"They did not Hold Allah (سُبْحَانَهُ وَ تَعَالَ) in His True Esteem" - Shaykh Ahsan Hanif

"They Did Not Hold Allah in His True Esteem"

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى وَخَيْرَ الْهَدْيِ هَدْيُ مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

A Verse Repeated Three Times

In three places in the Quran, Allah repeats a single statement — a single verse — and it is an extremely powerful and important verse. It is a verse that causes us to question our relationship with Allah and the way that we think of Allah. The emotions that the name of Allah evokes — or should invoke — within our hearts. When we hear the name Allah, or we say the name Allah as we do throughout the day multiple times, what takes place in our hearts? What emotions are there? How do we truly think of Allah?

When we say the name of Allah, do we have the fear and the hope and the trust and the love and that sense of humility and submission that we should have before Allah? Or do we now just say the name of Allah as if it's something like we discussed the weather, or sports, or the latest political happenings? The name Allah should invoke something in our hearts.

In Surah Al-An'am, Surah Al-Hajj, and Surah Al-Zumar — three times in the Quran — Allah says: they did not give to Allah the full esteem that He deserves. They didn't glorify Allah the way He deserves to be glorified. They didn't revere Allah the way that He should be revered.

The way that we think of Allah, the majesty and the glory that we attribute to Allah — Allah is saying, and these verses are primarily speaking about the Quraysh and about the people of the scriptures before us and about the polytheists of Mecca — because their relationship with Allah, even though they knew the name Allah and they would say Allah and sometimes they would call upon Allah, they didn't know the full measure of Allah.

And so that brings us to the here and now — the question that pertains to me and you. How much do we know of Allah? How is our relationship with Allah? How much reverence? How much glorification? How much majesty have we attributed to Allah?

The First Verse — Surah Al-An'am: Knowing Allah

In Surah Al-An'am, Allah says they did not esteem Allah in the way that He deserves — when they said that Allah hasn't revealed anything to mankind. The Quraysh and the Arabs, despite knowing that Allah is a god and that Allah is a lord, they didn't esteem Allah, they didn't revere and glorify Allah as He deserves, because they didn't understand Allah. They didn't learn about Allah. They knew the name Allah, but they thought that Allah is weak — so we need to call upon others. They knew the name Allah, but they thought they couldn't call upon Allah directly — so they would have 360 idols just inside and around the Ka'bah. They knew the name Allah, but then they would build or create or make idols with their own hands from dried barley and dates, and then at times of famine and extreme hunger they would go to those same gods they claimed to worship and they would eat them. They didn't esteem Allah in the way that He deserves to be esteemed.

Allah in so many verses in the Quran, and our Prophet ﷺ in multiple, numerous hadith, they focus upon our knowledge of Allah — learning about Allah. How can you truly worship Allah and know what it means to even say the name Allah, to invoke Allah, to pray before Allah, to sacrifice to Allah, to make du'a to Allah — when you really know nothing about Allah?

Allah tells us in the Quran in Surah Nuh:

What is wrong with you that you don't attribute to Allah the majesty that He deserves? He created you in stages. Do you not see how Allah created the seven heavens in levels, and He placed the moon within it as a light and He placed the sun within it as a lamp? And then He made you grow forth from the earth as if you were plants, and then He will return you to that same earth and bring you out from it once again. And He spread the earth beneath your feet so that you may travel and traverse its paths.

Allah is the one who created everything. Allah is the one who provides for us and sustains us. Allah is the one who gives us life and death, and Allah is the one who decrees our lifespan and our provision. Allah controls everything in this universe — everything is in His kingdom and in His dominion.

Say to them: do they not see that if Allah was to make it perpetual darkness and night — all that you had was darkness and night — which god besides Allah could bring you light? Do you not hear? Say to them: do they not see that if Allah was to make it perpetual daylight — no darkness, no night — which god besides Allah could bring them that night so that they may rest therein? Do they not hear? Do they not see?

To Allah belong the keys of the unseen — no one knows them except Him. And Allah knows what is in the land and what is in the sea, and not a single leaf falls from a tree except that He knows it. If you were to go into your garden this morning when the wind was strong — a blustery day like today — and you were to stand in front of a tree and try to count every single leaf that fell, and to record where they fell and when they fell and how they fell, it would be an extremely difficult, if not impossible, task. And that's one tree. Let alone every tree in your garden, every tree in your street, every tree in Small Heath, in Birmingham, in the UK — and then all of the world with its jungles and its woods and its forests. Not a single leaf falls except that Allah knows it and knows its place. And there is not a grain or a seed upon this earth except that Allah knows its place. Allah knows nothing living, nothing dead, except that it has been recorded by Allah in a clear book. That is Allah.

The Prophet ﷺ told us: Allah does not sleep and it is not befitting that He should sleep. He is the one who causes provision to descend and He raises it. He's the one who determines what you take and what you don't take. The actions of the day are raised to Him before the actions of the night, and the actions of the night are raised to Him before the actions of the day. His veil is full of light — were it to be removed, the splendor of His face would destroy everything that the rays of His face reached. That is our Lord, and that is the creation that He created.

(Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 343)

The Prophet ﷺ told us: Allah has given me permission to inform you of one angel — from the many angels of Allah. Allah's angels number in the multiple millions; so many angels. The Prophet ﷺ told us that every single day 70,000 angels enter into it — to worship Allah, to pray to Allah, to glorify Allah — and when they leave, they will never return to it again, because there's always another group of 70,000 waiting. Me and you, we go for Hajj, we go for 'Umrah — those people that are making tawaf and sa'i, some of them have been there only once, some of them twice, some of them five times, ten times, twenty, thirty, forty times. We have that ability. But those angels, because of their vast multitude, they don't come back to that house in the heavens — because there are so many of them waiting to get in.

I have been told about a single one of those angels, from the angels of Allah, from the throne-bearers — from the ones that carry the Throne of Allah: the distance between its earlobe to its shoulder is the distance of 700 years of travel. 700 years. And that's only a portion of its body. That is how vast the creation of Allah is.

So when we know that that is our Lord and Creator, when we know who Allah is — by His names and by His powers and by His attributes and by His abilities as mentioned to us in the Quran and as our Prophet ﷺ mentioned to us in the Sunnah — then why, when we're looking for provision, would we turn to other than Allah? Why is it that when we need something we turn to other than Allah? When we want something we ask from other than Allah?

Say: He is Allah, the King of all kings. He takes away kingdom from whomsoever He wills. He is the one who gives kingdom and removes kingdom. He is the one who honors and He is the one who humiliates. Allah throughout the Quran tells us about who He is so that we can begin to know Allah, so that we won't be like those Quraysh who, despite knowing the name of Allah and despite knowing that Allah is their Lord and their god, wouldn't understand how to worship Allah.

The Second Verse — Surah Al-Hajj: Worshipping Allah Alone

And that brings us to the second time in which this verse is repeated — in Surah Al-Hajj. Allah says:

O people, a parable has been set forth — so pay attention to it. Those that you call upon besides Allah cannot even create a fly, even if they were all to unite and cooperate on this. All of the people of this earth, with all of our technology and all of our science, with all of our intellectual brilliance — if we were all to come and cooperate and unite and help one another and speak to one another and share ideas with one another — we can't even create the fly, which is one of the most insignificant and smallest of the creatures that Allah has created.

And if that same fly was to come and take something from them, they wouldn't be able to retrieve it. On a hot summer's day in your house, when you have food on the table, when you have juice in a jug and the windows are open, and those flies come in and they land on your food — they land on your drink — and they take from it, all you can do is shoo them away. You can't retrieve that food. You can't take back from them what they drank or what they ate. You don't even have the power to take from it.

So the one that pursues and the pursued — both of them are weak. The gods that people call on besides Allah are weak, and the one calling upon those gods is weak, and the one chasing the fly is also weak. All of them are weak. And then Allah says: مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ — Why would people do this? Why would people worship these gods besides Allah when they know that they have no power, no ability — they can't hear, they can't speak, they can't see; some of them are dead in their graves, or made of wood and iron and other materials? Because they didn't give Allah the esteem that He deserves. They didn't glorify Allah in a manner in which He deserves. They don't understand Allah in the way that they should in order to worship Him.

And that's the same as it is today. How many people in our communities, in our families, amongst our friends and our relatives, will still go to other than Allah when it comes to things that only Allah can provide? Couples who don't have children will go to a so-called "pious person" and they'll write for them a notepaper made of symbols and numbers and boxes, then wrap it up and tell them: "drink that every morning and every evening — put it in water and drink the water." And they'll do so more religiously than they'll stand in front of Allah and pray five times a day. Or they're told to take it as an amulet and put it around their neck, and they will never take it off — never remove it — because of how much they believe in that script that he wrote.

مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ — they don't understand Allah. They don't give Allah the esteem that He deserves. They don't revere Allah in the manner that He deserves to be revered.

Or someone else comes and they want provision, or someone is sick, and they go to someone who tells them: "Go and sacrifice such and such an animal at so-and-so's grave," or "Go and worship that person and make du'a to them." And people would do it — because they think that that child, that money, that illness will be removed by those people, by worshipping other than Allah — even though Allah says that this is exactly what the Quraysh did. مَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ — they don't know Allah, they don't understand Allah.

And this is the same danger that we're in — the same problem that we're in. The more we become distanced from Allah, the more that we learn or know less and less about Allah, the greater the opening for Shaytan to come and to twist our understanding. Our perception of Allah, our understanding of Allah, our relationship with Allah — all of it is in danger.

But when you have that pivotal moment of connecting with Allah — of understanding who Allah is, of affording Allah the esteem and the reverence and the glorification that He deserves — it is a moment in which you become closer to Allah, and a moment in which Allah can forgive all of your sins.

The Story of the Man Who Feared Allah

The Prophet ﷺ told us in the hadith collected in al-Nasa'i, with its origin in Sahih al-Bukhari and other collections:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3478; Sahih Muslim, Book 50, Hadith 24)

There used to be a man who lived before you. This man was given much wealth and many children, but he spent all of that wealth and all of his time busy following his desires — until he was upon his deathbed, about to die. So he gathered his children together and said to them: "What kind of a father was I to you?" And they replied: "You were a good father. You were a good parent to us." So he said to them: "But I never did a good deed — I never did anything to come closer to Allah." Why? Because throughout his life, مَا قَدَرَ اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ — he didn't give Allah the esteem that He deserved.

But now, at this moment on his deathbed, he understands. So he said to them: when I die, take my body and burn it — cremate me. Then take my remains and crush them into ashes, and wait for a day in which a strong wind will come. Take half of my ashes and scatter them into the sea, and the other half, scatter them onto the land. And he made them promise — took from them oaths and promises — that this is what they would do.

This is a man who, because of his ignorance, believes in Allah — he's someone who understands that Allah should be worshipped alone — but because of his ignorance he doesn't understand that Allah can reunite him, that Allah can bring him back to life, that cremation will help him escape from the judgment of Allah. But he gives this final parting advice to his children.

So when he dies, they take his remains and they cremate him, and they take those remains and crush them into ashes, and they wait for a briskly strong windy day, and they take half of his ashes and scatter them on the land, and half in the sea. And then the Prophet ﷺ said that Allah will command that he be reunited. In one narration, the hadith says that Allah will reunite him in the blink of an eye — all of those millions of particles. Why? Because knowing that is part of knowing who Allah is — part of knowing the power of Allah — that there is nothing upon the face of this earth that can escape from Allah, no matter what lengths they go to, no matter which extremes they may go to. Everything is under the control of Allah.

In the blink of an eye, that man will be gathered. And then Allah will say to him: "What caused you to do what you did? What caused you to say what you said?" And the man will reply: "I have fear of You, O Allah." At this pivotal moment, he understood Allah and he was afraid. "It is Your fear, O Allah, that caused me to do this." So Allah will forgive him his sins and will enter him into Jannah.

That moment of understanding who Allah is — what we should afford to Allah, the way that we should glorify Allah — this is something that we must understand. Because that's the knowledge that you should pass on to your children. When our children fear us more than they fear Allah — that's a problem. When we are ashamed and embarrassed to do things in front of certain people, but when we're alone we forget that Allah sees and Allah hears and Allah knows — and we sin — that's a problem.

You haven't given to Allah the esteem — the full measure — that He deserves.

The Third Verse — Surah Al-Zumar: The Day of Judgment

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ وَالْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَالصَّلَاةُ وَالسَّلَامُ عَلَى رَسُولِ اللَّهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَمَنْ وَالَاهُ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا. أَمَّا بَعْدُ.

In the third place in the Quran — in Surah Al-Zumar — Allah brings to us the information that we need concerning who He is. The first verse was about knowing Allah and learning about Him. The second verse was that after you know Allah, that should lead you to worship Him alone — when you need something, you turn to Allah; when you want to make du'a, you turn to Allah; when you need rizq or you need someone to cure you, before you go to anyone else, you turn to Allah. From the moment that you wake up until the moment that you sleep, our lives should revolve around Allah.

And then Allah says in Surah Al-Zumar that Allah will hold us to account on the Day of Judgment:

They didn't give Allah the full esteem that He deserves. And the earth and everything within it will be in Allah's grasp on the Day of Judgment, and the heavens will be rolled up in the right hand of Allah. Glory be to Allah and far removed is He from the shirk that they commit with Him. Everything that we do in this life, Allah will hold us to account for. Allah will bring us to judgment, and if we don't understand Allah in this life, if we don't give Allah the full esteem that He deserves — then on the Day of Judgment, everyone will know this. That will become sure knowledge before Allah, when everyone is standing before His judgment.

The Prophet ﷺ on the Minbar

In the hadith of Abdullah ibn 'Umar رضي الله عنهما, he said that the Prophet ﷺ stood on the minbar one day in his mosque in Medina and he recited this verse from Surah Al-Zumar:

They haven't given to Allah the full measure — the esteem that He deserves — and the earth will be in His grasp on the Day of Judgment, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand. Glory be to Him; far removed is He from those with whom they make shirk. And then the Prophet ﷺ began to glorify Allah, and he did it with so much passion and so much vigor that the minbar — the pulpit — beneath his feet began to shake, until Ibn 'Umar said: "We thought that it would topple over with him."

The Jewish Rabbi and the Torah

In the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 4811; Sahih Muslim, Book 50, Hadith 22)

Ibn Mas'ud رضي الله عنه said that a Jewish rabbi came one day to the Prophet ﷺ and said to him: "O Muhammad, we find in the Torah that it is written with us that Allah will place the heavens on a finger, and the earths on a finger, and the trees on a finger, and all of the bodies of water and the oceans on a finger, and every other creation on a finger — and then He will say: 'I am the King.'" The Prophet ﷺ began to smile, to show that he agreed with the statement of the rabbi. And then he recited this verse:

But they didn't give to Allah the full esteem that He deserves.

Each and every single one of us will stand before Allah and be held to account. So if in this life we don't understand who Allah is — if our relationship with Allah isn't strong, if our worship of Allah isn't the way that it should be, if we're not praying our prayers and we're not giving our zakah and we're not performing hajj and we're not doing all of those obligations that Allah placed upon us, or we're not staying away from the prohibitions that Allah made haram upon us, and then we don't make tawbah, we don't turn to Allah, we don't seek His forgiveness — then we will know His wrath on the Day of Judgment.

The Prophet ﷺ said — in the hadith of Ibn 'Umar رضي الله عنهما:

(Sahih Muslim, Book 50, Hadith 23)

Allah will roll up the heavens on the Day of Judgment and He will take them in His right hand and He will say: "I am the King. Where are those people who are the despots, the arrogant, the haughty, the proud of the earth?" And then He will take the heavens and the earth and roll them up in His other hand and He will say the same thing: "I am the King. Where are those people who are the evil-doers, the arrogant, the despots of the world?"

Every single prayer, when we stand we say مَالِكِ يَوْمِ الدِّينِ — Allah is the one who is the King, the Sovereign, the Owner of the Day of Judgment. And that means that we will stand on that Day before Him and be held to account.

Conclusion: The Question We Must Answer

Allah, three times in the Quran, tells us:

They didn't give to Allah the esteem that He deserves.

So the question that I want to leave you with is: How much do you know about Allah? What is your relationship with Allah? When the name Allah is said to you, what do you feel — and what are the emotions that take place in your heart? And what will you do to learn about Allah — so that when you stand before Allah in prayer, when you open the book of Allah and you read His verses, when the name of Allah is mentioned, when you call upon Allah and you say Allahumma — O Allah — will you know who Allah is? Will you revere and glorify Allah in the manner in which He deserves?

Ask Allah that He makes us strong in iman, that Allah gives us the knowledge that brings us closer to Him, and that Allah makes us from amongst those people who glorify Him in the way that He deserves to be glorified and revere Him with the reverence that He deserves. And that Allah makes us from amongst those people who are grateful and thankful to Him for all of His blessings that He bestowed upon us — that He showers His mercy and forgiveness upon us, our parents, and our families — that He makes us and our children steadfast upon this religion and enters us into the highest levels of Jannah.