Reflect & Connect | Surah Ahqaf - Ep.02 - Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed | 01/21

Opening

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، قَالَ اللهُ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى:

صَدَقَ اللهُ الْعَظِيمُ

Respected elders and brothers, dear students, mothers and sisters and listeners — السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ

We thank once again Allah Most Gracious, Most Merciful for allowing us to be sitting in this gathering — a gathering which is surrounded by angels, a gathering that has Rahmah and Sakinah descending upon it, a gathering that is inshallah being spoken about within the heavens. And Allah allowed us sinful souls to participate in something of this sort — a gathering which I don't deserve to be a part of, and neither do most of us. We haven't done much to be sitting with angels, or to be sitting with elders and innocent young kids and sick people who are listening maybe online, and through their Rahmah and mercy, inshallah, we pray and we hope Allah also forgives us and fulfills our needs of this world and the next.

We ask almighty Allah that He allows myself and all of us here to benefit tremendously from our gathering tonight, that He allows us to leave this gathering in a state that we are far more closer to Allah than we were when we entered. We ask Allah that whatever our needs are, that we find the fulfillment of those needs in this gathering. We ask Allah that He does not deprive us of benefiting due to our own mistakes and sins we have committed. We ask almighty Allah to grant us basira and foresight into our mistakes, and make all of us amongst those who are very worried and are constantly making an effort to improve themselves. آمِينَ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Tafsir of Surah al-Ahqaf — Ayah 6: False Gods and the Day of Assembly

Moving on to the sixth ayah of Surah al-Ahqaf, Allah says:

The last ayah, Allah was saying: who could be more astray and lost than the ones who invoke people besides Allah — and such people who will not respond to their call, and who are absolutely even unaware that someone is calling out to them? So this is the condition not only of idols, but the idols of today. You know, you have the sports stars and the film stars — those people not only will not be able to help us in this dunya or akhira:

And they are utterly unaware of the call of those who worship them. Today, all of those people who are worshipping these sports idols — they have no idea who their fans are. They cannot hear their calls. They cannot interact with them. They don't care about them. But you'll see the level of craze that is surrounding sports stars and musicians and artists, and it's ajeeb what we see — the resurgence of it. Here is one thing: you'll see the level of craze that is happening within the Muslim countries in this past week and the previous weeks since the new year — how many different concerts have happened and the level of unbelievable craze that we see within the Muslim population overseas. Allahu Akbar. May Allah guide us, guide them, and allow us to see and understand this ayah — that those film stars and those artists and musicians that people are doing anything and everything to get into their concerts, and to pay huge sums of money to come close, and to wave at them, to clap at them, to rejoice for them — not only will they not be able to benefit them in the akhira, they will not be able to benefit them in the dunya, and they are unaware of who you are.

They have no idea who is calling out to them, who is screaming their name from the audience, the way they are jumping up and down — the way they would worship a god is the way they are worshipping these musicians. What an amazing ayah — Allah says: who is more lost and further astray?

So the false gods are not just idols made out of stone and rock. There are many false gods today. They come in different forms and shapes — always like that: in the form of money, in the form of fame, in the form of fulfillment of lustful desires. All of these are false gods. And a person who turns to them thinking that there will be a benefit to them — he is truly at loss.

And then when humanity is assembled for judgment — حُشِر means to be assembled — when humanity will be assembled for judgment on the Day of Hashr, because it's called Yawm al-Hashr because it's the Day of Assembly:

كَانُوا لَهُمْ أَعْدَاءً — those who have been taken as false gods — لَهُمْ أَعْدَاءً — they will be enemies. وَكَانُوا بِعِبَادَتِهِمْ كَافِرِينَ — and they will belie their worship — meaning that the people who we tried so hard to appease, and in the process of that ended up displeasing Allah — these same people will become our enemies, and these same people will say, "We had nothing to do with them." That's where the psychological torture will begin: that the people you tried so hard to please, they themselves will say, "Brother, we got our own problems. Please don't try to come and bring us into your own issues."

There are multiple places in the Qur'an where Allah mentions this. Why are these themes, my dear brothers and sisters, repeated in the Qur'an? Because these are the main reasons why people get sick. For example, if we're talking about health — physical health — obviously diet, exercise, genes, and environmental factors are gonna be common themes that we will see affect a person's health. So someone who is caring about people's physical health will constantly be repeating these things. The Qur'an is meant to come and not only help us with our spirituality but also our physical health as well — everything. When a person is connected with Allah truly — may Allah make us from amongst those people — most of us are hanging on through a thread and just one aspect of it, one aspect of the deal. When it suits us, we take it. And I'm not pointing fingers at anyone besides myself — number one. When it suits us we take it, when it doesn't suit us we leave it.

Deen is a complete, comprehensive aspect — all aspects. The Qur'an is here, the Sunnah is here to dictate everything: from sleeping, eating, drinking, marriage, divorce, social gatherings, business, all sorts of things. So you'll see these repeated themes in the Qur'an because there are a few main reasons why people make major mistakes, why people suffer from their spiritual diseases. The Qur'an constantly repeats them in different ways.

The Disease of Impressing the Wrong People

And one of them is the desire to impress a certain class of people. That's a disease we have — it's been there from day one: a desire to impress a certain class of people, usually obviously the wealthy class, those who have huge followings. And in order to impress them, we end up sacrificing our ethics, our values, our morals, our principles in order to get their approval. And in the process of that, we don't get their approval and we also lose Allah's approval.

As the famous [poet] has said — you know, you have a cloth and it's got holes in it, so what you do, you take another cloth and you cut from there and you patch up this cloth so that you have no more holes. We don't usually see that here. Many of you know I was traveling to Umrah, to Malawi and to South Africa. This is something we saw in Malawi — people don't, we don't understand what it means to have patched clothes. Over there, subhanAllah — people sharing shirts, people sharing pants, people sharing shoes. Tons of people — thousands of them — don't have any slippers, shoes, anything. They just walk barefoot for years. Something you cannot imagine until you actually see it. They walk on hot asphalt in the summer and in the muddy dirt when it's rainy season. And when it's cold outside — yes, it doesn't get this cold, but it does get 30, 40 degrees — they don't have blankets. They sleep in sacks to keep themselves warm. This is their normal life. So every single shirt counts. If it's torn they don't throw it away — they have to patch it up.

So the poet says:

This is such a powerful statement. He says: we patch up our dunya — when you see a little $50 loss over here, a job loss over here, a child not doing well in school over there, when you see problems in your dunya, how do you fix them? What do you do? You patch it by tearing up the deen. Tear up the deen — cut a hole out of the deen and place it on the dunya. The goal is: my dunya shirt should be spotless. And in the process of it, we'll cut a bunch of new holes in our deen. So then he says, what happens at the end? The deen is gone — you've got like ten holes in it. What are you going to call this? There's no deen left.

And that which we tried to patch up is called what? Dunya. Does dunya stay?

Whatever you have will come to an end, and whatever is with Allah will remain. So whatever we have is dunya — it has to come to an end. What a fool who tore apart his kurta of deen to patch up his dunya.

I'll give you a simple example. When a person has a decrease in income — a decrease, a loss in some investment — and now you start thinking of cost-cutting measures, what's the first thing you think of cutting? Today there'll be a bunch of extra random eating out and this massage and this, you know, nails and this vacation — "person, no man, these are necessities." If there's anything, that $10 a month I was supporting an orphan with — well, he's gotta figure out someone else, you know, it's okay, cut that $10 off. That $1 a day you're giving to your local masjid — that's the first thing we cut out. Piano lessons? Got to continue. Swimming lessons? Got to continue. Quran lessons? Got to stop.

How many people say that? They say, "Oh, I stopped studying Qur'an now because I can't afford the $50 a month." But what about all the other things we're doing? SubhanAllah. When deen gets a price tag, it's very sad.

When people of wealth — I hear it all the time — just recently one imam was telling me how someone who's a physician was asking him: "I need my son — he's going off track — he needs a one-on-one class at home." So he said, "Okay, I'll find someone for you." She said, "I'm not going to pay for it." So he said, "Okay, I don't know how I can find someone to come to your house to deliver a weekly lesson — half hour only, half hour." He said, "Okay, you can come to the masjid." "No, no, no, I don't want him to go to the masjid — I don't know what type of company he'll find in the masjid." Astaghfirullah. And now people wonder: how can my kids go off? When you have the priorities wrong, when you make the priorities of the dunya over the deen, then obviously the children are going to go off.

So when we are patching up our loss of our dunya by sacrificing the deen — this is something the vast majority of us are involved in. So Allah highlights this disease within us. What was the disease, who remembers? Trying to impress a certain class of people and trying to fit in — that's the disease.

We have to work on this class — it is called the mutrafeen class, the luxurious wealthy class. And if I start giving examples you'll realize to what degree this plague is spread amongst us: when we look at the type of clothing a person wears, the type of shoes a person has — women and men — the type of car, the type of house, the neighborhood, the zip code a person lives in. And the list goes on. If you look at it — how much of it is because of yourself, and how much of it is because you want to be part of a certain so-called society? To be part of a certain group, to hang out with a certain group of people.

Who really honestly cares about golf? I know people who religiously play golf. But then I'm like — is it really golf? What I hear about is that's where the deals happen. "Yeah man, of course — why would I go play golf otherwise?" So you want this feeling that I'm part of this class of people. For those who are golf enthusiasts — it's not haram, don't get me wrong. I'm just trying to say that many actions that we do, deep down, subconsciously, we don't even care about it, we don't even like it — it's simply trying to be part of an exclusive club.

This is spread all across the Muslim world — Arabs, Desis — we are suffering from this. So much of what we do is about impressing people, and we pay the price for it so badly. That's why one hadith mentions:

(Reported by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih; also cited by al-Tirmidhi in related narrations)

Whoever tries to please Allah even though it may end up making people upset — you don't enjoy making people upset, remember — you end up making people upset because that's just what it is: they're completely at odds with Allah's command. Ideally we want Allah to be happy and the people to be happy. We don't enjoy making people angry. But there are times when you take a stand in order to please Allah, and that will make certain people upset because they simply are at war with Allah, or they don't like what Rasulullah ﷺ taught. So you end up making them angry.

مَنْ أَرْضَى اللهَ فِي سَخَطِ النَّاسِ — what will happen? Allah will become pleased with him. Number two: Allah will please all of those people eventually whom he had inadvertently made upset — يُزَيِّنُ عَمَلَهُ — Allah will beautify his actions in the eyes of such people. Not now. Maybe 20 years later, maybe 10 years later, they'll say, "Yeah, that guy — he made the right decisions." How many times have adults especially heard something like that — where 15 years later, someone who was so sad this guy's crazy, he's a fanatic, why is he doing this — 15 years later the same people are like, "Man, we should have followed him. That was the right decision." That person said: "I don't care, I'm gonna stay steadfast in order to please Allah. I will inadvertently make people upset, but I'm not in a popularity contest here — I'm trying to make Allah happy."

So Allah will become pleased with him, and what's the second thing? Allah will beautify his actions in the eyes of those people who he had displeased — so that before he dies naturally, or at the time of death, or maybe after his death, those people will actually look up to him and look up to the actions he's done.

And the flip side — وَمَنْ أَسْخَطَ اللهَ فِي رِضَا النَّاسِ — whoever displeases Allah in order to please people — what big portion of the Ummah is involved in this? Whoever displeased Allah in order to please people: number one, سَخِطَ اللهُ عَلَيْهِ — Allah will become angry at him. How are we gonna deal if Allah is angry with us? How long are you gonna run? Where are you gonna hide? How long can you run away from this? If Allah is angry at me or you — who are you gonna go say, "Can you please talk to Him on my behalf?" Who are you gonna go speak to?

Ka'b al-Ahbar rahimahullah says: on the Day of Judgment, if a person were to have the iman of 70 Prophets — it's a figure of speech, hypothetically speaking — if you were to have the iman of 70 Prophets, a person would still think that he is not going to make it to Paradise because of the anger of Allah that he will be witnessing. He'll say, "Allah is never going to forgive me today." That's a man who has the iman of 70 Prophets. So who has the guts to say, "Can you please go talk to Allah for me?"

And that's why Allah says about the angels:

Even the sinless angels — who are created out of Noor — they cannot open their mouths and intercede on behalf of anyone unless Allah has already chosen that person to be interceded for. So even the angels are absolutely afraid, speechless, awestruck, worried. Sinless angels created out of Noor — but they know today is not a day to be speaking. SubhanAllah. We just gotta stay quiet. We don't know where Allah's wrath will land.

So the first punishment a person gets — when he tries to please people even though he knows it displeases Allah — is that Allah will become angry at him. And then number two: Allah will ensure every single person whom he had pleased will turn against him — they will all turn against him and dislike him. That turning against him may happen here, or it may happen later on on the Day of Judgment.

Simple example — and I give examples of weddings all the time because a lot of these examples we don't get to hear elsewhere, so someone's gotta talk about it. A lot of times people will say, "Brother, I don't like mixing, I don't like dancing, I don't like this, I don't like that." But in order to please our relatives who are coming to the wedding — who are coming from overseas, who are insisting, "We are paying tickets and coming from overseas all the way to America — you're telling me we're not gonna have some of that fun stuff?" So now he says, "Okay, what can I do — in order to please the guests we have to do that." Deep down he doesn't like it. But SubhanAllah — not only does he foot the bill in this world, but he's gonna foot the bill in the grave, and he's gonna foot the bill on the Day of Judgment, because in order to please the people, he didn't care about displeasing Allah or breaking the heart of the Prophet ﷺ.

So this is something which is destroying our hayat within our communities — the type of customs that have overtaken us. I hear from Pakistani brothers here as well, who go back home sometimes to Pakistan and tell me of what type of horrific events are happening within their own families. And they say, "We just stay outside. We came from America — we came all the way there — but we meet them at the house. We can't participate. It's just so bad." So may Allah guide our Ummah.

We wonder why we're still suffering — there, in Gaza, even after the truce and ceasefire, tens and tens have been killed. Life is moving on there. Instead of Gaza now it's the West Bank. May Allah end this suffering all over. So we wonder why it's not ending — well, our dancing and our music and all sorts of other things subhanAllah have not stopped at the weddings. In public — what a person does privately in their home, that's between them and Allah — but when a person invites a thousand people and does that in public, you have a thousand-plus witnesses, plus the movie that's made of it, that's posted online. Now you have 500,000 or 50,000 witnesses. If you've got a TikTok video with 50,000 views — 50,000 witnesses to the crime on the Day of Judgment.

Now you're going to say, "Brother, that guy has his own sin — why would he witness against me?" If Allah says, "I want all witnesses," and every witness who comes and says, "You saw the sin being committed — in lieu of your witness, you've got a hundred sins forgiven, in lieu of your witness you're going to get an upgrade in Jannah" — you don't think you're going to have, till the eye can see, a line of people coming to give witness? "Ya Allah, I watched that 30-second clip." He himself was sitting in sin while he was watching it, but he'll come up because we all need to get our sins forgiven on that day, and we all need to get an upgrade in Jannah. If that's the deal — come and bear witness and testimony to all the sins you watched and saw happening by fellow Muslims, and in lieu of that you get this — why will there not be an endless line of people?

So all of these videos that are promoted online of weddings in which haram is taking place — we are just building up the case against our own selves. But it goes back to the original disease: we're trying to fit in to the wrong group of people.

The Mustadafin and Mutakabbirun — and the Disease of FOMO

This is what Allah has mentioned throughout the Qur'an in so many places. He calls them the istakbaru — the class of arrogant ones — and the mustadafin — the class of the lowly, who are at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, who've been oppressed. And so Allah speaks about this dialogue in multiple places.

Trends, dear sisters and brothers — trends of hairstyles, trends of purses, trends of makeup, trends of shoes, trends of dresses — this is a continuous craze that our society is going through by watching social media influencers. This is what the Qur'an is also speaking about: that a person doesn't want to get left out — FOMO — he's scared. He's like, "Oh, if I don't keep up with this trend, people will say you're outdated."

Dear youth, dear youngsters, please understand that the future is going to get tough. Already you saw the first sign. The future is tough. And if your desire is to just always fit in — very soon we're not going to be — we're going to be out. We have to train ourselves to be what? What's the word for that? For the ones that don't fit in? Ghuraba — right? Yes, ghuraba.

That nasheed of Ghuraba — it is a time we need to listen to it. Indeed, the deen began as a strange entity and it will once again become strange. To be a religious person — glad tidings for the strangers — those people who will try to rectify the corruption people have caused in the deen.

Nabi ﷺ is saying that if you stand up and speak against customs that are against the deen, are there going to be people who like you? People will get very upset. "What's wrong with you, man? Why are you sitting there trying to mess things up? Why are you a party pooper? Why are you ruining our environment?" This is called ghuraba. You'll be the weirdo. You'll be the sore thumb. You'll be the kabab mein haddi. Alright — "kabab mein haddi" means: when you're eating a kabab and sometimes there's a piece of bone that got stuck in it when it was in the grinder — didn't do a good job — or they were never supposed to put a bone in it in the first place. And you're eating it and you say, "What was that thing?" and you spit it out. In madrasa they used to call these things "speed breakers" — you're eating fast and then you have something in your mouth, you say, "Oh," you gotta spit it out. This is called a speed breaker.

So, this is something — beloved boys and girls and youth — we have to be willing to be strangers. And I know this sounds very counter-intuitive because the world around us says "when in Rome, do as the Romans do." Why are you trying to be a sore thumb?

You don't have to be dressed the way many of us are dressed here right now — that's true. But let me just tell you one thing: dressing like this and standing out honestly is the smallest of things. The way we eat, the way we earn, the way we spend, the way we sleep, the way we party, the way we have weddings, the way we do business, the way we buy, the way we sell, the way we think, the way we smell — everything about us is different. So if you can't differentiate yourself by wearing a kufi or a scarf because you look "too weird," how are you going to be different in those ten other things that are far more deeper, far more wider, and far more comprehensive? Do you get what I'm saying?

Because the difference here of a beard, a kufi, or a hijab is very superficial — you just throw it on and take it off. Now when I go through security, I take off my hat, right — to make things quick and easy. And they get shocked: "Oh, you took off your hat!" I'm like, "Yeah man, I can walk without my hat — it's okay." You take it on and off, what's the deal? But there are aspects of our deen that are much more deeper in terms of being different.

So if you are not comfortable in being in your own skin — that's different from the skin of others around us — we're gonna be in big trouble. So many moms and dads are all about fitting in. It's not about fitting in. It's about being comfortable in your own color and your own deen, wherever you go. Yes, make our children confident — make them stand up and express their faith, express their opinions. Proudly say, "This is why I practice my deen, that I don't involve in this and I don't believe in this." Say it in public school, say it in private school, say it in an airport, say it wherever it is while you're traveling.

But this idea of "I don't want my son to be singled out, so I need him to be as American as apple pie in every single thing" — okay, I like apple pie by the way, there's nothing wrong with that. The issue is this desire to mix and mingle is exactly what's causing the loss of faith today. Because at the end of the day, everyone around them is atheist and agnostic — they have no fear of Allah, no fear of the Day of Judgment — and then that type of mentality comes into us. So we have to create confident young men and women who are comfortable practicing their faith wherever they are: at a soccer pitch, volleyball pitch, basketball court, Walmart, Macy's, wherever — when the time for salah comes, we pray our salah. When something haram comes, we look away or we act in an appropriate manner.

Beloved brothers and sisters, be proud to be part of the ghuraba class — the class of strangers. It seems very different, what I'm preaching, from maybe what you might be hearing elsewhere. We are not saying that we become hermits. We are not saying that we divorce ourselves from society and community. We are not saying that you don't get jobs and education. All we are saying is: retain your identity wherever you go.

Hats off — if I can call it that — to the Sikhs. They've got their turbans — bright red turbans — and some of them are the CEOs of the biggest companies in the world. They've got their turbans as they're flying a plane. They've got their turbans as a lieutenant or sergeant in a police department. They've got their turbans as they are stamping your passport in a western country. They've got their turbans wherever they go. And it's ajeeb — I was listening to an interview of the CEO of Mastercard who is a Sikh, and with his bright red turban speaking about policies. Everyone is respecting him for his position, because of his huge, vast knowledge in finance. But he is proudly Sikh with his bright red turban — you can't miss it.

How many of us Muslims could wear a white turban or a black turban and have a position like that without having our entire community say he is crazy — crazy, Afghani terrorist? That's what they would say. Forget about the non-Muslims — our own Muslims would be the first ones to attack us. Yes or no? It won't be the non-Muslims who say "oh that's cool man, what do you call that, where did you get that from?" — they'll ask. It's the Muslims themselves who say, "Why do you have such a long beard? Why do you have this turban? Why do you have to dress like this?"

There are people who harbor a lot of grudges for our tradition and our institution because of this very same reason. They say, "You're in America — why do you have to keep a beard? You're in America — why do you have to have a kufi? You're in America — why do you have to wear a felt hat?" Brother, you don't have to wear it. First of all. But why is there hatred for someone who does? This is you know — the imperialism, this cultural imperialism and colonialism — we're still under the shackles of it. We say we're in America, we're free. No, you're not free. You're still a slave. Your mindset is that of a slave, who says, "If I wear something that is known to be a sunnah of the Prophet — maybe it's not fard, yes, maybe you don't have to do it — but we know he did it, and I want to show my appreciation and love for it." Why is there so much hate around that?

Self-Hate and Inferiority Complex

Unfortunately, another big disease — if you can call it self-hate — the desire to emulate others has taken over us to such a degree that it is turning into self-hate. One Pakistani brother was telling me, "Brother, if you want to get service in a restaurant — a high-end restaurant — forget about wearing shalwar kameez, forget about speaking in Urdu. No one is going to look at you. You have to wear pants and shirt, you have to wear a suit and tie, you have to speak in English." I studied only one year in Pakistan in 2001 — I was 16 or 17 — and it's true. I would go sit wearing madrasa suit, wearing thobe and kurta, go to Pizza Hut — and "bhai sahab, ek pizza lena" — they just walk right by you. Until I figured out, "Oh my God, you gotta speak to these guys in English." And then after that when I started speaking in English they're like, "Oh, what sir, we don't understand what you're saying, right?" I'm like, "Seedha seedha Urdu baat karo, sunte nahi — ab English baat karo, kehte hain hamein samajh nahi aati." This is how nuts the situation is — it's crazy.

This culture of imperialism subhanAllah has destroyed us. It's destroyed a big generation of our own parents and uncles and aunts and grandparents. And that's why I'm speaking about it — it's a little window into why we're suffering. Why should we not be proud of Urdu? Why should we not be proud of our own language? I've seen some parents subhanAllah — their two-year-old, three-year-old is speaking to the mom and dad in their own mother tongue, and they're getting mad at the kid: "No, you must speak to us in English." I saw it myself on an airplane. I'm like, "What? Seriously? Astaghfirullah."

If you go to the public school here, they'll tell you — they told me when I went: "Oh, what language do you speak at home?" And they said, "We are so envious of you. We wish we had retained our Italian from our grandparents. We wish we had retained our Greek from our grandparents. This is so good — please make sure you speak your own language at home. Your child will learn English in school, don't worry about that. But being multilingual is a huge benefit to your kids — they will thrive and succeed. Make sure they don't lose this." And we are suffering from this inferiority complex.

So dear boys and girls, understand that these are some of the diseases that we're suffering from because of wrong priorities and big mistakes — and it's all gonna fall apart on the Day of Judgment. The Qur'an says: when you're all going to be put together, everyone's going to be an enemy. None of these rich people, none of this ruling class, will say, "Come, come, come." Because they're gonna go in a deeper part of Hell anyway. And they will also say, "We've got nothing to do with you." And they will belie their worship. So this is the celebrity worship and influencer worship that's going on right now in the world — they'll say, "Ya Allah, I've got nothing to do with my 2 million followers. I've nothing to do with them."

Tafsir of Surah al-Ahqaf — Ayah 7: The Truth Called Sorcery

Next, Allah says:

Yet now, when our revealed verses are recited to guide them — قَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا — the disbelievers say, those who disbelieve in the truth — those who disbelieve in the truth: what do they say? When the truth comes to them — هَٰذَا سِحْرٌ مُّبِينٌ — "This is clear sorcery."

Allah is mentioning that the hatred for the truth and the hatred for Islam is not something new — it's a really old thing, it's always been there. The problem is that the disbelievers have this mentality: "We are supposed to be the most successful people. We have money, we have this, we have that — but we don't have Islam. How could it be that Islam is with the people who are successful? We don't have it, hence if we don't have it, that means whoever has it they're a failure."

When you say "Islam is against our freedoms" — Islam is out there to oppress — that's such a false statement. Why would Islam be against freedoms? Yes, Islam is against that level of freedom in which you oppress someone, and we don't have the freedom and the right to oppress anyone. But most definitely Islam believes in many freedoms including free markets. SubhanAllah — the Prophet ﷺ said, "Don't ask me to set the prices of things — Allah is the one who sets the prices." There are so many beautiful economic teachings from Islam. But when you say "Islam is against our freedoms," the purpose of it is to create hatred for this deen in the hearts of the people. Because "I love my freedom — oh, Islam is against my freedom — I hate Islam." So this age-old jealousy: "If I don't have it, it's got to be wrong."

Allah mentions that Nuh ﷺ's nation did not want to believe in Nuh ﷺ, and one of the things they used was: they critiqued those who followed him. They said:

"We see that the only ones who follow you are the low-class ones." أَرَاذِل means those who are part of the lower class — poor people, less educated. بَادِيَ الرَّأْيِ — who have shallow thinking, who have a shallow thought process. They are very superficial — they are not deep philosophers. "That's who follows your deen. So we are very deep philosophical thinkers, we are very wealthy — we cannot sit with these people."

Isn't this ayah beautiful? It tells us that Islam has been accused like this all along. The reality is that poor people have less distraction, less wasawis, less issues in terms of subduing their nafs. Wealthy people have far more difficulty in that. That's why you'll see that Islam and the previous religions as well thrive within the poor people, and the more wealthy a person becomes, he ends up becoming arrogant. So it's not an issue of today — it's an issue from the beginning of times. In Pakistan, in any country, you'll see the wealthy class — it's very hard to get Islam to them.

So, mashallah, if Allah gives us wealth and along with that He gives us the humbleness and the humility to connect ourselves with deen, then we are mashallah very, very lucky. Because wealth is a huge blessing — a huge blessing — but most people who have it unfortunately don't have deen. So if we are from those who have deen and wealth, alhamdulillah — that is a massive blessing of Allah.

The Advice of Ibn Umar's Companion on Taking Deen

That is why someone mentioned to Ibn Umar radiyallahu anhu:

"Oh Ibn Umar, your deen — your deen — it is indeed your flesh and your blood. So be careful from whom you take your deen. Take deen from those who are steadfast, and do not take your deen from those who waver, who go off."

Hidayah Comes When We Sincerely Desire It

My beloved brothers, Allah says آيَاتٍ بَيِّنَاتٍ — when our revealed verses are recited in front of them. بَيِّنَاتٍ means clear, clear evidence.

One very important point that we're going to focus on today is that hidayah — the decision of wanting to be guided — has to come from within us. If we have made the decision that we want to change our lives and want to get guidance, then anything and everything around us will be a clear sign pointing towards Allah. Anything — including the weather outside right now. You will be marveling at the weather, you'll be looking at the temperature, you'll be looking at the things that are happening — "Wow, man, Allah is powerful." You'll be drinking a cup of tea — a warm cup of tea now after the tafsir — and you'll be reflecting on Allah's greatness. You'll be hearing a story of how someone became ill and alhamdulillah Allah gave him shifa, or how someone passed away — and that will give you yaqeen in Allah's greatness.

But when a person has not made that decision himself, then you can bring them to the center of the deen, you can bring them to Mecca and Medina — they still won't feel anything.

Earlier today someone was asking me: "I feel that whenever I see someone who is doing better than me, I feel jealous very quickly. And when I see myself doing better than someone else, I feel arrogant. What should I do?" I said, "The fact that you are able to recognize this is a huge blessing. There are thousands and millions of people who are suffering the way you do and worse. How many jealous people out there do you know who say, 'I have a problem — I suffer from this disease of jealousy'? How many arrogant people say, 'I have a problem — I suffer from the disease of looking down at others and thinking of myself to be superior'? Majority of arrogant and jealous people would never tell you that, and won't even recognize it. If you tell them, 'Brother, stop being jealous, stop being arrogant,' they'll get so mad. So the fact that someone realizes they have this disease, mashallah, is already 50% of the work done."

My point, my dear brothers and sisters, is that the ball is in our court. The day I realize that I have some diseases that I need to work on — understand that, alhamdulillah, that is the day you are beginning a very short, inshallah, journey to your cure. The place of cure is the deen. You can get cured very quickly from any disease. The issue is acknowledgment that we're sick — that's it.

How long does it take for a person to say أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ? How long does it take to get 70 years of sins forgiven? Ten seconds — that's it. The day a person says, "I need to change my life, I want hidayah, I'm gonna say the kalima, I'm gonna go to the masjid, I'm gonna pick up a mushaf and read" — that's it. A person's life will change.

So alhamdulillah, we've already been blessed with iman — that's great. But now the next step is for us to focus on our spirituality, for us to say honestly: "I have a lot of diseases. I'm not the best husband. I'm not the best wife. I'm not the best mother. I'm not the best father. I'm not the best son. I'm not the best daughter. I'm not the best lover of Rasulullah. I'm not the best slave of Allah. I need to work on myself." As soon as a person says that, then you will start getting signs all around you.

Have you noticed some people who've recently come to the deen — they're like an energizer bunny, very powerful, very excited, and they'll just tell you, "Man, Allah is so Kareem. I saw this this morning" — they'll just go on and on. "This morning I ran out of gas and then this thing happened and then this thing happened — subhanAllah, la ilaha illallah, Allahu Akbar." Everything and anything they're seeing, they're seeing Allah's signs in it. But you're thinking, "Man, that sounds like my day every day. I never said subhanAllah. I never said I saw Allah's sign in there. What's wrong with this guy?" No — he has now decided to find Allah, and Allah says:

Allah is the most apparent and the most subtle. The Prophet ﷺ said in a du'a:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2713)

"Oh Allah, You are the most apparent — there is nothing more apparent than You. And You are the most subtle — there is nothing more hidden than You." So when a person wants to find Allah, he'll find Him instantaneously, everywhere, in everything — he'll start seeing Allah's signs.

So what happens? Hidayah will come when we have a desire for it. I know I'm sinful, you're sinful, we're all weak. What I encourage myself and all of us to do is at least be sincere that we want hidayah. So when you recite اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ — don't just say it because "I gotta read Surah al-Fatiha." Actually mean it. In sunnah, in witr, in Isha, in Fajr — when you're praying on your own or you're praying in jama'a and you hear the imam read اهْدِنَا الصِّرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ and when that time to say Ameen comes — say it from your heart: "Ya Allah, I really, really need صِرَاطَ الْمُسْتَقِيمَ because I'm lost."

How many of us think we're lost? How many of us think we need hidayah? How many of us think that we need rectification? That's a question. If you and I think we need guidance and we're asking for it — we're gonna get it, definitely. Allah will not let you down if you beg Him for guidance. Why would He let you down? Allah gives and fulfills the du'as of the kuffar in this dunya. So a person who says, "Ya Allah, I want hidayah" — how can he not get it?

This is why I tell people who are suffering through a faith crisis and other issues of that sort — I tell them: at least make a point to ask God to guide you. There are many brothers who reach out to me saying, "I have a sibling, I have a cousin, nephew, niece, son, daughter who's going through a faith crisis — says I'm not sure if God exists anymore." The key component is: show humility to Allah and say, "Ya Allah, guide me to the truth — I'm so confused." And if we do this on a consistent, regular basis, we will get it.

Students of knowledge sitting here: the list we have — "I can't concentrate in class," "I'm falling behind in my subjects," "I failed one subject in this exam," "I'm not able to stay away from XYZ things," "I'm not able to get to my potential" — how many times have we made du'a for these things in front of Allah? That's a question. You're complaining to me or to yourself or to whoever — but how many times have we begged Allah: "Ya Allah, this is my problem"? That's the issue. We're not begging Allah for our solutions. After every one of the five daily salah, we need to be begging: "Ya Allah, this is my problem, this is my problem." Allah will definitely, definitely open the door. He will give you what you're asking for. But He is seeing — how motivated are you to keep begging Him?

My beloved brothers and sisters, whatever our issues are — just show humility to Allah. You and I have a massive laundry list of problems in our lives: the problems of our parents, our siblings, our spouses, our kids, the Ummah. Just show some humility to Allah.

So this idea of people calling Islam sorcery — why are they calling it sorcery? Because they see people's lives changing. We are blessed to have many reverts studying in the madrasa. You look at these young brothers — it boosts your iman — the level of change within one year, six months, that they have gone through. They have eclipsed those who are born Muslims by many times. And so it looks like magic. No — this is not magic. You can also enjoy this as soon as you make a decision: "Ya Allah, I want to gain guidance." Allah will give it to you.

Tafsir of Surah al-Ahqaf — Ayah 8: "Did He Forge It?"

Or is it that the disbelievers say افْتَرَاهُ — that the Qur'an is not from Allah, rather he — the one among us who claims prophethood — forged it? Is that what the kuffar are saying? That the prophet forged it? Oh Muhammad ﷺ, say to them: "If ever I had forged it, if ever I made up verses of the Qur'an, I would be in so much trouble with Allah." فَلَا تَمْلِكُونَ لِي مِنَ اللَّهِ شَيْئًا — "You would not hold any authority to help me in the least against the punishment of Allah."

The Prophet ﷺ is being told by Allah to say this to the people: "If I lied, then Allah would punish me in such a manner and would be so angry at me that the whole world put together would not be able to save me from the wrath of Allah." Allah is telling His Prophet to say this to the people. When we talk about al-Samad, when we talk about al-Ghani — Allah does not need anyone. Allah is free of all want. My beloved brothers, I want you to think about these Names — it will really rattle us. It will really make us feel: "What are we doing? Who do we think we are?" When we say, "Mashallah, I did this work, I did that work, look at my accolades, look at what I've done for the deen" — how dare a person even allow these thoughts to come to his mind, let alone say it. Because Allah does not need me or my efforts.

Allah is Ghani — free of all want. Everyone needs Him; He doesn't need anyone. He's telling His Prophet as well: "If you were to hypothetically do something wrong like this, the rule applies to you as well." He knows best what aspirations you indulge in, casting upon this Qur'an. Sufficient is He as a witness between me and you. Yet He alone is the All-Forgiving and Mercy-giving.

Allah is mentioning the fact that — oh Muhammad ﷺ, tell these people — that you do not need them; instead your Allah is sufficient. There are four verses I want to go over in which the status of Rasulullah ﷺ and his relationship with Allah and certain issues is mentioned.

Four Qur'anic Verses on the Prophet's ﷺ Humility Before Allah

Number one — Allah says in Surah Hud, ayah 31:

"I do not say to you that I have the treasures of Allah. And I do not say I know the unseen. I don't say that — I never said that. And I do not say that I am an angel."

Number two — Surah al-Jinn, ayah 21:

"Say: I am not capable of giving you any harm or any guidance."

Number three — Surah al-A'raf, ayah 188:

"Say: I am not capable of benefiting or harming myself except for that which Allah wills. And if I were to have knowledge of the unseen, I would have had immense amounts of only good, and I would never have any difficulty in my life." That's not the case.

Number four — Surah al-An'am, ayah 15:

"Say: Indeed, if I were to become disobedient to my Lord, I am afraid of the punishment of the great Day."

What do we see here, brothers? Four things the Prophet ﷺ is saying: number one — I have no knowledge of the unseen. Number two — I am not able to harm or benefit any of you. Number three — I am not able to harm or benefit myself. And number four — I am absolutely terrified of the punishment of Allah if I disobey Him. These are statements that Allah wants the Prophet ﷺ to say.

So now if this is what the rule is for Rasulullah ﷺ, where do you and I belong? Our deen is Tawhid — Tawhid, Tawhid. One hundred percent full power is Allah. That conviction and yaqeen has to come totally into our hearts.

The Du'a of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq When Praised

Allah knows what type of what you are doing — meaning: we are not here to judge people, Allah knows best. And that's why Abu Bakr al-Siddiq radiyallahu anhu — when he used to be praised — he would say:

"Oh Allah, You know me better than I know myself. And I know myself better than these people who are praising me know me. Oh Allah, make me better than what they think of me. And forgive me for all those sins they are unaware of. And do not hold me accountable for the praises they have said about me."

Think about that — how happy we get when people praise us for things we know we don't actually do. And here is Abu Bakr al-Siddiq radiyallahu anhu saying: "Ya Allah, please don't hold me accountable — people think of me to be so high, and I'm not that. And on the Day of Judgment, I don't want to be told, 'Oh — this is what the people said about you. What about your actions?'"

Three things: ya Allah, make me better than what they think of me. Forgive me for that which they do not know of. And do not hold me accountable for what they say good about me.

So this is where we talk about — this dunya is not a place of judging anyone, and we cannot judge ourselves either. That's what the Qur'an says:

"Do not claim piety for yourself — Allah knows who has taqwa and who does not. That is not your job — to talk about other people nor to talk about yourself."

The Lesson of Ending with Mercy

What's so amazing about the Qur'an here is: look at Allah saying to the Prophet ﷺ — "Say: if I made up these verses and I'm ascribing to Allah what He didn't say, then you won't even be able to protect me from Allah." Look at how intense that ayah is — but look at how Allah ends it: وَهُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ — "Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." The door is always open. This is such a beautiful — if I can call it a parenting and managing skill — that we need to learn from here. What do we learn from وَهُوَ الْغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ? In the same verse there is harshness, but you end it on a soft note: "I'm still Forgiving and Merciful — if you want to turn around and come back, my door is always open."

This is the pattern in the Sunnah of Allah: in the most intense moments of anger, harshness, or jalal — whatever you want to call it — there will always be a mention that the door is open for anyone who wants to repent. So this is what we learn: don't ever close the doors upon anyone, no matter how upsetting the situation may be. Give an exit strategy, an opportunity for someone to repent. If you just slam the door in their face then they're doomed — and you're to bear part of the blame. No matter how advanced the case may have become, always keep an opportunity for someone to turn around.

Tafsir of Surah al-Ahqaf — Ayah 9: "I Am Not a Novelty"

Say to them: "I am not a novelty" — بِدْعًا from bid'ah — "I am not a novelty amongst the messengers of Allah in conveying His eternal truths. What I'm doing is not something new — all the prophets did this."

وَمَا أَدْرِي مَا يُفْعَلُ بِي وَلَا بِكُمْ — "Nor do I claim even to know what shall be done with me in this world, nor with you. I don't know what will happen in the future, except whatever Allah has shared with me. I don't know what will happen with me, I don't know what will happen with you." This does not mean the Prophet ﷺ is saying he doesn't know if he's going to go to paradise or hell. That's not what this means. The idea is to say: "I am like a servant — like you — in front of Allah. We're all humble servants, even though I'm a Nabi, and He sent the Qur'an with me, and everything. And my job is to guide you all — but still, I'm a human who is a humble servant of Allah."

SubhanAllah — you could say this is a beautiful way of speaking to people when you want to bring change in someone. You can't speak to your spouse and say, "You need to change." No wife or husband will change like that. You have to always say "we" — "how about we start working on — you know how they call it — areas of growth? So how about, it's a new year, as husband and wife, we start focusing on these areas of growth?" Then you'll see people will be more willing to listen. Look at the Nabi — how he humbles himself to the level of the people, to say: "I'm also a servant like you. Actually I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't know what's going to happen to you." You don't know what's going to happen to you, I don't know what's going to happen to me — he is bringing people close to him so they feel like, "Wow, this prophet — we can connect with him." SubhanAllah.

إِنْ أَتَّبِعُ إِلَّا مَا يُوحَىٰ إِلَيَّ — "I do not follow anything other than what is revealed to me." Look at the humility once again. If this is a Nabi speaking — how can a scholar say, "I'm here to change the deen, I'm here to set what deen is supposed to be like"? No scholar in the world is like that. The Prophet himself is saying, "I follow what I've been told — I follow the orders." وَمَا أَنَا إِلَّا نَذِيرٌ مُّبِينٌ — "For I am only a clear forerunner of the nearing judgment."

So the Prophet is almost saying — like when Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu gave his first khutbah and said: وَلَسْتُ بِمُبْتَدِعٍ — "I am but a follower and I am not an innovator." Abu Bakr al-Siddiq — yes, the greatest of scholars, the greatest of close Sahaba, the greatest of humans after the Prophets — he says: "I am a follower, not an innovator."

This whole progressive Islam — watering down, reinterpretation of Islam — what is all this? "We gotta revisit everything, reinterpret everything." And Abu Bakr al-Siddiq — who is buried right next to the Prophet ﷺ — he says: "I am but a follower." Allahu Akbar. The Prophet himself says, "I am but a follower of revelation," and so his Sunnah is an explanation of that revelation — and that's what we follow.

Closing Du'a

We ask Allah to grant us the deep understanding of what was covered today and grant us an attachment to the Qur'an. May Allah make us all lovers of the Qur'an. May He allow the secrets of the Qur'an to become open to us. آمِينَ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Q&A Session

Q: I just moved to an affluent suburb — how do I ensure I did it for the right reasons?

You have to ask yourself why you did it. If you said you did it for the school district, for the local masjid that's there — that's great. But if a person said, "No, I just want to have a fancy address" — then you've got to change that intention. I'm not saying sell your house. But change your intention. You could say: "This is a closed subdivision — these people are disconnected from the masjid. Now that I'm here, let me start working on them." Have a housewarming party, get to know everyone, get everyone's addresses, then have more open get-togethers at the home. Slowly but surely, you start having a dini get-together where you pray Maghrib together and have a short three-minute reminder. You have to do it covertly sometimes, but believe it or not you can make a massive change. Wealthy, affluent neighborhoods need a lot of work. If you're there already, just change your intention in what you're doing there.

Q: How do I not lose the desire for hidayah?

If a person really constantly thinks about the akhira, thinks about death — and that's this year's theme of the no-tech retreat, about death and preparation for death — when we think about death, when we think about the akhira, when we read the verses of the Qur'an and reflect on what we're reading, inshallah we'll realize that we are badly in need of guidance. Otherwise we're going to be ruined here and there — and that will keep us motivated for hidayah.

Q: What about going to a kahwa house?

The tea here we have is from a kahwa house, so you can enjoy it right here. The thing is — I'm not going to say what's haram and halal. Your job is to make sure you guard your gaze. Your job is to make sure you're not in a place where your deen is being compromised. Your job should be such that wherever you have to go — work, airport, train station, store — you take care of yourself. So if there's a place that becomes a source of fitnah for you, stay away from it. Ask your heart for the fatwa — simple. The fact that you asked this question means you got some hesitation in your heart, that maybe it's not good for you. There's nothing wrong with drinking kahwa — it's just now you have to choose where you drink it. You can drink it in the masjid, or you can drink it with people of the opposite gender sitting around you on a table. That's the decision you have to make.

Q: Does Allah love us more than we love ourselves?

Allah says that the Prophet ﷺ loves you more than you love yourself — so of course Allah loves us more than that.

Q: How to battle loneliness?

You have to ask yourself — maybe you need to reach out to someone to figure out what loneliness means for you. Is it because you're really the only Muslim in the entire apartment complex and you're not married and you're an adult living there on your own? Okay, we've got to figure something out. Or is it that you feel loneliness even though you're sitting with people — you have family with you, you have friends with you, but you feel lonely? So it depends on your situation.

Sometimes loneliness is because of genuine reasons — because you have no proper relationships with anyone. We have to fix that, because we are social beings — we need each other, we need to connect. That's how Allah created us. So we may need to learn how to make friends or attend gatherings where we can find friends. This tafsir gathering is a great place to do that. Don't run home after — grab some tea and talk, meet new people, kind of force yourself. AlhamdulIllah, this is a safe space. Masajid are great places for us to find these connections.

Number two: make sure your relationship with Allah through dhikr is strong. Bring a habit of dhikr in your life — take Allah's name on a regular basis, especially dhikr al-qalb — dhikr in the heart. 500 times, 1000 times — take Allah's name in your heart. It will really make you feel Allah's connection on a daily basis.

Q: Regarding kufis and covering the head

There is a book called The Crown of the Believer written by Mufti Husain Kadodia. He has a collection of 200 hadith on covering the head — 200 hadith from the Sahaba as well as the Prophet's own actions. So yes, covering the head is something that's found within the Sunnah.

Q: Sometimes I feel I'll be okay on the Day of Judgment — how do I get out of this mindset?

This mindset of being hopeful in Allah is good — we should be hopeful. But iman is between hope and fear. We also have to make sure there is the fear factor. That's why, mashallah, we have an amazing collection of books about the Day of Judgment, about Hellfire, about Paradise. Whether it's Riyad al-Salihin, or Downpour of Blessings, or Journey of the Hereafter — there are so many amazing books. Pick one up and read through it. Honestly, we need to spend time reading these things. When you read those hadith, when you read books on tazkiyah, when you read books on the Hereafter — it will have a powerful effect on you. You'll close the book and say, "What am I doing?"

So I would suggest spending sohba of the books — good companionship — and that is spending time with some of these books. Reading the stories of the Sahaba will give us the desire for the akhira the way the Sahaba had. When we travel for programs in other cities, I like to always carry books with us. And in all these cities we go to, we ask them: "Where's your local Islamic bookstore?" I promise you — big, massive cities — there is not a single Islamic bookstore. Not a single one. Till the eye can see — East, West, North, South — there's nothing. Reading is just slowly dying out, and so this is a problem. We have to really create a culture of not just buying books, but rather, more importantly, sitting with books and actually reading them. There's so much written there that will have a powerful effect on our lives.

We ask Allah to allow myself and all of us to benefit from the Qur'an and Sunnah and from the writings of the ulama. آمِينَ يَا رَبَّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Alhamdulillah. La ilaha illallah, Muhammadur Rasulullah ﷺ. وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ