They Are Allahs Wake-Up Call To You

Speaker 1 This audio is brought to you by Muslim Central. We begin by praising Allah Subhanahu ta'a. Speaker 2 By bearing witness that none has the right to be. Speaker 1 Worshipped or unconditionally obeyed. Speaker 2 Except for him. Speaker 1 And we bear. Speaker 2 Witness that Muhammad sallallallahu adihua Saddam is his final messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon him, the Prophets and Messengers. Speaker 1 That came before him. His. Speaker 2 Family and companions that served alongside him and those that follow in his blessed path until the Day of judgement. And we ask Allah to make us amongst them. Allah, I mean. Speaker 1 Dear brothers and sisters, if I was to ask you, what is the word for wake up call? Speaker 2 In the Quran. Speaker 1 You might say various things that come straight to mind. Speaker 2 Because Allah Azzawajal speaks of this idea of the ayat of Allah. Speaker 1 Through the stories and the verses. Speaker 2 And the lessons in the Quran as being meant to inject into us. Speaker 1 A sense of urgency and Allah uses different words to describe the nature of different wake up calls. And I was reading in Surat. Speaker 2 Ali, Imran and what caught? Speaker 1 My attention was the way that Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala uses almost 2 identical words to what are situations that Allah Azzawajal is telling us to wake up and to ponder deeply on either what we are perceiving or what we are seeing on the first page. Speaker 2 Of Surat Ali. Speaker 1 Imran A loss of Hannah. Speaker 2 Taala says Wemaya vekkaru Illah UL Alabab and no. Speaker 1 One is able to remember properly except. Speaker 2 For UL Alabab. Speaker 1 People who have. Speaker 2 This deep. Speaker 1 Sense of perception they're people of deep remembrance they're people who clear their minds and so when they hear any reminder, they immediately connected to their own lives and they reconnect to a loss of Hannah ta'ala and the nature of a. Speaker 2 Teskira. Speaker 1 The nature of something that reminds is that it's something you already know, but it reminds you of a loss of Hanoi Ta'ala, and it brings you back to your core over and over and over again to put you in a state of remembrance constantly. Speaker 2 On the next. Speaker 1 Page A Loss of Hanoi Ta'ala. Speaker 2 Mentions the Khat Khan and Akung. Speaker 1 That he, he has given to you. Speaker 2 An example. Speaker 1 Fifi Etienne Takata when 2 armies. Speaker 2 Met one another. Speaker 1 One group was fighting in the path of Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala and another group was fighting and they appear to be double in number and Allah Subhanahu. Speaker 2 Said well allahu UE dubinos rihi meyesha in nafib Ali ke lehiberat Ali ulil. Speaker 1 Abbelsar Allah gives victory to whom he. Speaker 2 Wills, and in that is ebera. Speaker 1 A wake up call for people who. Speaker 2 Have. Speaker 1 Deep insight. And so the word that's used is. Speaker 2 Ebrah. Speaker 1 And I want you to think about this inshallah tada every time you now hear this word being. Speaker 2 Used in the Quran Ebrah. Speaker 1 Wake up call, wake up call, wake up call and how specific it actually is. Speaker 2 A letter is which I mentions a vikra. Speaker 1 Remembrance in the General. Speaker 2 Sense and things. Speaker 1 Are meant to bring us back to a loss of Hanoi Tada. But there are things that happen in front of you, things that you can see if you're someone that's plugged in to what is pleasing to a lot than anything that you hear of a lot immediately puts you in the. Speaker 2 Zone and. Speaker 1 Causes you to go into a state of deep reflection. But when Allah Subhanaw Taala points out people that you can see or nations that came to pass or different examples that are so obvious to the eye. But if someone is blinded from their spiritual reality of their existence, they won't be able to see Allah. Subhana Tai uses this word. Speaker 2 Ebra. Speaker 1 And I was thinking about how Allah as well just says Fatabiru. Speaker 2 Yahud al Abbasar. Speaker 1 So wake up O people of. Speaker 2 Abbasar al Basira. Speaker 1 Is that when you look at something, you see it's deeper reality, right? Speaker 2 Al Basar. Speaker 1 Is your sight. Speaker 2 Basira. Speaker 1 Is deeper insight. You can look at something and you can derive more from it because you're paying deeper attention. So two people can be reading the same book. One of them can take no lesson from it whatsoever. The other one can see something. Two people can be looking at what's happening in Gaza and walk away with completely different conclusions or completely different reflections. You could see someone who has fallen from grace, someone that is away from a loss of Hanoi. Speaker 2 Ta'ala. Speaker 1 And one person walks away. Speaker 2 Mocking. Speaker 1 The other person walks away, reflecting they're looking at the same. Speaker 2 Thing but the. Speaker 1 Difference is whether or not they're from. Speaker 2 Ulil Abbasab. Speaker 1 They're people of deeper insight, and Allah Azza Wajal connects this idea of a wake up call to people of deeper insights. And how does Allah azza? Speaker 2 Wajal. Speaker 1 Invoke this concept. Speaker 2 Of Ebrah in the Quran. Speaker 1 Allah Subhana Taala invokes it when he talks about nations before you that were destroyed after Allah, Azza tells. Speaker 2 Us in certain Nazi aunt. Speaker 1 About the destruction of their own. Speaker 2 In nafida alikelar ebra talima yosha, that's a. Speaker 1 Wake up, call for a person who's paying attention, for a person who's in awe of a loss. Speaker 2 Of Hanoi Ta'ala. Speaker 1 That for their own, while he was a man in a very particular time, a tyrant in a particular time. There are for their owns in every nation and there are people that display for their ownic behaviour in every single context and beware of having for their ownic behaviour and being dealt with by a loss of Hanoi Ta'am the same way for their own was dealt with. Speaker 2 Allah and so Ajal mentions Lakat Qanafi qasasihim ebra. Speaker 1 That in the stories of the prophets that came before you. Speaker 2 There's a EBRA. Speaker 1 There's a wake up call, There's a wisdom, there's something you. Speaker 2 Should be paying. Speaker 1 Attention to and I'll give you just one more layer to this definition, inshallah, that I want to bring it to our reality. One layer of this definition is that. Speaker 2 Ebra, The Scholars. Speaker 1 Of the Arabic language, say is when you see. Speaker 2 Something that happens? Speaker 1 And it causes. Speaker 2 You an Interpol. Speaker 1 Manhattan inahal it causes you to move from one state to another. It's not just. Speaker 2 Mushahada it is. Speaker 1 Tavajur, you go from observation to transformation to actually changing yourself. So you didn't? Speaker 2 Just witness something. Speaker 1 But you witnessed something in a way that made you wake up to your own reality. And you said, wait, this is actually talking to me. Allah is not just talking about past nations. Allah is not just talking about past profits. A loss of Hanoi Ta'ala is not just talking about people in the past or things that happened in the past. A lot is talking to me about me. So it takes you from. Speaker 2 A musaha that you're just. Speaker 1 Seeing something to attire to transforming yourself and. Speaker 2 That's why some of the scholars of the. Speaker 1 Language, they say. If you look at the word bridge, it comes from the same route you go from one place to another. So these are stories not to entertain you when you're talking about the past, but also in your present reality and this. Speaker 2 Is where I really want us to pay attention to in the. Speaker 1 People that Allah Azzawajal puts around us. Speaker 2 And the multiple. Speaker 1 Stories that Allah. Speaker 2 Puts around us. Speaker 1 You know, Subhanallah, social media today is filled. Speaker 2 With the Akbar. Speaker 1 Of others, the news of others so even if you are locked up in a home, even if you have no. Speaker 2 Social life you're. Speaker 1 Constantly exposed to everybody's relationship difficulties, to everybody's recent change in their lives, to entire populations that are wiped out, to. Speaker 2 Victims and villains. Speaker 1 You're constantly exposed to other people's news. Now your algorithm. Speaker 2 Will give you. Speaker 1 What it thinks you're interested in. And there's something terrifying about that, because the things. Speaker 2 That tend to. Speaker 1 Drive our reactions tend to be things that are far less. Speaker 2 Significance than things that. Speaker 1 Actually matter in the world, and that's a sign of what the Ebra your algorithm thinks is for you. Your algorithm thinks you have a Ebra. You have a particular thing to change your behaviour and it wants to feed that. Speaker 2 Behaviour and give you something. Speaker 1 But you're constantly exposed to Did you hear what happened to this person? Did you hear what happened to this person? You don't even need someone else to tell you. Did you hear what happened to this person? Speaker 2 Anymore. Speaker 1 You already see it. It shows up on your news feed constantly and even. Speaker 2 If you're not someone on social media, the. Speaker 1 Gossip in our communities. Speaker 2 Is non-stop. Speaker 1 Did you hear what happened to this person's marriage? Did you hear what happened to this person? His job? Did you hear what happened? Did you hear that this person did this and this person did that? We're constantly exposed to other people in their lowest states, correct? You constantly see someone. Speaker 2 Else and their fall, the erebra. Speaker 1 Is for you though. Speaker 2 When a law is though it. Speaker 1 Just shows you what's happening to other people. The Erebra is for you, the wake up call is for you. And you're supposed to be a person of Basira. You're supposed to be a person who's deriving insight from everything that's happening around you. Now someone might say, well that means like if I'm looking. Speaker 2 At someone. Speaker 1 That went astray. I'm going to be very judgmental of that person. If I'm looking at someone who got caught up in the money and they started to slowly relinquish their Dean or they sold their principles for a meager profit, then I'm going to start judging that person. Or if I'm. Speaker 2 Talking about someone that stopped coming to the message I'm going to. Speaker 1 Start judging that person. I don't want to look too deeply at what's happening to other people. And there's a difference. There's a difference when you look at people. Speaker 2 That have fallen. Speaker 1 Or people. Speaker 2 That have ended up in. Speaker 1 Present. Speaker 2 Negative. Speaker 1 Outcomes. Speaker 2 You're looking at them, not to. Speaker 1 Evaluate them, but to actually evaluate yourself? Speaker 2 You're looking at. Speaker 1 Them not to pass a judgement on their outcome, but to study their trajectory of how they got there. And then ask yourself, am I following the same trajectory? So if someone else followed this trajectory as an individual? Speaker 2 Or as a. Speaker 1 Family or as a community? Speaker 2 You know, Mashallah. Speaker 1 Everyone talks about Valley Ranch Islamic Center and our community is this. Our community is this. May Allah protect it and may Allah protect all of the communities that are out there. When you hear something that happened to another community, you could mock it or you could study the trajectory and you could say, how do we make sure our messages never becomes that way? When you hear something because we're all in each other's business constantly. When you hear something that. Speaker 2 Happened to. Speaker 1 Someone else's family, A marriage fell apart. A parent and a child fell apart. Something happened. Speaker 2 In a. Speaker 1 Household, someone else's household. You don't study it to mock it. You don't look at it and say, well, that's just terrible. And you know, I always knew something was awful about this person and that person. You look at it and you look at the trajectory and you take. Speaker 2 The Ebra What's? Speaker 1 Something I can take from that and look at my household and make sure it doesn't become that household. What's the Ebra that Allah Subhanotahara is giving to me when you look at the individual that has, at least in the present tense, seemingly gone astray or done something very Haram or fallen in a state of oppressing someone else? Speaker 2 You don't look at them to say that that. Speaker 1 Person is less. Speaker 2 Than you. Speaker 1 And that person is going to hell and you're, you know, you're going to heaven because you're not that person. You look at that and you say. Speaker 2 How did that? Speaker 1 Person get there, there's a trajectory there's. Speaker 2 Something that happens? Speaker 1 And I want to know how I can make sure it doesn't happen to me. I don't know that person's state and Subhan Allah. When it comes to how you look at other people, you don't know, as the scholars mentioned, you don't know their TOBA. You don't know whether they've repented or whether they will repent. You don't know their Nihaya. You don't know their ending. Speaker 2 They might. Speaker 1 End up dying as the most pious of people. Speaker 2 And. Speaker 1 Using what has happened as a catalyst to bring them back to a loss of hundreds and 3rd. You don't even know their had, you don't know their present state, what Allah sees in them. Speaker 2 Now that you can't see in them because. Speaker 1 Even the angels can't see certain things about us. Perhaps Allah saw something in that. Speaker 2 Woman of beni Isla Eid that. Speaker 1 Was an adulterous to inspire her towards Toba, to inspire her towards repentance because there was something inside of her that would click in the right moment. So you're not looking at someone else and saying that happened to them and this person is done or this person even now is worse than me. There might be something about that person right now that makes them better in the sight of a. Speaker 2 Lust of Henry Tahala the ebra is to. Speaker 1 Study the trajectory. Why are they in that behaviour? Speaker 2 Or in that state right now, Allah sending you the sign, Allah sending me the sign, the Ebrah. Speaker 1 Is for us. Speaker 2 The lesson is. Speaker 1 For us some. Speaker 2 Of the real amount that even comments on whether to Tabiru Hultawa to Shaipan do not follow the footsteps of Shaipan. Speaker 1 Doesn't just mean that the traps have been laid. Speaker 2 It means that someone else has. Speaker 1 Walked that trap before you so there are observable footsteps to not. Speaker 2 Follow to not end up in. Speaker 1 The same place. How did this person fall into zinna? How did this person fall into infidelity? Well, there's a trajectory. And if you are observing the same trajectory, then don't be surprised when you end up in the same outcome. How did that person become addicted to money and A and a slave to their wealth? Speaker 2 Abdurdi not. Speaker 1 As it appears, well, there's a trajectory. Am I acting in the exact same way in my own business practices? How did that community get to this? How did that family get to this? Study Trajectories. Speaker 2 And take their ebra the fact that. Speaker 1 Allah Azza gave you the eyes to see it means that he's also given you. Speaker 2 The potential to. Speaker 1 Truly perceive it so that you take. Speaker 2 The lesson and you don't fall. And so the Quran constantly says fat tabiru, fat tabiru in the fidarical ebra. Pay attention. Pay. Speaker 1 Attention, Pay attention. Take the bridge. You don't want to be like Benny Isla. You don't want to be like for their own. You don't want to be like. Speaker 2 AD and Thamoud. Speaker 1 You want to be like Noor, You want to be like Musa. You want to be like these prophets. You want to be like. Speaker 2 Us, Habid. Oh dude, you want to be like us, Habid Kaf? Speaker 1 Constantly Allah is saying pay attention to. Speaker 2 The Ebrah, the Quran is not. Speaker 1 A book about the stories of other people. It's a book about what your story. Speaker 2 Could end up looking like depending. Speaker 1 On how you respond to the revelation and how you. Speaker 2 End up defining. Speaker 1 Your future trajectory. Now I want to say one last thing here. Speaker 2 You know, and Ibrahim Ali and Saddam taught us. Speaker 1 The Durant or allies that that teaches us. Speaker 2 This this idea. Speaker 1 Of Robin Allah. Speaker 2 To Jana fitna Allah don't make us a fitna Allah don't make us a tribe. Lil Adina kafaru. Speaker 1 To those who disbelieve, there's a very specific manifestation. Speaker 2 Of that that. Speaker 1 Because of our own states, we end up. Speaker 2 Being defeated by. Speaker 1 Those who disbelieve and they would think that they are upon the truth because of how easily victory is coming to. Speaker 2 Them and and. Speaker 1 And don't let my behaviour end up leading someone else. Speaker 2 To a. Speaker 1 Negative behaviour Don't let my behaviour end up leading someone else to a negative behaviour. That means setting the trend. Speaker 2 Setting the trend and when the prophets. Speaker 1 Like seldom says that every single murder goes back to. Speaker 2 Khabil and Habil. Speaker 1 And a share of the. Speaker 2 Sin goes back. Speaker 1 To the original murder because. Speaker 2 He was a woman, son Al Qatim. Speaker 1 He was the first one to set the trend. That's one way of. Speaker 2 Being a fitness. Speaker 1 Someone follows your behaviour. There's a third thing here which is oh Allah, don't make me the Ebrah for someone. Speaker 2 Else. Speaker 1 In the negative sense, you know Sabhala, you hear stories about people. Speaker 2 In Sioux al Kritan. Speaker 1 Stories of people who had evil. Speaker 2 Endings. Speaker 1 And we hear them in the. Speaker 2 MOA Eva in in the Lessons of Mashiach and people. Speaker 1 Of Darwin, people that have dealt with communities that will tell you the stories of people who. Speaker 2 Had Sioux Al Kritan who had evil endings. Speaker 1 May Allah protect us people who. Speaker 2 Wronged and people who did. Speaker 1 This and people who refused to listen to rightful guidance. Oh Allah, don't make me that type of Erebra instead. You want to be what, Ibrahim? Speaker 2 Ali Salaam taught us what Jana del Mutapina inana let us instead. Speaker 1 Be leaders of Hail, leaders of good stories of what it looks like to grab on to the rope of Allah, Subhanahu, ET al, and to pull yourself up to the salvation that He has made possible for all of us if we listen. Speaker 2 Instead be inana, not IBO. Speaker 1 Be someone who is actually going to be a feel good story, a success story now in order for us to not become better, but we kind of need both in our lives. You know, somehow I, I don't remember who said this and where I heard this, but it was something very insightful. Speaker 2 That imagine if. Speaker 1 All of the. Speaker 2 Seminars. Speaker 1 And master classes. Speaker 2 And. Speaker 1 Webinars and whatever else you want to call them, like where we study the lives of people. Imagine if we had people that failed, people that whose lives were ruined, teaching those seminars. Seminars. Speaker 2 On how I failed. Speaker 1 Master classes on everything not to do. We don't do that. We always have the success. Speaker 2 Stories and people you know, they they give you the celebrated. Speaker 1 And decorated resume of everything that they've accomplished in life right there's. Speaker 2 Some good in that. There's some good in that to study. Speaker 1 Success. There's also good at studying failure and making sure you don't pursue the same process of failure. Speaker 2 I don't know what this person's ending will be. I don't know what this. Speaker 1 Family's ending. Speaker 2 Will be I don't know what this Masjid's ending will be. I don't know what this. Speaker 1 Country's ending will be I don't know what this. Speaker 2 Country's ending will be in this in the sense of the immediate. Speaker 1 Sense I don't know what it's all going to look like, but I know what it looks like right now and I know that Allah Azojad is telling me something. Speaker 2 By. Speaker 1 The way that it looks like. Speaker 2 Fatahbiru, pay attention in the Fidarica de Ebra. Speaker 1 Wake up, it's a call for you. The fact that Allah exposed you to it means that Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala wants you to take something from it. Speaker 2 The last thing? Speaker 1 I'll say here, dear brothers and sisters, just because let's say that you're like, well, I actually I'm already that Ebra, I've already fallen. I've already. Speaker 2 Been the example of. Speaker 1 This I've already been the. Speaker 2 Example of that. Speaker 1 How many people? Speaker 2 Who became imams of good? Speaker 1 Were once. Speaker 2 Ebras of Shah. Speaker 1 Of evil. There are so many stories throughout our Islamic history of people that were impossible in impossible states where this was the story that you never wanted to be. Speaker 2 But Allah. Speaker 1 Azza Wajal inspired them towards better versions of themselves and alas. Speaker 2 Of Hanawatta Allah. Speaker 1 Turned them into the complete opposite and those are the best stories. Speaker 2 You open the Aya Alam Yetni, Ladina Amano and Tasha, the Ayaan suit and Hadid, is it not? Speaker 1 Time for those who believe to humble their hearts to the remembrance of Allah and what He has revealed of the truth. Read the stories. Speaker 2 Of Abdullah Mubarak Rahim Allah of Malik Abdina Rahim Allah of. Speaker 1 Of all these people who were lowly, lowly people, drunks, adulterers, in some case even murderers who completely turned their lives around. Speaker 2 And became the. Speaker 1 Imams of us today. Speaker 2 Not the Ebrah of Shab. Speaker 1 Not the example of evil, the wake up call of evil, but instead stories of salvation. Because Allah azzawajal has not made us irredeemable. Speaker 2 So long. Speaker 1 As we're still alive. Speaker 2 And that's the the Rahman behind the Ebra, The Rahman behind the Ebra he. Speaker 1 Gives you these wake up calls out of mercy so that you don't relegate yourself and shut your book and say that it's done. It's not done. Speaker 2 Lastly, don't assign something that. Speaker 1 Happened to you outside of character, just circumstance as Allah making you a lesson for someone else. Perhaps it's the resilience in that circumstance or that difficulty that was visited upon you despite good behaviour. Speaker 2 That makes you. Speaker 1 An imam for someone else. Speaker 2 Bin Laden. Speaker 1 On how to have patience and difficult moments and how to maintain your faith in your character. Speaker 2 And your dignity, even when things. Speaker 1 Fall apart all. Speaker 2 Around. Speaker 1 You may Allah. Speaker 2 Allow us to be amongst amongst those who. Speaker 1 Heed the wake up calls. Speaker 2 And who wake? Speaker 1 Up others by heeding the wake up calls. Speaker 2 May Allah azza wajal make us imams inhib people who lead in good and not make. Speaker 1 US examples or lessons? Speaker 2 In evil and punishment, may Allah Subhanaw Ta'ala give us. Speaker 1 Victory. Speaker 2 Over our enemies. Speaker 1 Victory over our oppressors, may Allah. Speaker 2 Subhanaw Ta'ala, protect our Ummah. Speaker 1 Protect our communities, protect our families, and protect us from the spiritual diseases that erode. Speaker 2 All good. I.