Assalaamu alaykum,
Today in class we discussed Allah’s statement:
{يَا أَيُّهَا الْإِنسَانُ مَا غَرَّكَ بِرَبِّكَ الْكَرِيمِ. الَّذِي خَلَقَكَ فَسَوَّاكَ فَعَدَلَكَ. فِي أَيِّ صُورَةٍ مَّا شَاء رَكَّبَكَ}
Oh Man, what has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Bountiful (Verse 6 Surah Al-Infitaar)
We discussed that there are 3 primary causes of our distraction from Allah and The Hereafter: Our Nafs, Dunyaa (The charms of this world), and Shaytaan.
Shaytaan uses our nafs and our love of the charms in this world to distract us from Allah and the hereafter. We then discussed that Allah orders us to perform acts of worship, like salat, so that we may detach ourselves from this world and get closer to him. We emphasized that this is not for Allah’s benefit but our own. We then mentioned that no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to worship Allah as he deserves. How many times have we prayed Salat, but afterwards can’t remember what surah we recited or was recited by the Imam? As a result, Allah from his infinite mercy, gives us extra deeds that we can do to make up for our weaknesses in performing our obligations, such as fasting during Aashoorah, Fasting Mon & Thursdays, or the extra Nawaafil prayers. But what if our Imaan isn’t where it needs to be to enable us to take advantage of these extra deeds? Are we doomed? How can we make up for our distractions in Salat for example? A Sahaabi had the exact same thoughts and being a Muslim who understood his religion, he referred the matter back to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him:
Abdullah ibn Busr said, “A man came to the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace and said, ‘Messenger of Allah, the laws of Islam have become too many for us, so [give us] a means of access to which we can cling which is comprehensive.’ He said, ‘Let not your tongue cease to be moist with the remembrance of Allah, mighty is He and majestic.’” Imam Ahmad narrated it with this wording.
We learned one of the best thikr that has great rewards:
Narrated abu Huraira: allah’s apostle said,” Whoever says: “La ilaha illal-lah wahdahu la sharika lahu, lahu-l-mulk wa lahu-l-hamd wa huwa ‘ala kulli shai’in qadir,” one hundred times will get the same reward as given for freeing ten slaves; and one hundred good deeds will be written in his accounts, and one hundred sins will be deducted from his accounts, and it (his saying) will be a shield for him from Satan on that day till night, and nobody will be able to do a better deed except the one who does more than he.” (Book #75, Hadith #412)
HOMEWORK: Memorize This Dua:
لا اله الا الله وحده لا شريك له، له الملك وله الحمد، وهو على كل شيء قدير
la ilaha ila Allah wahdahu la sharika lah, lahu al-mulk wa lahu al-hamd, wa huwa `ala kulli shay’in qadir