Reflecting Upon One's Relationship with Allah (SWT) | Khutbah by Mufti Azeemuddin Ahmed

The Danger of Self-Sufficiency

The issue of regarding ourselves to be self-sufficient. As Allah mentions:

O believers, you are all in need of Allah. You are not self-sufficient. It is only Allah who is worthy of غني, who is free of any need. الحميد, worthy of our praise.

As long as we recognize that we as creation are 100% dependent upon Allah, then we will see Allah's help will come in our homes, in our work, in our business places, and of course on the global scene. But as soon as a person's attention goes towards his own achievements, his material means, his physical means, what happens? Immediately Allah's help is removed. And Allah will show him that notwithstanding all of the extra material things he has, he will not be able to achieve success. And if Allah allows him to achieve some sort of limited success in this world as a test, most definitely he will not be enjoying success in the hereafter. Because the trust moved away from Allah towards himself.

Worshipping One's Desires

So the root cause of the problems that you see within faith issues, all of these cases, it starts off from here, where a person says, I don't understand. And since I don't understand, and I am the arbitrator of what's right and wrong, everything has to make sense to me. If it doesn't make sense to me, I don't care if you're dad, grandfather, ustad, teacher, imam, whoever you are, I'm not gonna listen. Because it doesn't make sense to me.

When a person begins to, as Allah himself beautifully says:

Have you seen the one who has made his own whims and desires his God? It's clearly laid out. In Surah Al-Jathiyah, Allah says, have you seen the person who worships himself? And Allah then has allowed him to go astray even though he has knowledge. Meaning knowledge cannot help a person who is spiritually sick. A person can have degrees, Islamic degrees as well, from very reputable places. But if he worships himself, he will go down the path of destruction. Allah clearly says that in the Quran, عَلَىٰ عِلْمٍ - Even though he has knowledge, he can quote you from right and left, all sorts of text, he can bring for you all sorts of different examples and analogies. And maybe very eloquent in his presentation. But according to Allah, أَضَلَّهُ اللَّهُ, Allah has let him go down the path of destruction because of one major sin that he doesn't want to repent from, which is worshiping himself. Worshiping his desires. Making himself the arbitrator of what's right and what's wrong.

The Spiritual Blindness

وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِ Allah says then, as a punishment, what happens? Allah seals his ears. This is a scholar Allah is speaking about. Even a scholar. So of course a non-scholar for sure included in here. وَخَتَمَ عَلَىٰ سَمْعِهِ Allah seals his ears. وَقَلْبِهِ And Allah seals his heart. وَجَعَلَ عَلَىٰ بَصَرِهِ غِشَاوَةً And Allah puts a veil over his eyes.

So now as much as you're trying to so-called reason with him, you can't reason with someone who is deaf and blind and whose heart is completely sealed. So now everything you bring, brother you know you're quoting Quran and Hadith. What's going on over here? It doesn't make any sense. Because we have two different people we worship. If a person worships Allah, he's gonna go towards one way. But a person who worships himself and all along he will present that he's worshipping Allah and following the sunnah of Rasulullah. He doesn't even realize what he's doing. Because he's so filled with his own arrogance and full of his own subhanAllah self-praise that my intellect has to be the most correct intellect. And I will go ahead and discredit everything before me, behind me. It doesn't make a difference. Because I've said so, that's how it is.

Then Allah says, فَمَن يَهْدِيهِ مِن بَعْدِ اللَّهِ Once Allah allows him to go off track, who can ever guide him? أَفَلَا تَذَكَّرُونَ Do you not take heed. This is a really scary ayah for me. For all of us to think about.

Knowledge Without Humility

The fact that we most of the time today think the reason there is distance from the deen or there is lack of practice of the deen within the world and within the community is because of the lack of knowledge. Most definitely that is true in many parts of the world. But mashAllah, we come from a very educated background in all different fields. And across the world now with the presence of apps and websites, etc. Within seconds a person can have an online dedicated teacher of any field. And not even human. Now you get virtual. Not to say, I support something of that sort. A person needs to study with actual human blood and flesh to be able to get the soul of what we're studying, to get the nur of what we're studying.

How come then it's possible? How often my dads and moms say, my son, my daughter, they've studied Quran, they've actually memorized it as well, but I don't see anything in them. It's so hard to get them to even read Surah Al-Kahf. It takes me an hour to read. My son can read in 15 minutes. SubhanAllah, I'm getting up with a walker and going for fajr. I'm getting my mother, whoever is getting up, you know, subhanAllah, with so much pain, they wake up for tahajjud. But my son, my daughter, I spent so much money sending him to Islamic school, sending him to madrasa, sending him to hafiz school, etc, etc. There's so many involved in so many Muslim activities. But what happens that subhanAllah, when it comes to the actual practice, then we see they're extremely lacking in practicing aspects of the deen. Why is that so? This is a common problem. We see that.

The Need for Humility

So issue is obviously not an issue of knowledge. It's an issue of practice. In order for a person to practice it, a person has to humble himself in front of Allah. A person has to honestly say, with everything I know, it's nothing compared to Allah. I can't flex my muscles in front of Allah. The only thing we have to show is our forehead in front of Allah.

That is why the Quran begins with one of the wisdoms of the Quran beginning with alif, lam, meem. That immediately in front of alif, lam, meem, everyone has to say, Allah knows best what this means. I don't know what it means. No matter what type of degree we come with to the Quran, when we come to this verse, the beginning first verse of surah al-Baqarah, we are told to, hey, you know, this is where a person needs to show the humbleness card. This is such an important thing. Now then Allah will allow a person to start benefiting.

Another place Allah says, that give the glad tidings for those who are humble. What is a sign of humility? What is a sign of iman? When Allah's name is taken, subhanAllah, the hearts tremble.

When we look at any, pick up the biography of any sahabi, or any well-known scholar from the first two or three centuries, most definitely you will see that with the fact beyond being mountains of knowledge, they had mountains of humility. In front of Allah, they never banked on their knowledge. Constantly they were afraid, that ya Allah, what if I will be held responsible for not practicing on what I know?

The Heart Must Be in the Right Place

This is a message for all of us, that if we are not humble in front of Allah, no level of education, no level of schooling will be able to make us into practicing Muslims. We must move away from an idea of the report card is the sign of a person's faith. What did you get? How much did you memorize? How many hadiths have you memorized? How much have you prepared for the Sira competition, for the Adhan competition, for Quran competition? These are great things to encourage people, but that's a separate field. Practicing on that is a separate effort. If we do not make that separate effort, and instead if a person is worshipping himself while involved in all of these activities, as parents we may unfortunately realize that these efforts were not as productive as we had hoped to do so.

So the key important aspect for all of us is that the heart has to be in the right place, and that heart has to be filled with humility and humbleness, number one in front of Allah, for a person to regard himself as insignificant. When a person says, Ya Allah, ana dha'if, qawwi dha'fi fi ridaak. Oh Allah, make my weakness strong in order to please you. Anta al-aziz, wa ana al-faqeer, anta al-ghalib, wa ana al-maghloob, anta al-khaliq, wa ana al-makhluq. Oh Allah, I am the one who is weak, you are the one who is strong. I am the servant, you are the king. Oh Allah, you are the provider, I am the one who is being provided. Ya Allah, you are the most honorable one, I am the despicable one.

Being a Slave of Allah

Beloved fathers and mothers and students and youngsters, understand that if we have a hard time saying, I'm a slave of Allah, then that's a big problem. I've actually been approached after, Brother, you said slave of Allah, I don't like that word. I prefer the word servant. And I'm like, why do you not like the word? Ya, slaves got this weird connotation. SubhanAllah, I don't know, that really hurts me. For me, that is just like, I don't understand, where are you coming from?

Let's leave, forget the linguistic part. You did the honor for me to say that, Ya Allah, I'm nobody. I am genuinely nobody, Ya Allah, it's my honor that you even grace me with Islam. You give me existence, forget, Islam comes second. The fact that you gave me existence out of non-existence, which I didn't deserve. SubhanAllah, that's how humble I am, that I can't even choose my existence. And then you chose to bring me and made me into healthy, and subhanAllah, now you've blessed me with iman, how lucky I am.

The Prophet's Dua from the Conquest of Makkah

The Prophet's dua, from where? From conquest of Makkah. What does he say? He says:

O Allah, indeed you hear me, you see me, nothing of my affairs is hidden from you. O Allah, you can listen to my speech, you can see my position, nothing of my affairs is hidden from you. Ya Allah, I am the one who is in a tough situation, I am the one who is most in need of you. I am the one who is begging you for your help. I am the one who is trembling. I am the one who is filled with fear. I am the one who acknowledges his sins.

The Prophet's dua: I ask you the way a beggar asks. And I beseech you the way a disgraced criminal beseeches for help. And I call out to you the way a scared, blind man asks for help. The supplication of the one whose neck is humbled in front of you. And whose nose is on the ground in front of you, whose body is humbled in front of you.

O Allah, please do not make me deprived and wretched in my dua. I'm begging you, don't let me down. Don't make me wretched and don't make me deprived. O the best of those who give. O the best of those who are asked.

This dua is mentioned in the books of like Al-Hizbul A'dham or Munajat Maqbool, and it's attributed to the Prophet at the time of the conquest of Makkah, which is the highlight of the Prophet's life. Imagine on that day how he could have been acting, coming back into his own city, where he was exiled from.

The Essence of Humility Before Allah

But the humility with which he says that, I hope, I haven't done justice in translating it, nor conveying its powerful meaning. But I want you to read this du'a afterwards, and inshaAllah you and I can cry. Because if this is the Prophet's du'a, saying to Allah, speaking to him like this, how should you and I be speaking to Allah?

Beloved friends, if we work on ourselves and our humility with Allah, everything will fall into place. As dads and moms, as husbands and wives, all our fighting amongst ourselves will end when we say, Allah, I'm nobody. I'm nobody, I'm nothing. If someone looks at me, subhanAllah, with a dirty look, guess what? I deserve worse than that. Because you know my sins, you know myself, I don't demand respect. If Allah gives it to me, alhamdulillah. Allah, have the husnul dhan with Allah, that Allah will forgive us and Allah will give us a great status, which we don't deserve. But the humility has to come within us, and that humility has to be passed down to our kids.

Self-Reflection and Spiritual Awareness

And we have to start, before I look at anybody else, I gotta look at myself. How humble am I in front of Allah? Am I one of those people who's worshipping myself? Am I one of those people who always thinks it's about me? When it comes to our gatherings at home, our gatherings outside, and when it comes to the deen affairs, do I regard myself as the absolute arbitrator of what's right and what's wrong?

My beloved friends, many dads don't realize that they are actually suffering this high level of narcissism themselves. Many dads and moms don't realize, husbands don't realize, wives don't realize. And of course sons and daughters don't realize that many times they are suffering from high levels of arrogance and narcissism. And we may even call it almost shirk with themselves. That they're ascribing themselves as a partner with Allah.

That immediately when some presentation of the deen is given, say, brother, that doesn't make sense to me. I don't care. That's it. I don't care who said it. I don't like it. So, that response didn't come out of a vacuum. It came from a very serious spiritual disease. And that spiritual disease, if it doesn't get rectified, it most definitely can lead to something which is the worst thing. Where a person can outright deny the very existence of Allah.

The Power of Du'a in Cultivating Humility

We must be taking care and wary of our homes. Let's start with ourselves. Check our own heart. Where is my relationship with Allah? Of humility and humbleness. One powerful way to check yourself and to push yourself towards that humility is du'a. Prophet ﷺ, that's why I call du'a, du'a is the essence of ibadah.

In order to make a nice 10-15 minute du'a on the blessed day of Jumu'ah, if you're not rushing back to work, after Jumu'ah please sit for a little bit. Or between Asr and Maghrib, whether you're at work or at home, or in your car, if you can spend a little bit of time when du'as are accepted on Friday, especially at these times between Asr and Maghrib, after Jumu'ah, etc. Making a 10-15 minute du'a, you will not be able to do it unless you're humble. You will not be able to do it unless you truly believe Allah exists.

Teaching Du'a to Our Families

Just make that part of our daily routine, that myself, my wife, my kids, my husband, all of us, we have to make collectively and individually just to get the ball rolling at home. Do collective du'a, just to get the ball rolling so they know how to make du'a. May Allah keep my parents and your parents happy and healthy, say Ameen. May Allah give long life to our parents, and those whose parents have passed away, may Allah fill their qabr with jannah for those.

I'm just sharing, that's how I learn how to make du'a. I learn it from my parents. At home when we were little kids, my mom would make du'a one day, my dad would make du'a one day, and they would rotate. And we would sit as kids and listen, and we'd say Ameen. That was the first, the most powerful learning that we got. That's the same thing we have to be doing at home. That teach our kids, even older ones, how to ask Allah.

Break down in front of Allah. That's what you call being a man. That's what you call being a true servant and slave. Is that you can cry in front of Allah. That we can cry in front of Allah and say, Ya Allah, I need your help.

The Promise of Allah's Support

When a person does that, my beloved friends, honestly this is such a power that Allah will get the forces of nature to fall at your feet. And I'll end with this. That the one who has hope with Allah and believes in Allah's promises, Allah will make the forces of nature subservient to him. Including, of course, your own family will listen and support you. And the one who believes in all the promises and the warnings of the creation only, and not of Allah, Allah will turn the creation against him. And he will now be at the mercy of a thousand enemies that he has no idea how to combat.

Du'a for Spiritual Purification

I ask Almighty Allah to remove the love and the fear of the creation from our hearts that supersedes the love and the fear of Allah. And I ask Allah to fill our hearts with that level of conviction in Allah's promises that will make every difficulty easy for us. And will allow us to get out of every challenge.

May Allah strengthen the iman in our hearts and that of our children. May Allah grant you and I protection from following our nafs and making ourselves the sole arbitrator of what's right and what's wrong. May Allah grant all of us beneficial knowledge. May Allah not allow our knowledge to become a barrier between us and him.

Concluding Quranic Reminder

Allah said, O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared. And do not die except as Muslims.

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 145)

And the Prophet ﷺ said, Indeed, the religion has begun strange, and it will return strange. So glad tidings to the strangers who amend what the people have corrupted of the Sunnah after me.

I say this and ask Allah's forgiveness for me and for you, and for the rest of the Muslims from every sin. So ask His forgiveness. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Second Khutbah

All praise is due to Allah. And peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.

Allah said, Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who have believed, send blessings upon him and greet him with peace.

O Allah, send peace and blessings upon our Master Muhammad and upon the family of our Master Muhammad. And may Allah be pleased with all the companions, especially Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali, may Allah be pleased with them and be pleased with them, and those who followed them with good till the Day of Judgment.

Du'a for the Ummah

O Allah, honor Islam and the Muslims, and preserve Islam and the Muslims. O Allah, heal us, and heal our sick, and the sick of the Muslims, and save the weak among the Muslims in every place.

O Allah, protect our lives, our dead, our witnesses, our absent, our elders, and our male and female. O Allah, whoever You keep alive from us, keep him alive for Islam. And whoever dies from us, let him die upon faith.

Special Du'a for the Deceased

Just a humble request to make du'a for brother Irfan Syed's brother-in-law, who passed away in Pakistan. Please make du'a to Allah, that may Allah forgive his sins. May Allah increase the reward of his good deeds. May Allah make his grave one of the gardens from the gardens of Jannah. May Allah make all the stages, trials, and tests of the hereafter very, very easy for him.

O Allah, make his grave one of the gardens from the gardens of Jannah. O Allah, forgive him, and have mercy on him, and heal him, and forgive him, and honor his descent, and expand his entrance, and wash him with water, and snow, and hail, and purify him from sins as the white robe is purified from filth.

O Allah, protect us before death, and have mercy on us at death, and do not punish us after death, and do not judge us harshly on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed, You are the Forgiving, the Merciful. Indeed, You are the Generous, the Merciful. Our Lord, accept from us. Indeed, You are the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. And forgive us, O our Lord. Indeed, You are the Forgiving, the Merciful.

Closing and Final Reminders

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Might and Glory. And peace be upon the messengers. And all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds.

Indeed, Allah commands justice and good, and giving to relatives, and forbids immorality, and evil, and transgression. He warns you, that you may remember. And remember Allah, the Most High, who remembers you, and call Him to respond to you. And the remembrance of Allah is the greatest. And Allah knows what you do.

Community Announcements

We'll look forward to next time you're in the Chicagoland area. Mufti Azeem will be with us again tonight at IAGD. He'll be doing a program in partnership with MYGD, navigating through a modern society as a Muslim that starts tonight at 8:30 in the IAGD Social Hall.

And the last announcement is there will be Tahajjud Salah this Sunday morning at 4:30 a.m. Jazakallah Khair.

Just a quick announcement. Inshallah we'll pray our Salah in 10 minutes, and also there will be Team Fajr tomorrow. We are starting Team Fajr almost after 10 months, so please do encourage your kids and yourself to come and be a part of Fajr Salah tomorrow morning. There will be a short halaqa after Fajr Salah, and then we'll do breakfast together. So inshallah, please do come and bring your kids as well. Jazakallah.