Monday, March 9, 2020

The Attributes of Allah- III


By the grace of Allah I continue my 3rd part of the Friday Sermon on the attributes of Allah and it is only Allah (swt) Who can give me the grace, the opportunity and the knowledge to elaborate this subject in depth. Without His help and His divine grace it will not be possible for me, weak creature that I am to speak on such an important subject. And this subject is important in the lives of all believers so that they know Allah (swt) through His attributes, and we must make it our duty to read His attributes every day [especially in these difficult times that we are living today]. Insha-Allah.

I continue the subject where someone lies to receive praise, to accomplish his greed, to receive honour, greatness, and grab property that does not belong to him. He does nothing to get it all; he does not work hard to earn it all honestly, but he acts dishonestly, and lies in order to steal the property of his neighbour or brother or the property of his sister. He is greedy; he likes that he alone wins all that and so, in order to reach to this end, he tricks his brothers or sisters, and makes them sign documents to grab their wealth and then he turns his back on them and pushes them away in order to enjoy alone these riches.

If we look at the example that the Qur’an gives us, we will find that there are people who lie and use flattery to gain praise because of greed and you see these situations also in religion. 


To acquire honour, greatness in society [common society and/ or Jamaat], there is this type of person who supposedly comes forward to take some responsibility, and says that he will take care of this or that case (for example, like being in charge of food and drink, tent arrangements etc.). He will make the decision: On such morning there will be such a meal, at tea time there will be such snack and such drink, and at dinner time there will be such meal and its corresponding drink. If it happens that a three-day program has to be organized, then he will do everything himself and say that he is going to sponsor such and such meal. But when the time comes when he is asked about these expenses and how much it will all cost, he says: Don’t worry! No problem! - But it is at this very moment that he attracts on you as well as the society in general lots of problems!

After the duration of the event (program), he comes up with a long list and presents it to the Managing Committee as well as the members of the society who had made lots of sacrifices. So, you receive an unpleasant surprise! In his bill, he includes his labour, his transportation (the cost of gas/ fuel), and all the movements he could have made and when you look closely, there was never any sponsorship from him! He distorted all the prices, until finally, he pockets a tidy sum of money but the officials (of the Jamaat/ society) turn a blind eye to his actions and believe him [believe in all his lies]. And moreover, during the speeches in front of microphones, he receives many praises on his so-called works, sponsorships and sacrifices that he made! All these are delusions of grandeur, false praise only for a few days on this earth.

And people give these people who deceive them great respect and congratulations, while in his heart he [the deceiver] says, “For three days of deception in this work that I was supposed to do, I came out a winner with my wallet full!” All this is illicit (Haram)! This is a very serious thing in the eyes of Allah. The day Allah snatches it all from you, you will fall into disgrace, and you will not even be in good health, and this ill-gotten money will end in diarrhoea [Creole Expression] - that is to say, will end badly [in using it to recover your health!]. You will lose everything you have [from the beginning], and you will lose all this stupidly. In the eyes of the people, it will seem like a stupid loss, but it will be rather a divine punishment, where Allah (swt) will lead you towards your destruction. When Allah (swt) catches such a person, there is no way out! Allah gives you time to repent, but you continue in your greediness and lies. You will not escape this punishment. I have witnessed these types of people many times in my life. They are steeped in their arrogance, boasting, showcasing their wealth – through ostentation (especially with ill-gotten money); ultimately they became like beggars. Even worse than a beggar. Even a beggar has a certain dignity, a certain honour compared to them. This type of liar thirsting for greatness falls into such baseness and such a situation that nobody even looks at him.

So if you reflect on the lie and apply all that reflection to the Surah Al-Fatiha, then you will see that every attribute of Surah Al-Fatiha testifies to the truth of Allah, and qualifies Him as Al-Haqq. This is because this attribute shows us that Allah has no use of lies [He is in no need of lying]. Another reason behind the lie is to hide your lack of knowledge. Many people very often answer questions very quickly so that people cannot call them ignorant, for fear that these people may perceive that they really know nothing. So they answer anything very quickly. There are people who don’t like being perceived as lacking in knowledge; so they’re lying to cover it all up.

And the majority of these lies are hidden from the same people who are lying. In this case, they are not intentionally lying but by their way of acting, all they say [or do] seems like a truth [while it is not] and because of that sometimes there are big fights and/or disputes.

Hazrat Musleh Ma’ud (ra) was very meticulous on this point. If a person told him something happened in such a place, then he would ask right away, how do you know? If you don’t know anything and you haven’t seen anything, then why say something approximately (according to your imagination)? In some situations these estimates are lies. The Qur’an gave us this example and said that the majority of people on this earth have this habit [of saying inaccurate things that come out of their minds] and that if you follow them, you will go astray. This is not about Kafir (the disbeliever) and Mumin (the believer). But there is the mention of the majority of people, and this is a very true thing that the majority of people relate things or situations according to their estimates [i.e. whatever comes to their minds], and not as per the true facts.

So, when addressing Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh), Allah (swt) said that: You are used to telling truths as you see them, and you accept these truths. But these people about whom I warn you, the majority of them are people who present things according to their own calculations, according to their own judgments, according to their own thoughts. They don’t have an exact knowledge of this situation / thing; they just assume. Allah (swt) says: If you follow them, then they will lead you astray. They will never be rightly guided. They lie because of their lack of knowledge.

But about Allah (swt), the Qur’an enlightens us on His perfect knowledge. He knows everything. He is Aleem. And the attributes mentioned in Surah Al-Fatiha require us to have complete knowledge [to understand all this]. In Surah Al-Fatiha, when you look at and analyze the attribute Rahman, which is an attribute of Allah, then Rahman is a basic attribute for creation and there can be no creation without knowledge. It is the Creator Who is the Most Knowledgeable - It is He Who is Holder of all knowledge. And if the Master is pure from all evil, then it is because of His knowledge that He is pure from all these evils.

So, when the subject of Hamd is joined with that of Rabbubiyyat as well as that of the attribute Rahman, then at this moment it is a real proof that there is a Being Who has all the knowledge; perfect knowledge because the One Who creates, is Himself Who knows [Who has the knowledge, complete knowledge]. A person who is deprived of knowledge will not even know how to differentiate and will not know things. People who know such and such things, then they know why we use these things. They have all the details on this thing. So the lack of knowledge also sometimes causes people to lie, sometimes deliberately and sometimes without intending to. But Allah, whom Surah Al-Fatiha is presenting, is an Allah [God] who has all knowledge. There is no one who exists who can surpass Him in knowledge. No one is more learned than Him. So people who don’t have the power to create make use of lies.

In fact this has a connection with praise and greed. People who cannot create real things, they fabricate falsehoods. In truth, there are all kinds of imitations [of original things] on the market. This is the same subject [which I want to elaborate on], and people who like to show-off or hypnotize others and practice magic etc., all of this has a connection with this subject. They cannot create real things. So they use deception. They want to create, and then they lie in order to instill in them part of this attribute [creator/ to create]. If they cannot create real things, they make false things. The Qu’ran enlightens us on this subject by giving us the example of Hazrat Musa (as) and the sorcerers. There is no mention that the rod of Hazrat Musa (as) devoured all the snakes. It’s not even about snakes here! Where would these wizards draw strength from to create these snakes? [On the contrary] They were just hypnotizing people’s eyes, by doing magic!

Look at the eloquence that the Qu’ran has! It says the rod ate the lies. That is to say, the truth has been established and the ropes/ cords and staffs [of the wizards] have turned out to be simple ropes [not snakes]. So it is not the snakes that have disappeared but the lie [indeed completely disappeared].

Then it’s injustice that makes people lie. In fact, it’s a lack of [the attribute] Malik. A person who is not master and who is not master of all things and he sees another person becoming master of a specific thing, so he will also want to take possession of this thing. In fact this is about the greediness that I have already told you about. But this subject has a link with the word kingdom too, as well as property and wealth too. These are people who are not kings but who lie to take over other people’s possessions. But the One who is truly King, then what is the use of lying? And sometimes it happens that these small errors, even smaller ones, have an effect on the intention and sometimes they even affect the intention of the high personalities.

For lack of time, it is time that I stop here. I implore Allah (swt) so that He gives me the grace and the opportunity to continue the 4th part of this Friday Sermon next week on the same subject, Insha-Allah. This is such a vast subject, and one has to go deep into it to understand its importance. I pray a lot so that Allah (swt) enable you understand the importance of His attributes, Insha-Allah.

Allah is indeed very good to us [He is Al-Barr]. He gives us everything we need on this earth, without even needing to ask Him. He is Rahman, He is Rahim. He gave us parents and made us grow as Muslims. So should we not thank Him? He’s the One Who has all the knowledge, but He’s also a God Who likes to share. He does not keep all this knowledge for Himself. He gave us a minimum of His knowledge so that we understand His greatness and that we adore Him and that we remain good on earth.

He has given us the knowledge that comes from Him through His prophets, especially our master Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh), in the form of the Holy Qu’ran. Let us implore Him through this invocation so that we will always remain pious in the way of Allah, and so that Allah will remove from us all kinds of lies and sins and that we always remain kind and implore Allah for our parents [for those whose parents are still alive, and as for those whose parents are deceased, pray for them and give Sadqua in their names so that these good deeds accumulate in their favour in the hereafter]. So, we implore Allah with this prayer (duah):

Rabbi ‘awzi’-niii an ‘ashkura ni’-matakallatiii an-’amta ‘alayya wa ‘alaa waalidayya wa ‘an ‘a’-mala saalihan-tarzaahu wa aslih lii fii zurriyyatii. ‘Innii tubtu ‘ilay-ka wa ‘innii minal-Muslimeen.

“My Lord! Grant me the power and ability that I may be grateful for Your Favour which You have bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and that I may do righteous good deeds, such as please You, and make my off-spring good. Truly, I have turned to You in repentance, and truly, I am one of the Muslims (submitting to Your Will).” Ameen, Summa Ameen, Ya Rabbul Aalameen.

---Friday Sermon of 06 March 2020~11 Rajab 1441 AH delivered by Imam- Jamaat Ul Sahih Al Islam Hazrat Khalifatullah Munir A. Azim (atba) of Mauritius.