Allah Didn’t Create You to Be Perfect | The Wisdom Behind Our Sins | Shaykh Dr. Yasir Qadhi

Allah Didn't Create You to Be Perfect

We begin by praising Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for having blessed us to be Muslims, having blessed us to have iman in Him, having blessed us to be in the best of all ummahs, to be the recipients of the best of all books. All of these blessings, we didn't earn them, we didn't deserve them, Allah chose us out of so many others. Allah blessed us to not only believe in Him but to alhamdulillah be wanting to worship Him. There are many who say they believe but their actions are minimal and whatever our shortcomings, whatever our sins are, tonight we find ourselves alhamdulillah in the masjid of one of the masajids of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wanting to come close to Him, wanting to have our sins forgiven, wanting to experience a closeness to Him and inshallah ta'ala this is a blessing from Allah in and of itself that we cannot thank Him enough for.

And today my dear brothers and sisters, tonight I don't have any profound deep lecture prepared. I have been thinking for many days, weeks really about so many things happening in this ummah. But let me begin with a completely random fact. Few weeks ago I was watching a documentary about dinosaurs and the various stages of creation on this earth. And what struck me, of course you've heard this, you've read this, you know this, what struck me for the first time thinking in a different way, they were talking about the different eras of the dinosaurs. And you know the famous one is the Jurassic era and you have the other eras as well, I don't remember their names here. These eras existed 350 million years ago and the world was a very different place. We, mankind has been on this earth probably for 100,000 years or less. And yet Allah created the circumstances for Adam to come down.

Allah's Perfect Preparation

Allah created the perfection of this earth for hundreds of millions of years, actually for billions of years. Before life existed, the earth existed for billions of years. And even though the Quran doesn't give us a detailed cosmological timeline, the Quran references certain things such as Allah has made this entire creation subjugated for you. The whole heavens and the whole earth, Allah has made the circumstances for you. For billions of years, Allah is creating the atmosphere that's going to be perfect for us. Allah is creating the ozone layer going to be exact right, you know, percentages. Allah is creating the perfection of life and air and earth. Allah is creating the valleys, Allah mentions the Quran, I carved out the valleys. And then He sends Adam down to this earth.

Knowing full well that the world and the heavens is full of so many other creations. There were thousands of species before us, if not hundreds of thousands. The angels even before them. And Allah chose to create us. Why? Why would Allah create a new species? A species that frankly is not that powerful compared to the dinosaurs, compared to even the angels. It is not, cannot fly like so many other species can fly, the angels can fly. It is not as pure as the other creations of Allah. And Allah created us knowing that we are fallible and imperfect.

The Angels' Question

Even the angels were wondering, why would you create this creation? Why would you create this creation when here we are worshipping you perfectly? What is the purpose of this creation that is neither fully animal, which is excused. Animals don't have judgment, animals don't have intellect. But nor is it us, angelic. This is in the middle, this is neither here nor there. It has characteristics that can make it animalistic. Why would you do this, oh Allah? And here we are praising you, worshipping you.

We learn in the hadith that the angels were created before us as you know. Before us in eons we cannot even imagine. And when the trumpet will be blown, the angels having continuously worshipped Allah, think about this, the angels don't eat, they don't drink, they don't rest, they don't sleep, they don't procreate, they don't marry. The angels don't stop in what they are doing, they don't need rest. And they don't need entertainment, they don't need hobbies. What do the angels do? Tasbeeh, tahmeed, takbeer. The angels are constantly doing tawaf around the baytul ma'mur. They are constantly doing tasbeeh and takbeer. As Allah says in the Quran, they don't tire of worshipping Allah. This is what the Quran says, they don't even get tired of worshipping Allah.

When Even Angels Acknowledge Their Shortcoming

So the angels who for billions of years have been doing takbeer, tahmeed, tasbeeh, has been doing tawaf of the baytul ma'mur. The baytul ma'mur is the Ka'bah of the angels as we know. When the trumpet is blown, the Prophet ﷺ said, even the angels will die for a period of time. And they will say as an excuse, because that's going to be the first time they are going to stop worshipping Allah. Think about it. For billions of years, more than we can imagine, they have been constantly worshipping Allah. When the trumpet is blown, they know they are going to stop worshipping for a period of time. That's their death. Because there is going to be an interim between the two trumpets, nothing will be alive other than Allah. لِمَنِ الْمُلْكُ الْيَوْمَ, that's Allah.

(Hadith)

When the angels hear the trumpet, what will they say? "How exalted are you, O Allah! We haven't worshipped you the way you deserve to be worshipped." In other words, they are trying to make an excuse before they leave for a period of time, before they stop their worship, they are trying to say, O Allah, forgive us for our laxity now because before we leave, we want you to know, we recognize we haven't done justice in worshipping you. This is who the angels are.

Why Create Imperfect Humans?

So for the angels to be told, I'm creating a new creation. And this creation, forget worshipping 24x7, they are not going to do that. They are going to need to sleep, to eat, to drink. They are going to have to take breaks. They are going to have to have hobbies. They are going to procreate, have children. Much of their time will be spent in non-worship. Much of their time will be spent in mundane aspects of this world. Not only that, but they are inherently sinful. They are prone to commit sins. And Allah knew this when He created us. He created us with our characteristics. He knows this. And yet still the angels are wondering, puzzling, why would you do this, O Allah? What is the purpose of this new species?

And here we are on this 21st night, after billions of years of earth being here. Even before this, the angels were here. After Allah literally perfected this world just for us to be at this point in time. And here we are, asking the same questions. What is the purpose of us being here? We cannot worship like the angels. When the angels are admitting, O Allah, we have not worshipped you the way you deserve. How can me and you, who are only existing the twinkling of an eye. And out of that twinkling of an eye, 60, 70, 80 years, 40, 50, 60 years are spent in the dunya. How much do we actually do ibadah?

Even the Prophet's Acknowledgment

And this is not just me and you. Even the prophets are still humans. They have finite lives. Our mother Aisha radiallahu anha, in the month of Ramadan, she heard the Prophet ﷺ in tahajjud, making a dua. What was that dua?

"I cannot do justice in my praise of you. Only you, O Allah, can praise yourself as you deserve to be praised." Who is saying this? The seal of the prophets, the Mustafa, the Mujtaba, the beloved, the one whom Allah chose as rahmatan lil'alameen. He is saying, Ya Rabb, I cannot encompass or do justice in praising you. This is being said by the best representative of our species. He is also admitting, I cannot worship you or praise you the way you deserve.

The Wisdom Behind Our Imperfection

So then, if we cannot, if none of the creation, not even the angels can worship Allah the way that Allah deserves, because obviously, Allah deserves infinite respect and worship. And the angels, no matter how much they worship, it is still finite. No matter how much they worship, it is still finite. And the prophets, no matter how much they worship, it is still finite. So then, why did Allah create a fallible, sin-prone species?

Obviously, the ultimate wisdom will only be known to Him, because even He Himself, what did He say? I know what you do not know. But our scholars have derived some wisdoms from the Quran and Sunnah. Some wisdoms for our creation. And of the most obvious wisdoms, is a wisdom that inshaAllah should bring us comfort. It should give us a sense of ease and optimism. Which is what?

(Sahih Muslim)

The Prophet ﷺ said, hadith is Sahih Muslim. If you were to become perfect and stop committing any sins, hypothetically, if mankind became like the angels, this hadith is Sahih Muslim, listen to this. Allah will get rid of you. He doesn't need you if you were like the angels, because He has the angels. If you stopped committing all sins, Allah would remove you. And Allah would bring another creation that committed sins. Think about this. Allah did not create us to be angelic. We are Adamic.

(Sunan at-Tirmidhi)

And as the Prophet ﷺ said, all of the children of Adam commit mistakes like their father Adam. Adam committed a sin. Our mother Hawa and our father Adam, the first human beings, they did what they did.

Back to the hadith. If you stopped committing sins, Allah would get rid of you. He doesn't need a species like the angels, He has them. And He would bring another species, another creation that does commit sins. Why? Because Allah loves sins? No, not at all.

Allah does not love sins. Allah is never pleased with kufr. So then why? What does the hadith say? So that they would turn to Allah in repentance. And they would ask Allah for His maghfirah. And He would then forgive them. Allah does not love sins. But Allah loves to forgive. And in order to forgive, the person must have done something to earn that forgiveness.

Manifesting Allah's Beautiful Names

Ibn al-Qayyim mentions that of the wisdoms of the creation of mankind, is that mankind manifests many of the names and attributes of Allah that would not be manifested in the angels. The existence of mankind demonstrates a whole bunch of names and attributes that would not be demonstrated by the angels. Such as At-Tawwab, Al-Ghaffar, Al-Ghafoor, Ar-Rahman, Ghafir adh-Dhanb, Qabil at-Tawb. The angels, this is not applying to them. They don't commit sins. They don't need forgiveness. They don't need tawbah. So, by our existence, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala manifests His divine nature by showing His mercy and compassion and forgiveness.

The Comfort of Divine Wisdom

He created me and you knowing we can never be perfect. So do not lose hope, oh Muslim, when you are not perfect. Because no human is perfect. Take comfort and solace in knowing what Allah requires from you is not perfection. That will never happen. What Allah wants from you is the desire and the attempt to be perfect, knowing you will never be perfect. It's the struggle. It's the input. You can never be sinless. This is our nature. It's impossible.

Even the prophets, their emotions, we don't call them major sins, but their emotions manifested, whether it was anger, whether it was Musa getting angry at the cop, whether whatever it might be. Even the prophets, their emotions are human. And therefore they are not angelically perfect. They're as perfect as humans can be, but they are not angels. And this is why Allah created one of the wisdoms.

So as we worship Allah in our journey to worship Allah, once you recognize this divine wisdom, how can you possibly lose hope of Allah's mercy? Because Allah created you to show you His mercy.

My mercy encompasses everything. That's exactly why Allah says, all my servants who have committed sins after sins after sins, never give up hope of Allah's mercy. Because Allah forgives all sins, unconditional. This is one of the main wisdoms and purposes of us being here.

The Divine Purpose Behind Our Imperfection

All those billions of years, all the perfection of this earth, it was for the wisdom, the reason that me and you can come, and we can try and struggle and slip and fall, but stand up again, try again, put our trust in Allah, ask Allah to forgive us. In that struggle is our salvation. In the attempt to come closer to Him is our gaining of Jannah.

And that is why the message of the Quran is a message of mercy, from the beginning to the end. The first names of Allah, الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ ar-Rahman ar-Rahim. The most common names in the Quran are around the concept of rahmah, and forgiveness.

How many are the names of Allah that deal with forgiveness? At-Tawwab, al-Ghaffar, al-Ghafoor, ghafirul-dhanb, al-'Afoo. How many of those names in the Quran? And once you understand this, it fits perfectly with what I'm trying to explain, which is the wisdom of us being here.

The Believer's Eternal Optimism

And that is why when you understand this, the mu'min can never be pessimistic about attaining Allah's mercy. It's not possible. Once you understand, this is why Allah created you. Allah says:

I created you to attain My mercy. Literally, it's in the Quran. Allah Azza wa Jal's statement has been fulfilled. This is why Allah created you, to have mercy on you.

And who gets Allah's mercy? Anybody who desires it. Anybody who wants it. Anybody who puts in the effort to get it. The only people that are deprived of Allah's mercy are those who are too arrogant to ask Allah. Those who turn their backs away. Those who walk away from religiosity. There is no hope for them. But anybody who comes to Allah, who turns to Allah, who raises his hands to Allah, who asks Allah for forgiveness and mercy, is guaranteed to get it.

How then can you despair of Allah's mercy? As Allah says in the Quran:

Who can give up hope of Allah's mercy except one who is misguided? In another verse Allah says:

The only people who give up hope of Allah's help, of Allah's mercy, are the qawm al-kafirun. The believer is ever optimistic, ever hopeful.

Embracing Our Shortcomings with Purpose

So, O Muslim, I remind myself and you, we have come here today, tonight, the first of the odd nights of this month. And Allah knows if we will have another Ramadan to experience these odd nights, or maybe even the rest of these odd nights. We have come knowing our shortcomings. Every one of us knows in our lives what we have done to distance ourselves from Allah's mercy.

Those sins that we didn't need to do. Infractions, using the very blessings Allah has given us for reasons that we don't understand really, trivial. We disobeyed Allah. The pleasure that we got from disobeying Allah was not worth the pain that we feel distancing ourselves from Him. That transient pleasure of a few seconds, what benefit was it? It wasn't worth it.

So we are here now, our hearts full of guilt and they should be. Because guilt is a sign, a recognition, an acknowledgement that I have fallen short. Our hearts should be guilty, but guilt should not lead to despair. Guilt should lead to a motivation of doing more good deeds. Guilt should not lead to pessimism. That is satanic. That is not Adamic. That is following Shaytan.

Following the Example of Our Father Adam

When Shaytan made the mistake, he could have repented, but arrogance got the better of him. He said, no, I'm not going to repent. And when Adam committed his mistake, he understood:

Doesn't matter how big the sin is. And by the way, think about the sin of our father Adam. Honestly, when you think about it, subhanAllah, your hair stands on end. Think about how Allah blessed our father. What did Adam not see? What did Adam not experience? Allah spoke to him directly. He saw all the angels, Jibreel, Mikail. He saw everybody doing sajdah to him. He was told to live in Jannah, eat in Jannah, enjoy Jannah. And yet still, he slipped and he did what he did. Imagine how he felt.

And we are all children of Adam. That is our father. That is our parent. We too are going to fall. We too will slip. We have to follow the example of our father Adam.

I made a mistake, ya Allah. I messed up. It's my fault. Nobody forced me to disobey you. I did it. I acknowledge I'm the one that is sinful. But oh Allah, you're the one who forgives. I'm the one who does sins. And I'm begging you for your maghfirah. I'm begging you for your rahmah. Because if you don't forgive and you don't have mercy, I have no other hope besides you.

This philosophy of Adam is the only way to be saved. It is not perfection or else we would not be here. If Allah wanted perfection, we wouldn't be here. It is recognition of fallibility, acknowledgement of shortcoming, and the attempt to be better, to do good. It is the desire to try to be better. That's it. If we get to that stage, we're walking in the footsteps of our father Adam.

What Allah Wants From Us

So my simple message to all of you, think about your existence right now. After all the millennia, and here you are. And Allah knew you would be here. And Allah wanted you to be here. What does Allah want from you? He doesn't need anything from us. Allah simply will reward our humility and humbleness and servitude when we acknowledge His perfection and our imperfection. When we acknowledge, Ya Rabb, I messed up, but I'm trying, and I need You to forgive me and guide me. That is all that needs to be done.

So whatever your lifestyle was before Ramadan, whatever shortcomings I have and you had before Ramadan, make a sincere desire right here and now that I wanna try to live a better life. Allah is Rahman and Rahim. Allah is Ghafoor. Allah is Tawwab. Let me strive to minimize. I will never be able to get rid of, but minimize my sins, especially habitual sins, because that is destructive.

The Pattern of the Prophets

If you look at the mistakes of the prophets, none of them were habitual. The prophets made minor mistakes. All of them, they made small issues here and there. None of them were habitual. It's a one-off emotional thing. Something happens, one-off thing. That's it. And they ask forgiveness and move on. This is the ideal human.

If we cannot get to that level, at least we should minimize habitual sins. We should target especially major sins. The major sins are really the destructive ones. And we should increase those deeds that wash away the sins, kaffarat, the mukaffirat of the sins.

What are the major mukaffirat? I have given a lecture at Epic. You will find it online. The 10 major things that expunge the sins. But in particular, the major faraid, the salah, the zakah, the wudu, the qiyam ul-layl we're doing now, fasting Ramadan. These are the mukaffirat. When you do them regularly, habitually, they will cleanse you of your sins.

As the Prophet ﷺ said, the example of the one who prays five times a day, is like the one who takes a bath five times a day. Do you think any dirt will be left on him? No. The example of the one who does wudu, all the sins are falling away. As the Prophet ﷺ said, the one who fast one Ramadan to the next, all of his sins will be forgiven as long as the major ones are avoided.

The major ones, obviously, they require specific repentance, tawbah. The major sins require tawbah. The minor sins, generic tawbah. The major sins, specific tawbah.

The Night of Laylat al-Qadr and Sincere Repentance

So in this month of Ramadan, in these nights of Laylat al-Qadr, along with our dhikr and du'a and tahajjud, along with reading the Quran, one of the greatest acts of worship that I remind myself and all of you, is the act of tawbah.

And the act of tawbah necessitates that you make a sincere desire, I will not return to my sinful life. The act of tawbah has within it the notion of abandoning your bad lifestyle. If you don't have that, then that's not real tawbah. So make a sincere intent that I'm going to try to be better. I'm going to strive to have a better life. I will minimize and eliminate as many sins as I can, knowing that I can never be perfect, but at least I will try. And I will increase the deeds that will wipe away my sins.

If we can get to that desire, that sincere intent, this is the essence of taqwa. This is the essence of what we are doing, why we are doing it.

Our Purpose and Response

So on this night of the 21st, as we are here and doing all of these deeds, one of the deeds is contemplation in our hearts. What is my purpose? Why did Allah create me? This whole perfection, this whole universe, and I find myself right at this point in time, right here. What should I do in response to all of this?

And it is easy. We should humble ourselves in the ibadah of Allah. Lower our heads spiritually, metaphorically. Admit we are imperfect and know that Allah didn't create us for perfection. And turn to Allah for forgiveness and for hidayah. This is the simple goal of our religion.

And if we do so:

Allah's rahmah is ever close to the one who does good. We believe in a loving God, a merciful God. We believe in a forgiving God, not a petty, vengeful God. Whoever wants forgiveness, this shall be forgiven. It's that simple. Whoever turns to Allah, Allah will turn to him.

As the Prophet ﷺ said, that Allah said, Oh my servants, if you come to me, one hand span, I come to you one arm's length. If you come to me walking, I will come to you running. Allah Azza wa Jal wants the effort. And once we put in the effort, He will bless us and allow the effort to be successful.

Making Du'a for Transformation

Tonight, make du'a to Allah, not just for forgiveness, but for genuine tawbah. Make du'a to Allah to cleanse your lifestyle. Make an intention to Allah all the major sins that so many of us are guilty of. May Allah forgive all of us. Whether it might be drugs, whether it might be the drinking problem, whether it might be haram relationships, whether it might be any type of major sin. Allah forgives, but only if you put in the effort. Allah cleanses, but only if you turn to Him.

So the past is the past, right here and now. Make the sincere intention. Ya Allah, make it easy for me to abandon my sins. Ya Allah, allow me to perfect my tawbah. Ya Allah, cleanse my heart of any evil. Ya Allah, make it easy for me to live a halal lifestyle. Ya Allah, bless me with the halal enough so that I don't need to turn to the haram. Make du'a to Allah so that you live a righteous life.

And every night of Laylat al-Qadr, make that same du'a and continue to make that du'a and try. Even if you fail once, no problem. Twice, no problem. A hundred times, no problem as long as you continue to turn back to Allah. Allah doesn't care how many times you failed. Allah is caring only about whether you try to come back to Him. That is the only thing that is important.

Never give up, never falter, never stay on the ground, stand up, brush off those sins, turn to Allah, walk towards Allah, run towards Allah, continue to do so. And no matter how sins you have, how many sins you have in the past, Allah will forgive you.

May Allah allow us to be of those who stand on Laylat al-Qadr, of those whose hearts are cleansed. May Allah Azza wa Jal accept our ibadah, our dhikr, our du'a. May Allah make us of the salihin. May Allah make this Ramadan our best Ramadan. And every subsequent Ramadan that He blesses us with to be better than the previous Ramadan. May Allah allow the best Ramadan we ever have to be the final Ramadan that we ever have on this earth. May Allah allow us to die upon the kalima of لا إله إلا الله محمد رسول الله. And to die in a state of piety and to be resurrected amongst the pious.

وجزاكم الله خيرا. والسلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

May Allah reward you with good. And peace be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.