Created for worship
Lesson 7
Imam Ghazali says: “He who does not work shall not be rewarded.” It is reported that a man of the Bani-Israel worshipped Allah for 70 years. Allah intended to test him before the Angels so he sent him an angel to tell him that he did not deserve paradise even with his worship. When the Angel informed him of this, the worshipper replied “We are created for worship, and so we should worship Him.” The Angel returned back to its Lord, and said “Oh my Lord, you know best what he said”. Allah said “Since he did not turn away from worshipping us, then with grace We shall not turn away from him. Oh my Angels, bare witness that I have forgiven him.”
The advice we take from this is- We will not benefit or be rewarded if we do not act. Know that with every performance of a good deed, there are 4 or 5 issues that we need to take into consideration.
One is- The reason why we do a good deed is because we are following the command from Allah, eg: To pray, to speak good words etc. So whoever follows the command of Allah is termed a servant of Allah.
Another- Whoever does a good deed, it is necessary to display his manifest poverty before Allah. You go to Allah in a state of poverty- you need him. He is the rich and he gives to you, you being poor.
The disbelievers during the time of the Prophet, said: “If Allah willed, he could have guided us accordingly, he could have brought us into His guidance.” This is true, however Allah requires of us as servants of Him, to tie the link of servant hood with him, it is a contract, and we are admitting our need for our master. A slave needs a master, and shows his poverty before his master, and does not come with any arrogance. If Allah gives to a human being of his grace and bounties, without His servant asking from Him, usually that human-being neglects what is given to him and becomes arrogant, as if he deserves such graces and bounties for Allah. Many times you will find Allah will withhold some of his grace and luxuries of this life from the servant, so that the servant will ask Allah and call upon Allah. With a sick person, he will look for a doctor to help him become cured; in his many years he was living a healthy life and didn’t need a doctor, so when he started to under-go pain, he looked for a doctor. So when Allah withholds from you something, you will knock on the door of Allah until he gives you. And know that when you call upon Allah, He will give you and He will give you more than what you asked for.
Al Habib Hussain says that when you and I normally call upon Allah, we usually ask Him of the big things. Whether its issues of the deen or the dunya, it’s usually something big eg: to increase our wealth, to have spacious housing etc, however- we should even ask Allah for the smallest of things. The Prophet said: “Ask Allah of everything, even if it’s the thread of your shoes.” So even if you require a needle, ask Allah for it, ask of anything and everything! We seem to go only to Allah for the big things, but when you go to Allah for the small things, it helps maintain our communication with Him. Many of us have small children in our house hold, and a fridge full of food, but your child will come to you and say: “we don’t have this or this- I want this”- you should teach your children to raise their hands and say: “Oh Allah feed me!!” - so when the child raises their hands, Allah answers their duaa and the child is raised on the love of Allah and the child will also be used to raising their hands and asking of Allah.
What has usually stopped people from receiving the pleasure of Allah is because they haven’t even asked Allah for His pleasure, or even thought of it! Because all they are thinking of is the reward which can be attained from performing certain action, they are completely forgetting the goal which is Allah.
Those who make dhikr of Allah can be divided into 3 categories:
The servant should not object to what Allah gives him or withholds him from. The servant should always be in a state of acceptance, whatever the situation, as every situation is a test from Allah. Even if Allah did not give you anything of this dunya, you accept this because you are His servant. Even if Allah didn’t give you anything on the Day of Judgment, or in the next life, Allah still deserves your worship and that you are his servant.
You have a child, and you may have been short on your spending of that child, you didn’t clothe them well or give them food, you were not generous- this does not exempt the child from being good to you as a parent, because you are still the child’s parent, and they are still commanding to be good to their parents. If this is a parent and child relationship, then what about the relationship between you and Allah? Knowing that Allah does not fall short in His duties towards you.
We should take stock of ourselves. One for is if we take stock of all of our blessings that Allah has given us, thanking Him for our house, our things, good health etc, and you ask yourself- what have I done with all of this? You taking stock of all of your blessings is a form of praise, and Allah loves this from us. The least we should do is make shukr and hamd, and know Allah is deserving of this. Allah says in the Quran- “Oh you who believe! Recall the blessings of Allah upon you”. In a hadith, the Prophet came upon a group of companions who were sitting, and the Prophet asked them what they were talking about, they said they were talking about the past and how we were, how we were disbelievers, then Allah sent you to us and you showed us the path of Jannah- and the Prophet was happy with this and it is a form of praise and worship. By doing this you are appreciating and acknowledging the blessings from Allah.
Allah listens to the speech between spouses. If a husband were to acknowledge that his wife is a blessing from Allah and that she is a gift, and she also acknowledges that her husband is a blessing from Allah and that he is a gift, know that Allah will send down infinite love between you and mercy upon your relationship. Allah addresses you both, as He looks upon this speech between you two, and He is proud of you in front of His angels, and is putting you on show in front of the angels. Allah certainly hears the speech between you and your spouses. Unfortunately many of us don’t talk enough in this way, in recognising Allah has been so generous to us for sending us our spouse and sharing this with our spouse. Allah gave you your spouse as a gift and you display you happiness to them. So you turn a blind eye from their faults, and recognise their good characteristics, and you praise Allah for their many good qualities. When you acknowledge these qualities and thank Allah for them, Allah then improves the other characteristics and fixes the faults.
Ali said: Those who think that they who can achieve their aims without work are dreaming, and those who think that will attain their goal through exertion alone are self confident and consider themselves self sufficient.
Hassan Al Basri said: Seeking and demanding paradise without action is a sin amongst the sins. You are not following the command from Allah when He tells us to “do”- to put into actions the commands of Allah. This person is very arrogant in the sight of Allah, thinking he will enter Jannah without actions. Hassan also said “The sign of the truth is in giving up regard for work and not giving up the work”. If you do a good deed in the sight of Allah, you should not say “I did such-and-such a good deed”- Do not associate this good deed to yourself. What you should say if you perform a good deed is that Allah enabled you to perform such-and-such a good deed. You should associate everything, and the success, back to Allah. Don’t let Shaytan put you off doing good deeds by thinking that whether you do good deeds or not, you will only enter Jannah though the grace of Allah, no, you should still follow the commands of Allah and do good deeds but do them with humility towards Allah and acknowledge that Allah enabled you to do these deeds, this will then be followed by acceptance from Allah. Likewise, if you do a good deed, do not say “Allah will not accept this’. This means you have bad thoughts about Allah. Do not have doubts of Allah, know that He is very generous, but you can question your own sincerity of Allah and your own fear of Allah, question yourself and not Allah. Acceptance is in the hands of Allah, and is none of our business; it is only the business of Allah.
Associating your good deeds back to Allah- These are mentioned in the ayaats of the Quran yet many of us are not aware of the secrets of the Quran. We are engaged in the tajweed of Quran and the science and grammar of Quran, but we are missing the meaning of the Quran. Allah says “this is from the grace of Allah upon the believers.” When you associate your good deeds back to Allah, and know it’s not only from your effort and knowledge, and do this regularly with anything Allah gives you, and all of His favours and you associate back, Allah will draw you closer, and you are drawn into the courtship of the special and close people.
Imagine Allah saying to you mashaAllah look at the beautiful clothing you are wearing, and you say Ya Rabbi this is from you, and He says mashaAllah you smell beautiful, and you say again Ya Rabbi this is from you, and then He says mashaAllah your speech is beautiful and again you say Ya Rab this is from you. Allah will say my slave is true in his speech and yes I gave you the best of speech and actions. Allah will then draw you closer and your relationship increases, as this relationship strengthens and you ascend closer and closer, Allah starts to show you His secrets. He will give it to you because He loves you. There will be no speech that can explain these secrets. Like the time when Musa asked to see Allah and Allah showed him something that can represent this, Musa then fell down and fainted. When Allah loves a creation, they love Him and He loves them, yet we know Allah loves His creation more than His creation loves Him. However there are a group of the servants of Allah who are deserving of this and have attained his love. Allah says “I have selected you and I have given you my love... And you do and you act under my watchful eye”. We are talking about love so much because if a servant yearns the love of Allah, this servant will not give up any opportunity to worship Allah, whether he is rich or poor, sick or well, busy or free, dead or alive. Even in death, if we are used to worshipping Allah and having communication with him, Allah will enable to us to perform the same worship even in the grave. Is it so that all those who prayed towards Allah in the dunya will also be able to prayer in their grave? No. This blessing and ability is for those who have prayed in this dunya for the dhikr of Allah and their yearning for Allah, not just because their prayer is obligatory. We are asking you to go to a higher rank and strengthen your link with Allah, seek the pleasure of Allah so that you can be of these people. If you do your prayers with yearning and love, and other acts of worship too such as reading Quran and dhikr, if all are done with the characteristics of love and yearning for Allah, then Insha’Allah we will be of this description.
Imam Ghazali says: “He who does not work shall not be rewarded.” It is reported that a man of the Bani-Israel worshipped Allah for 70 years. Allah intended to test him before the Angels so he sent him an angel to tell him that he did not deserve paradise even with his worship. When the Angel informed him of this, the worshipper replied “We are created for worship, and so we should worship Him.” The Angel returned back to its Lord, and said “Oh my Lord, you know best what he said”. Allah said “Since he did not turn away from worshipping us, then with grace We shall not turn away from him. Oh my Angels, bare witness that I have forgiven him.”
The advice we take from this is- We will not benefit or be rewarded if we do not act. Know that with every performance of a good deed, there are 4 or 5 issues that we need to take into consideration.
One is- The reason why we do a good deed is because we are following the command from Allah, eg: To pray, to speak good words etc. So whoever follows the command of Allah is termed a servant of Allah.
Another- Whoever does a good deed, it is necessary to display his manifest poverty before Allah. You go to Allah in a state of poverty- you need him. He is the rich and he gives to you, you being poor.
The disbelievers during the time of the Prophet, said: “If Allah willed, he could have guided us accordingly, he could have brought us into His guidance.” This is true, however Allah requires of us as servants of Him, to tie the link of servant hood with him, it is a contract, and we are admitting our need for our master. A slave needs a master, and shows his poverty before his master, and does not come with any arrogance. If Allah gives to a human being of his grace and bounties, without His servant asking from Him, usually that human-being neglects what is given to him and becomes arrogant, as if he deserves such graces and bounties for Allah. Many times you will find Allah will withhold some of his grace and luxuries of this life from the servant, so that the servant will ask Allah and call upon Allah. With a sick person, he will look for a doctor to help him become cured; in his many years he was living a healthy life and didn’t need a doctor, so when he started to under-go pain, he looked for a doctor. So when Allah withholds from you something, you will knock on the door of Allah until he gives you. And know that when you call upon Allah, He will give you and He will give you more than what you asked for.
Al Habib Hussain says that when you and I normally call upon Allah, we usually ask Him of the big things. Whether its issues of the deen or the dunya, it’s usually something big eg: to increase our wealth, to have spacious housing etc, however- we should even ask Allah for the smallest of things. The Prophet said: “Ask Allah of everything, even if it’s the thread of your shoes.” So even if you require a needle, ask Allah for it, ask of anything and everything! We seem to go only to Allah for the big things, but when you go to Allah for the small things, it helps maintain our communication with Him. Many of us have small children in our house hold, and a fridge full of food, but your child will come to you and say: “we don’t have this or this- I want this”- you should teach your children to raise their hands and say: “Oh Allah feed me!!” - so when the child raises their hands, Allah answers their duaa and the child is raised on the love of Allah and the child will also be used to raising their hands and asking of Allah.
What has usually stopped people from receiving the pleasure of Allah is because they haven’t even asked Allah for His pleasure, or even thought of it! Because all they are thinking of is the reward which can be attained from performing certain action, they are completely forgetting the goal which is Allah.
Those who make dhikr of Allah can be divided into 3 categories:
- Those who do dhikr just to protect themselves
from envy, black magic etc- so they ask a sheikh and a sheikh tells them to
read certain things etc. So their drive to do this dhikr is not because they
love it, but because they want to protect themselves from a certain envy or magic. Proof of this is if the magic goes away,
along with that he also drops his dhikr.
- Those who do dhikr for the reward given.
There are many of us who will not perform dhikr except if we know what the
reward will be, whether it will be a certain amount of trees or palaces in
jannah etc, so they perform the dhikr accordingly. However if the reward is not
mentioned, they will not make any dhikr and have no motivation to do so.
Also some people read the Quran due to how many different rewards they get such as protection from reading certain surahs. Reading Al Ikhlaas because it’s counted as 1/3 of the Quran- however the other surahs are neglected and they just recite Al Ikhlaas, Al Kursi etc. - Those who make dhikr due to their love for
Allah. Due to the fact that they know Allah deserves the dhikr of the servant
without any reward. Allah loves this person, and this person deserves to be in
the company of Allah and is in the company of Allah.
The servant should not object to what Allah gives him or withholds him from. The servant should always be in a state of acceptance, whatever the situation, as every situation is a test from Allah. Even if Allah did not give you anything of this dunya, you accept this because you are His servant. Even if Allah didn’t give you anything on the Day of Judgment, or in the next life, Allah still deserves your worship and that you are his servant.
You have a child, and you may have been short on your spending of that child, you didn’t clothe them well or give them food, you were not generous- this does not exempt the child from being good to you as a parent, because you are still the child’s parent, and they are still commanding to be good to their parents. If this is a parent and child relationship, then what about the relationship between you and Allah? Knowing that Allah does not fall short in His duties towards you.
We should take stock of ourselves. One for is if we take stock of all of our blessings that Allah has given us, thanking Him for our house, our things, good health etc, and you ask yourself- what have I done with all of this? You taking stock of all of your blessings is a form of praise, and Allah loves this from us. The least we should do is make shukr and hamd, and know Allah is deserving of this. Allah says in the Quran- “Oh you who believe! Recall the blessings of Allah upon you”. In a hadith, the Prophet came upon a group of companions who were sitting, and the Prophet asked them what they were talking about, they said they were talking about the past and how we were, how we were disbelievers, then Allah sent you to us and you showed us the path of Jannah- and the Prophet was happy with this and it is a form of praise and worship. By doing this you are appreciating and acknowledging the blessings from Allah.
Allah listens to the speech between spouses. If a husband were to acknowledge that his wife is a blessing from Allah and that she is a gift, and she also acknowledges that her husband is a blessing from Allah and that he is a gift, know that Allah will send down infinite love between you and mercy upon your relationship. Allah addresses you both, as He looks upon this speech between you two, and He is proud of you in front of His angels, and is putting you on show in front of the angels. Allah certainly hears the speech between you and your spouses. Unfortunately many of us don’t talk enough in this way, in recognising Allah has been so generous to us for sending us our spouse and sharing this with our spouse. Allah gave you your spouse as a gift and you display you happiness to them. So you turn a blind eye from their faults, and recognise their good characteristics, and you praise Allah for their many good qualities. When you acknowledge these qualities and thank Allah for them, Allah then improves the other characteristics and fixes the faults.
Ali said: Those who think that they who can achieve their aims without work are dreaming, and those who think that will attain their goal through exertion alone are self confident and consider themselves self sufficient.
Hassan Al Basri said: Seeking and demanding paradise without action is a sin amongst the sins. You are not following the command from Allah when He tells us to “do”- to put into actions the commands of Allah. This person is very arrogant in the sight of Allah, thinking he will enter Jannah without actions. Hassan also said “The sign of the truth is in giving up regard for work and not giving up the work”. If you do a good deed in the sight of Allah, you should not say “I did such-and-such a good deed”- Do not associate this good deed to yourself. What you should say if you perform a good deed is that Allah enabled you to perform such-and-such a good deed. You should associate everything, and the success, back to Allah. Don’t let Shaytan put you off doing good deeds by thinking that whether you do good deeds or not, you will only enter Jannah though the grace of Allah, no, you should still follow the commands of Allah and do good deeds but do them with humility towards Allah and acknowledge that Allah enabled you to do these deeds, this will then be followed by acceptance from Allah. Likewise, if you do a good deed, do not say “Allah will not accept this’. This means you have bad thoughts about Allah. Do not have doubts of Allah, know that He is very generous, but you can question your own sincerity of Allah and your own fear of Allah, question yourself and not Allah. Acceptance is in the hands of Allah, and is none of our business; it is only the business of Allah.
Associating your good deeds back to Allah- These are mentioned in the ayaats of the Quran yet many of us are not aware of the secrets of the Quran. We are engaged in the tajweed of Quran and the science and grammar of Quran, but we are missing the meaning of the Quran. Allah says “this is from the grace of Allah upon the believers.” When you associate your good deeds back to Allah, and know it’s not only from your effort and knowledge, and do this regularly with anything Allah gives you, and all of His favours and you associate back, Allah will draw you closer, and you are drawn into the courtship of the special and close people.
Imagine Allah saying to you mashaAllah look at the beautiful clothing you are wearing, and you say Ya Rabbi this is from you, and He says mashaAllah you smell beautiful, and you say again Ya Rabbi this is from you, and then He says mashaAllah your speech is beautiful and again you say Ya Rab this is from you. Allah will say my slave is true in his speech and yes I gave you the best of speech and actions. Allah will then draw you closer and your relationship increases, as this relationship strengthens and you ascend closer and closer, Allah starts to show you His secrets. He will give it to you because He loves you. There will be no speech that can explain these secrets. Like the time when Musa asked to see Allah and Allah showed him something that can represent this, Musa then fell down and fainted. When Allah loves a creation, they love Him and He loves them, yet we know Allah loves His creation more than His creation loves Him. However there are a group of the servants of Allah who are deserving of this and have attained his love. Allah says “I have selected you and I have given you my love... And you do and you act under my watchful eye”. We are talking about love so much because if a servant yearns the love of Allah, this servant will not give up any opportunity to worship Allah, whether he is rich or poor, sick or well, busy or free, dead or alive. Even in death, if we are used to worshipping Allah and having communication with him, Allah will enable to us to perform the same worship even in the grave. Is it so that all those who prayed towards Allah in the dunya will also be able to prayer in their grave? No. This blessing and ability is for those who have prayed in this dunya for the dhikr of Allah and their yearning for Allah, not just because their prayer is obligatory. We are asking you to go to a higher rank and strengthen your link with Allah, seek the pleasure of Allah so that you can be of these people. If you do your prayers with yearning and love, and other acts of worship too such as reading Quran and dhikr, if all are done with the characteristics of love and yearning for Allah, then Insha’Allah we will be of this description.