"It is I, Allah" (Surah TaHa) - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

Opening — Khutbah al-Hajah

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا، مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ، وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا

وَمَن يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا

Amma ba'd. Indeed the best of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ, and the worst of matters are those newly introduced, and every newly introduced matter is an innovation, and every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

"It is I, Allah" — The Opening of Revelation to Musa

Allah says in a verse in Surah Ta-Ha:

"Indeed it is I, Allah. None has the right to be worshipped except Me. So worship Me, and establish the prayer for My remembrance."

This is a verse that is in relation to the story of the Prophet of Allah, Musa (عليه السلام). As we know, his childhood and formative years are in Egypt. Then one day, when he accidentally kills an Egyptian man, he flees and runs away from Egypt. As he is lost and looking for a place to go, he comes across a town called Madyan. There in Madyan, through a single act of kindness and a gesture of chivalry, Musa is given asylum. He marries from that land, and he makes an agreement to stay there for eight to ten years.

After that allotted time elapses, Musa takes his family and leaves Madyan. As he is walking with his family in the darkness of the desert — not knowing where to go, he is lost — Musa sees a fire at the top of the mountain of at-Tur. So he says to his family: "You wait here, I have found some fire. Perhaps I will go, and those people who have lit this fire — I will ask them for advice, I will take directions from them. Or at the very least, I will bring some of that fire so that we can use it and benefit from it."

So Musa on his own goes to the top of the mountain of at-Tur. But that fire that he sees — that is not a fire that has been kindled by man. It is not a group of people seeking warmth and shelter, but it is the light that Allah placed there. Musa is instructed: "O Musa, take off your sandals, because you are in the holy valley of Tuwa."

Musa is then addressed by Allah, and at this moment Allah will make this man — Musa — one of the greatest prophets and mightiest messengers. How does Allah begin that interaction? What is the first thing that Musa is told to realise and acknowledge so that he can become a prophet of Allah? Allah says to him: "O Musa, indeed it is I, Allah. None has the right to be worshipped except Me. None has the right to be worshipped except Me. So worship Me, and establish the prayer for My remembrance."

The first thing that Musa knows and realises about Allah is the oneness, the greatness, the magnificence, and the majesty of Allah.

The Central Theme of the Quran — Knowing Allah

When you look throughout the Quran, Allah stresses this issue over and over again, time and time again. Some of the scholars are of the opinion that over a third of the Quran deals only with this single topic — and that is the topic of Allah. Allah speaks about Himself, He describes Himself, He gives us His names and His attributes, His powers and His abilities. Allah mentions for us His signs and the different forms and shapes that they take — all of this because of the importance of this single topic: knowing Allah.

Because when you have that knowledge of Allah and you are able to transform it into your daily life — you are able to transform it in your ibadah, your worship; you are able to transform it in the way that you deal with the people around you; you are able to transform it so that when trials and tests, problems and difficulties face you, you know what to do and how to react to those issues — when you transform that knowledge of Allah into your practical daily life, it is one of the greatest — if not the greatest — blessing of Allah.

And that is why the prophets of Allah would focus on this issue. Musa (عليه السلام) — this is the beginning of his message. Our own Prophet ﷺ — when Allah reveals those first verses to him in the cave of Hira in Mecca — it is about knowing Allah, knowing the importance of Allah, knowing the power of Allah in His creation.

The Example of Ibrahim — Wanting to Know More

The prophets of Allah would actively learn more about Allah. They would want to know more. You have the example of Ibrahim (عليه السلام), one of the greatest prophets of Allah. As Allah mentions in Surah al-Baqarah, what does he say?

"O Allah, allow me to see how You give life to the dead." So Allah said to him: "Do you not have iman? Do you not believe in this?" He said: "Yes, I believe, but I want to increase and make stronger my iman." So Allah tells him to take four birds, to slaughter them, to cut them up into pieces, and to place a part of each of those birds onto different mountains. Then to call them — and Allah would resurrect those birds and they would come flying to Ibrahim. Ibrahim wants to know more about the power of Allah.

So some of the most virtuous and greatest verses of the Quran speak about Allah. Surah al-Fatihah is a surah about Allah. Ayat al-Kursi — it is a verse about Allah. Surah al-Ikhlas — it equals a third of the Quran, it is a surah dedicated to knowing Allah.

The Signs of Allah — Surah al-Rum

Allah tells us in Surah al-Rum, in a beautiful passage — and these passages are often repeated in the Quran — Allah tells us about His signs and His powers, so that when you walk outside, when you wake up in the morning, when you are busy in your day and you see these things all around you as you do on a daily basis, you remember: the root of this is by the permission of Allah. This is the creation of Allah.

Allah says: From the signs of Allah is that He created you from dust, and now you are a nation — mankind, a whole species of people who are dispersed across the earth. And from the signs of Allah is that He created from you your spouses, so that you may live together with one another, and Allah placed between you mercy and love. These are from the signs of Allah.

So when you are at home and you see your family, you see your children — you realise that that is from the grace of Allah. That is a sign that Allah will allow two strangers who don't know each other — they are probably not related — but by a single act of signing the nikah contract, they become the closest of people to one another, and then their children are more dear to them, and they would sacrifice more for them than for any other human upon this planet. That is a sign of Allah.

And from the signs of Allah is the creation — the heavens and the earth — and the diversity that you see in colour and in language. Just in this masjid, if you look around, we have people of so many different shades of colour, people who speak so many different languages, come from so many different backgrounds and ethnicities, but all of them are together sitting with one another — that is from the signs of Allah.

And from the signs of Allah is that you sleep by day and by night, and you seek the grace of Allah and His bounty. When you go to work and you try to earn a halal rizq, a halal living — some people work during the day and they sleep during the night, others work during the night and they sleep during the day — all of this is from the signs of Allah.

And from the signs of Allah is the thunder and the lightning that inspire hope but also inspire fear — hope in the sense that rain will come, but fear because of the terror of thunder and lightning. And then Allah causes the heavens to open and rain to descend, and He brings the earth back to life after its death — that is from the signs of Allah. And from the signs of Allah is that everything that happens in the heavens and the earth is by the permission and the command of Allah.

Hadiths on the Greatness and Majesty of Allah

So Allah over and over again describes Himself — and this methodology, which is so important and integral to the Quran, is something which our Prophet ﷺ would spend a lot of time and effort also dispensing to his companions.

The Hadith of Ibn Abbas — The Mustard Seed

The Prophet ﷺ told us, as in the hadith of Abdullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما), speaking about Allah's majesty and magnificence:

The example of the seven heavens and the seven earths in the hand of Allah is like the example of a mustard seed placed in your hand.
(Reported by Ibn Jarir al-Tabari in his Tafsir; similar narrations in Musnad Ahmad)

That is the scale of Allah — that is how great and magnificent Allah is. So when you say Allahu Akbar — Allah is the Greatest — this is what you are referring to: Allah's greatness over His creation, Allah's greatness in the perfection of His names and His attributes, His powers and His abilities.

The Hadith of Ibn Umar — The Day of Judgment

In the hadith of Abdullah ibn Umar (رضي الله عنهما), the Prophet ﷺ said:

Allah will grasp the heavens and the earth on the Day of Judgment, take them in His Hand, and proclaim: "I am the King — where are the tyrants? Where are the arrogant?"
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7412; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2788)

Abdullah ibn Umar said that when the Prophet ﷺ was standing on his minbar narrating this hadith, he was so passionate and so overcome by emotion that the whole minbar began to shake with him — to the extent that I thought to myself: the minbar is going to fall over, it is going to topple over with the Prophet ﷺ.

The Hadith of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari — Allah Does Not Sleep

In another hadith in Sahih Muslim, from the authority of Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (رضي الله عنه), the Prophet ﷺ said:

Indeed Allah does not sleep, nor is it befitting for Him to sleep. He lowers the scale and raises it. The actions of the night are taken to Him before the actions of the day, and the actions of the day before the actions of the following night. His veil is light — if He were to remove it, the radiance of His Face would burn everything His sight reached of His creation.
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 179)

Indeed Allah does not sleep, nor is it befitting for His majesty that He should sleep. So when you need something, you are in need, you want to make du'a, you need to turn to someone — turn to Allah. His veil is all light. If Allah were to remove only a small portion of that veil, then His radiance, His majesty, and His light would burn everything that it touched. That is Allah.

Transforming Knowledge of Allah into Daily Life

So here today — 2016, Green Lane Masjid, Birmingham — we are sitting here on this autumn Friday. All of us have come across these verses of the Quran, we have heard these hadith, we know what it means to worship Allah — or at least we think we understand what it means. But taking that knowledge and transforming it into your every single daily life — that is where the challenge lies. That is the test of iman: that you don't just know the theory, but you are able to take it and put it into practice.

So we have issues. We have problems with our families. We have problems with our health. Some of us are in financial difficulty. And then we have the wider problems that we see in society — Islamophobia, extremism, terrorism, the way that Muslims are being treated, Brexit and the economy, people worried about their wealth and their money, pennies and pounds and so on and so forth. All of these challenges — every single challenge — the way to overcome them is through the knowledge of Allah.

Because if you know your Lord, you know Allah, you know His names, you know His attributes, you know His powers and His abilities — you learn about Allah and what Allah does, and how Allah's laws work upon this universe — then you know how to overcome each and every single one of those trials. And Allah has given us examples of so many of them in the Quran.

Financial Difficulties — Allah is al-Razzaq

Yes, we are going through a recession. Yes, the economy is tough. Yes, the pound is falling. And so we are worried about our money. But at the same time, when we look at Allah and the names of Allah and the attributes of Allah, we know that Allah is al-Razzaq — He is the one who provides. Allah is al-Wahhab — He is the one who bestows. We know from the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ that Allah has written for each and every single one of us our rizq, our provision. It is written for us. So even if that provision were to be in the depths of the oceans, Allah would bring it to you one way or another. So we work, we earn a living, we seek out that rizq in a halal way — and through matching those means with tawakkul in Allah, the two come together. Recession or no recession.

So when you come to the masjid and the brother announces after salah: give charity, donate to the masjid — shaitan will come and he will say: no, no, no, we are in recession. Even if you are going to give, give a pound; don't give notes, give coins. But we know as Muslims that Allah is al-Razzaq, and Allah has written all of this already.

Health — Allah is al-Shafi

We have problems with our health — like Ayyub (عليه السلام) did in the Quran — but Allah is al-Shafi. Yes, we will go to the doctors, we will take our appointments, we will go and take all of those halal steps and means. But Allah is the one who gives cure. And our Prophet ﷺ told us that Allah never caused an illness to descend except that He placed with it its cure. We may not know the cure, but the cure is there along with the illness. That is our religion.

So now that you know that aspect of the power of Allah, His names and His attributes — your outlook towards that issue is completely different. Every single issue that you are faced with: take that knowledge that you learn from the Quran, take that knowledge that you know of Allah, and transform it into your life in a practical way.

What Does It Actually Mean to Know Allah?

This is something that we need to do, and it is something we need to instil within our children. Most of us here — we don't really know Allah the way that we should. We haven't really spent time learning about Allah. We know that Allah has names and attributes, we know there are 99 of them, we may even know some of them by memory and know the meaning and translation of some of those names. But what does it actually mean when Allah says that He is al-Rahman? When Allah says that He is al-Rahim? When Allah says that He is al-Malik, al-Quddus? These names that we come across, that we hear in the Quran, that we hear the imam reciting in the salah — what does it actually mean?

That step, that effort — that is what the prophets of Allah would do. That is what they would spend their time doing: learning about this. That is what they would spend their time teaching their followers. Our religion — Allah has made us from amongst the very few nations and religions, if there is any other besides us, that know so much detail about Allah. Allah didn't just say "worship Me" and then give us no other information. In fact, it is the opposite — a large portion of the Quran is about Allah. There are countless ahadith that the Prophet ﷺ narrated to us about our Lord and Creator. That knowledge is there because through that knowledge you come closer to Allah.

So the surahs that you know of the Quran — many of them speak about Allah, they speak about His powers and His attributes. The surahs that you read, like Surah al-Kahf on a Friday, or Surah al-Mulk before you go to sleep — those surahs and passages of the Quran that the Prophet ﷺ told us to focus on and concentrate on, on a daily basis, on a weekly basis — these are the parts of the Quran that speak about Allah. And that is why the focus is on them. That is why you are told to concentrate on them — because you are supposed to read those surahs, understand them, take that knowledge of Allah, and then implement it into your lives.

The Trap of Shaitan — Turning People Away from This Door

This is something that we are missing. And it is from the greatest traps of shaitan that he comes and turns people away from this single door — "don't learn about Allah," or "you already know who Allah is." So you have a person who thinks he knows about Allah, but when they pray and they say Allahu Akbar they don't have a clue what they are saying — they don't understand a single word of what is in that salah. Yes, they know Allah and they worship Allah and insha'Allah they are a good Muslim, but they haven't spent any time and effort learning about the names and attributes of Allah, learning about what Allah has said in the Quran.

How Shirk First Came Upon This Earth

The way that shirk first came upon this earth — it was because of ignorance that people had regarding Allah. When people didn't realise who Allah was, they didn't understand Allah's names and attributes. So shaitan came to the people of a generation before Nuh (عليه السلام). He told them to make idols because it would remind them of pious people who had passed away. Those people, not understanding, not knowing any better — lack of knowledge, lack of learning — they built those idols, they made them, they constructed them. And shaitan left them until that generation died, and the next one came and died, until people didn't even realise why those idols were there in the first place. And then he came to them and said: "These idols are for worship. These are your gods."

So those people didn't think: this idol doesn't eat, doesn't drink, doesn't speak, doesn't move. Such was their ignorance that they would go and worship them besides Allah. Like the people of Quraysh — they weren't stupid people, they weren't people without intelligence. Abu Jahl — that we call Abu Jahl — in the Jahiliyyah was known as Abul Hakam: the father of wisdom and knowledge. But when that knowledge didn't bring him closer to Allah, the Prophet ﷺ called him Abu Jahl — the father of ignorance.

So those people were intelligent people, they were businessmen, they were people who had wealth and money. But when it came to this issue of worshipping Allah, shaitan came and made them so befuddled that they didn't even realise — they would build at times a statue, an idol, out of food. They would make it and construct it with their own hands — dates and barley and wheat. And then when famine and drought would come and they wouldn't have any food left, they would go to that same god that they would worship and they would eat it, consume it, because otherwise you die. This was their religion, their understanding of Allah.

The Crux of All Issues in Our Community

Allah in the Quran, and the Prophet ﷺ in the Sunnah, draw our attention to this issue — and it is at the crux of all issues. We have many problems in our community and we need many things: we need better Islamic schools, we need people in different professions, we need the community to come together and become a single body upon the truth. We need many things. But at the crux of all of those issues is this one central issue: we don't even know Allah the way that we should, and we don't know how to transform that knowledge of Allah into our daily lives.

So focusing on this issue may seem — and shaitan will make it seem — insignificant. But in reality, it is the most important and the crux of all matters.

A Message to Parents and Children

This is one of the Jumu'ahs, one of the opportunities that we have in the year to address the younger members of our congregation — our younger brothers and sisters who are on their half-term holidays. And it is a rare opportunity that we have, that we have parents and their children all together in a single place. And the message that I want to give in this khutbah on this Friday is this: all of us together — as parents and as children, and parents towards their children — this issue of learning about Allah and seeking knowledge of Allah is extremely important.

We as parents often look at our children, we look at the challenges we face in society, and one of the greatest concerns that we have is how to preserve their Muslim identity — how to make them constructive citizens of this country, people who can give back to society — all the time preserving their identity, knowing who they are, being proud of their Islam, worshipping Allah. But they will only be able to do this if they understand who Allah is. Why it is that they stand in front of Allah — not just simply because their father or mother took them to the masjid, or because their parents used to say "pray" and they would pray, not really understanding. That is our responsibility: to ingrain and to place within their hearts that understanding of who Allah is.

And we have resources available. There are ways that this is done, but it will take commitment and time. Make this knowledge of who Allah is something that your children can understand in its practicalities. Don't just sit with them with the three categories of tawhid and speak to them as if you're speaking to university-level students, or just simply read a book like you would a bedtime story. Think about what Allah is saying in the Quran. Learn how to present that material in a way that will actually benefit them and make it real life.

So when they go out and they have a problem at school, or they have a problem with their studies or with their friends — or you have a problem as a family — connect it back to Allah. The scholars of Islam — when their children would be naughty, when they would misbehave — they wouldn't ingrain within them the fear of their parents, but they would ingrain within them the fear of Allah. "What you did was wrong. And you should be sorry — not because your father may come and shout at you, or your mother may come and rebuke you — you are wrong because Allah knows you are wrong. So even though no one else may see you — your father, your mother, your brother, your sister — no one else can see you, but Allah is all-seeing, Allah is all-hearing, Allah is all-knowing."

So in this way, as they learn about Allah and they become connected to Allah, it is more than just simply do's and don'ts — they will learn to turn back to Allah.

The Final Hadith — The Prophet ﷺ and Ibn Abbas

The Prophet ﷺ, with his young cousin Abdullah ibn Abbas (رضي الله عنهما) — the son of his uncle, one of the closest and dearest people to him — ingrained and instilled within him the knowledge of Allah:

"O young man, if you want to ask, ask of Allah. If you want to seek assistance, seek assistance from Allah. Know that if all the people of the universe were to unite to benefit you with something, they could not do so except by what Allah has already written for you. And if they all gathered to harm you with something, they would not be able to do so except by what Allah has already decreed against you."
(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2516 — graded Hasan Sahih)

This is what the Prophet ﷺ told a boy of eight, nine, ten, eleven years old. And that same young boy would grow up and become one of the greatest scholars amongst the companions, and one of the greatest scholars of Islam.

Du'a — Closing Supplication

We ask Allah on this blessed day of Friday that Allah brings us closer to Him, and that Allah gives us knowledge of the Quran and the Sunnah, and that Allah makes us people who know His names and attributes, and that Allah makes our hearts steadfast upon this religion. That He guides us and guides our children and our families, and that Allah keeps away from us all types of evil trials, problems, and difficulties. We ask Allah to make the situation of the Muslims easy, and that Allah brings relief to all of those who are distressed, that Allah cures the ill from amongst us, and that Allah relieves our hardships.

آمين