's greatness, he will worship Allah out of awe. And if you speak about Allah's punishment and anger, he will worship Allah out of fear. At the end of the day, we need people to worship Allah — whether it's out of fear, out of love, or out of awe-struck wonder at His greatness.

خوف, محبت, and عظمة — fear, love, and awe. These are three beautiful things.

Closing: An Invitation and a Du'a

My beloved friends, respected listeners of this tafsir — I invite all of you, insha'Allah, to take this home right now, immediately. I request all of you — listening online and on-site — take what I've said, make a list of 20 individuals, and connect them to Allah. We're going to work on it together. You come up with that list and you work on it the way I mentioned. Say: I'm going to connect these people to Allah.

For those of you listening online — the program is on-site starting from Jumu'ah at 3pm. There will be a live stream for those who absolutely cannot travel and make it. Although we want you here — because all the parallel sessions will not be online. There are 9 parallel retreats taking place: women, men, children, babysitting, ages 6 to 10, 11 to 13, 14 to 18, and then adults — and everything is separate for boys and girls. SubhanAllah. So we request you, insha'Allah, to attend these programs in person. The schedule will be on the website.

There are many people from across the country still coming — jump in, carpool. Hotels are on our website. For anything you need, message the masjid at 630-360-2373. We're looking forward to welcoming you all on Friday after Jumu'ah. The program and ilm workshop on Monday — Memorial Day — will end at approximately 4–5pm insha'Allah. If you cannot attend the entire thing, attend a portion of it.

We'll also have a beautiful roundtable discussion with all the local imams on both days on various topics. So all your local imams, insha'Allah, have been invited and will be joining us Saturday and Sunday.

We ask Allah to make this gathering absolutely a source of great nur and great benefit to one and all. And may He inspire all of you to attend.

Who makes niyyah of inviting others? How many are you inviting? 20, right? 20. We can easily do it. Wallahi, we can do it. So Allah is our witness. May Allah make it easy for me, make it easy for you, and may He allow us to exceed our expectations.