September 19, 2024 • 59 mins
Reflections from The Risale-Nur a Qur'an commentary by Bediüzzaman Said Nursi
The Words - The Twenty-Third Word - First Point
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed.
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In the name of Allah, the MostGracious, the Most Merciful.
Last time I had mentioned that Iwould like us to reflect on the
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notion of what a good personlooks like, how a good person is
supposed to be.
And so we started off talkingabout sincerity, ikhlas, but I
already alluded to it when wethink about the good person in
Islam.
Of course, we have the ProphetMuhammad, peace and blessings be
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upon him, in mind.
And in the Islamic tradition, heis known as al-insan al-kamil,
the perfect human being.
Now, that doesn't mean that theprophets were reform error or
didn't do any mistakes.
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They did because they were fullyhuman, but they didn't commit
major sins, major sins that areidentified in the tradition like
idolatry or adultery orfornication or taking interest
or usury.
Those are clearly defined majorsins.
So the prophets are immune fromor major sins.
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Nevertheless, we know from theprophetic narratives that
sometimes in order to be goodhuman role models for us as
believers, Allah allows them tomake mistakes, small mistakes
where they show us how to seekGod's repentance, how to repent,
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how to seek Allah's forgiveness,and how to return to Him and how
to Erase a bad deed or mistakewith a good one and how to
display humility, which we willalso talk, inshallah, in the
future sessions.
But when we think about the goodperson in Islam, and like I
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said, everybody aspires to be agood person, a good human being.
We all come to this world and wewant to be constantly good.
Our quest for growth, our thirstfor growth and learning never
ceases.
We all want to improveourselves.
We want to better ourselves.
We want to be the best versionof ourselves.
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And so that never stops.
That is something that startswhen we are entering this world
as infants.
We are in constant mode ofgrowing and learning and
improving ourselves.
The quest for knowledge neverceases.
So everybody has anunderstanding or this innate
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understanding, this intrinsicunderstanding of what a good
person has to look like or issupposed to act like, what kind
of moral conduct they need todisplay.
Now, for us as Muslims, ofcourse, we look up to the
prophetic teachings, to theprophetic model, to the Prophet
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Muhammad, peace and blessings beupon him.
For us, he is...
the ultimate role model in everyaspect of our lives, in all
human affairs.
And that's why he is called amercy to the world, to all
communities, to everyone, to allcreatures, to not just the world
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of humankind, but also the worldof the supernatural being.
So he is a mercy for all theworlds.
That's why we look up to him inour quest to be a good person.
So in these future reflections,I want to talk about some of the
main characteristics when theQuran and the Prophet, peace and
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blessings be upon him,especially in this month of Rabi
al-Awwal, where we arecelebrating the birthday and
honoring and remembering theProphet more than ever, and
thinking about his legacy.
What does it mean to be a goodperson?
And last time, I...
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I said that one of the numberone characteristics that the
Quran lifts up is sincerity,ikhlas.
But while I was thinking throughthat, reflecting through that, I
already connected it with thenotion of taqwa.
So the good person in Islam isonly good when he has
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God-awareness.
And taqwa is often translated asthe fear of God, mindfulness of
God.
I'd rather think of taqwa, whichthe Quran always refers to as a
main characteristic of a goodperson, is the one who is
mindful of God, who has anawareness of God, who is
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conscious of their creator, whois ever mindful of their
creator.
and who also has this intenselove for the Creator.
That's all in that.
When you are aware of the divinepresence, when you are mindful
that you are in constantpresence of the divine, that
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will impact all your feelingsand thoughts and actions.
So number one characteristic, soI need to go back, and actually
that should have been the mainstarter, In Islam, from a Muslim
perspective, a good person, thegood person is the one who has
taqwa, who has consciousness ofGod, who is mindful of God, who
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is aware of the ultimatereality, who is always in
reverence, living in reverenceto God.
Reverence meaning a deep senseof awe and wonder and love for
Allah, reverence.
So revering Allah in all theiractions and feelings and
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thoughts.
And that needs to be, thatinforms all their conduct.
So the good person has taqwa.
Now, why is that so important?
Because taqwa, faith in God,being aware of a creator,
connects us to Allah.
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the source of being.
Now imagine, this is something,especially consciousness, this
is something where, especiallywhen it comes to science, a lot
of scientists say that we cannotexplain the mystery of
consciousness.
How is it that a human being isconscious of themselves?
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And I've talked about this inthe past, so imagine you have a
piece of play-doh or a piece ofslime.
My children love to play with aputty and slime and play-doh.
But there is this lifeless,unconscious matter, like a piece
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of lifeless, unconscioussubstance.
Like the Quran says, we weremade out of a lump of flesh.
There's nothing.
It's just It's just lifelessmatter.
We were dead.
And then all of a sudden, Allahbreathes into it.
The spirit and the human beingbecomes a conscious being.
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Glory be to God.
Allahu Akbar.
Allah is the greatest.
How can there be out of nothing,out of dead peace and lump of
flesh, like the Quran says, youwere a piece of And then all of
a sudden, Allah breathes intous, gives us consciousness.
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And the highest level ofconsciousness is being aware,
being conscious of your creator.
Now, you can exist, but thatdoesn't necessarily mean you are
alive.
That doesn't mean that I'mreally living.
Being alive means that I'mconscious of my creator.
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Who has given me consciousness?
And just to elaborate a littlebit more, what does it mean to
have consciousness?
Consciousness means that thereis this center in our human
reality that the power ofchoice, there's free will.
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We can choose.
So it's a center of volition,what it's called volition, will.
We have will.
We can decide things.
We can make choices, good orbad.
So volition, the power ofvolition rests in consciousness.
Then the power of memory, thepower of imagination, the power
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of dreaming, the power offantasizing, the power of being
innovative, and the power offeeling, of having emotions, all
of this resides in our sense ofconsciousness, the greatest
gift.
Now, in this section, it alludesto the fact, I mean, it speaks
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to why consciousness of havingiman and awareness of a creator
is so important and makes ahuman being truly a good human
being.
The good person is only good ifthey are connected, related, or
live in a relationship, in aconstant relationship with the
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source of consciousness, who isAllah, who is the one God,
ultimate reality.
Now, again, imagine peace offlesh, like the Quran says,
always brings us back to thecreation story.
The story of our beginning isthat we were lifeless matter.
Any mother who has everconceived a child will witness a
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test and testifies that there isfirst nothing, lifeless matter
in your body.
And all of a sudden, this lifestarts to evolve, starts to have
consciousness, a sense of self,a sense of personhood, a sense
of identity.
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I mean, we are not reallythinking, pondering about these
things because we are living inthis climate or in a system or
in this universe that makeseverything ordinary.
This is not ordinary.
That's why Allah points alwaysto the first creation.
Don't you think about the factthat you were dead?
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You were dead flesh.
How is this happening that outof nothing Allah creates us?
everything, consciousness,awareness, right?
So being the good person who isaware of their creator, of their
Lord, of their sustainer, is theone who's truly good.
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Let me give you an example thatalways is mentioned in the
Risaleh before I read this shortportion here.
Now, imagine you stand in frontof this amazing piece of art.
like a great piece of artistry,a picture that a famous artist
has painted.
And as somebody who is aware ofart, very skilled in art, you
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were trained in art school, atart school, and you're very
gifted, and you know theintricacies and the nuances of
art.
You look at that amazingpicture, that piece of art, you
detect all the nuances, you seeall these amazing arrangements,
of the colors, of the beautifulcomposition and all of that.
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And behind you is the artist.
Behind you is the artist whomade that amazing composition,
that piece of art, who isshowcasing his skills and
abilities, his artistry, hisdesign, his ability to plan and
imagine and put this amazingpiece of art together.
displaying his wisdom and hiscreativity, his innovation.
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And then you are in awe of thispicture, of this piece of art.
And then you turn around to theartist and then tell him, isn't
it amazing, this outstandingpiece, unique, amazing
composition, and how all thesecolors came together, how these
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brushes and paints came togetherto bring this art into
existence.
You look at the artist and theartist is just simply left
speechless.
Because what you didn'tunderstand, or you're basically
implying, saying that thisamazing piece of art came
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together through these causes,through these brushes and paints
and these different cans ofcolors, and you look into the
face of the artist who is soevident, who is so present, who
is observing you, and you do notacknowledge his art, his
creativity, his skills, hisamazing faculties, his
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imagination, his planning, hiswisdom, his beauty, his
aesthetical skills, potential,and you look into his face and
say, all these brushes, allthese paints, all these colors,
they came together and they madethis amazing piece of art.
That is how it feels when we arenot living in awareness of
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Allah.
When we do not have taqwa, whenwe do not acknowledge his
presence, his art, his artistry,his creativity, his wisdom, his
planning, his power, Hispresence, then what does it
basically come to?
We are committing the greatestcrime, which is denial and kufr
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and covering up the truth,concealing the artist, this
amazing extraordinary artist,and basically committing a crime
against God, which is thegreatest injustice.
The greatest injustice to God isis to look at all his art, all
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his skill.
This world is an amazing pieceof art.
It's an exhibit with endlessmeanings and wisdom and beauty
and aesthetics.
Everybody is in awe.
Everybody testifies to itconstantly, but then looks
around and says, it all cameinto being randomly,
coincidentally, through therandom communication,
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collaboration, or ordination ofcauses and nature, or Mother
Nature has created it.
That is how kufr then becomesthis endless crime against not
only God, not only the Creator,who has put this on display for
you to be aware of Him and to bein a relationship with Him.
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But because of a lack ofconsciousness of Him, we are
then committing the crime ofkufr, the crime of unbelief.
And kufr means to conceal thetruth.
The truth is obvious, evident.
Allah is al-Zahir.
He's so evident, obvious toanybody who seeks Him.
But consciously to deny Him, tolook at the piece of art, which
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is life in all its facets andaspects, and then to deny Him,
that is the greatest crime.
the greatest injustice that canbe perpetrated.
That's why the human being willbe held accountable.
If we are not living inawareness, in consciousness of
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God, then we have basicallyseized our purpose.
So here in the 23rd word, andthe goal of these sessions is
not to do long readings, okay?
I'll just give you nuggets ofwisdom so that you then
hopefully take this and thendive further.
But I take a lot here becausethis is basically coming down to
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number one characteristic of agood person is that they
cultivate constant deepawareness of the greatest
artist, the greatest designer,the greatest creator.
That's why the Quran is full ofpointing us to the cosmological
book, which is the universe.
Don't they see?
Don't they reflect?
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Don't they witness?
How can they assign all thatbeauty, that wisdom, that
fine-tuning that even scientistsare now saying is completely
impossible to assign to randomcauses because there is some
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mathematical genius who operatesin such detail?
in such accuracy, in such finemeasurement that it's impossible
to say that this all came intobeing randomly.
This is how we act when we standin front of this amazing piece
of art and then turn around,look at the face of the artist
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and then say, everything justcame into being randomly.
Not being aware of his presence.
I'm in front of you.
How can you not see me?
How can you not see that you area piece of art and how can you
witness and testify to theextraordinary nature of this
universe and still claim that itcame into being randomly or
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because of causes who millionsof times through some kind of
evolutionary process came intoexistence.
That's why here in the 23rdword, when it interprets the
verse of Surah At-Tin, and Allahsays, Indeed, we have created
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the human being on the mostexcellent of patterns.
Indeed, we have created thehuman being on the most
excellent patterns.
Right?
And then send him down to thelowest of the low, except those
who believe and do good deeds.
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So Allah has created us in thebest fashion, in the original,
the most excellent, the mostbeautiful of ways.
Indeed, we have created thehuman being in the most
beautiful, the most excellentpatterns.
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I'm a Taqweem.
I'm the best beautiful displayof Allah's art.
There is no other creature Noother being on this planet who
is as conscious as I am, who hasmore willpower than I am, who
has more constructive potentialthan I am, who has an imaginary
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power, who has a power ofdreaming and creating and being
innovative.
I'm in awe of my fellow humanbeing, says Ustad Bediüzzaman.
Yes, we should be in awe ofourselves.
and about the potential.
I mean, look around of whathuman beings are capable of
doing in the best way, but alsothey can lower themselves to the
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lowest of low.
Allah has given us the greatestgift, which is the freedom of
choice, free will, which is agreat gift, but it's also a
great responsibility.
It's a trust that He shared Hisbeautiful attributes and
qualities with us.
But we are fully responsible ofhow we are using them.
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We can use them in the mostconstructive and beautiful way.
We can create and innovate andheal and invent amazing things.
We can write the greatestpoetry, the greatest odes and
poems and litanies andsupplications and books, and
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they are out there.
But we can also write the mostdestructive chapters of human
history.
We can also commit the greatestatrocities.
No other being can do that.
We have that dual potential.
So we are only beautiful When weare the ones who believe in
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Allah, who affirm existence inHim, who have taqwa, like I
said, I translated into Godconsciousness, mindfulness of
God, love of God, living in theconstant presence of God, living
in reverence to God.
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loving him so much that you wantto please him in every aspect of
your life.
And that translates to that loveoverflows, that consciousness
overflows, and then translatesinto good deeds.
You can't be responding to Allahother than good deeds because
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you've now realized through thatconsciousness, through that
greatest gift of being aware ofwhat's going on, of who you are,
And you look at yourself andthink, Allahu Akbar, God is the
greatest.
He equipped me, endowed me withso many amazing skills,
abilities, such amazingpotential.
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I want to live up to that.
I want to rise higher and higherand higher.
I want to be the best version ofmyself.
Ya Allah, O my Lord, allow me torealize my best potential.
Make me, guide me, hold my hand.
Let me speak truthfully.
Let me think and feelbeautifully.
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And thoughts are very importantbecause everything starts first
with awareness.
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Who's my creator?
And like we've always read inthese quotes, Beware of your
thoughts.
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Beware of your feelings.
They can become thoughts.
Beware of your thoughts.
They become actions.
So everything is firstpremeditated.
Even the false ideologies orevil ideologies out in the world
and throughout human history,first they start out as a
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thought, as a meditation.
Destructive?
Yes.
and then carries out intoactions.
They are then put into action.
Very scary, frightening.
But because of this dunya as aplace of test and examination
and allowing good and evil toclash and compete, we are
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deciding where we are, what weare thinking, what we are
feeling.
Are we feeling good thoughts?
Are we feeling positive,beautiful feelings?
And then we also, of course,weigh them in the framework of
God's guidance, revelation, andthe prophetic teachings.
Some of my feelings might not bepleasing to Allah.
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Some of my feelings and emotionsmight not be in the realm of the
sunnah and the propheticexample.
But I can only know that if Isincerely seek Allah's guidance.
Ya Allah, is this feeling, isthis feeling, this emotion, or
this thought, is this somethingthat is beneficial, helpful?
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Is this bringing me closer toyou?
Then help me to put it intoaction.
If it's distancing me from you,Ya Allah, then free me from it.
So that kind of Deep Godconsciousness said, taqwa goes
so deep that wherever you are,even in your tiny dark corner,
you're aware of Allah'spresence.
Allah says in the Quran, he is athird when two people meet.
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He is there, he's listening.
And that adds quality to ourlives.
Not fear, not a destructive orharmful fear, but a healthy
fear.
A fear of losing his love.
Because when he is present withyou, if he is your closest
intimate, If you have that kindof strong taqwa, strong God
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consciousness, you will alwaysbe thinking of him that he is
reading your secret thoughts.
Like Allah says, I know yoursecret thoughts.
I know what's in your chest.
I know what's going on in yourheart.
How beautiful.
I was reading this sacrednarration, this hadith Qudsi,
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where Allah says, I am accordingto the thinking of my servant.
If he thinks of me, I willremember him.
I mean, who on earth, when youare sending out a thought about
them, let's say you are in yourbed at 3 a.m., you're thinking
of someone.
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Do they know that you'rethinking of them?
They probably don't, right?
Because no human being will everknow that at 3 a.m., a deep,
dark night, that you're thinkingof them, and then they respond
with a thought back.
But look at Allah's presence.
When you are living in constanttaqwa, in remembrance of Him,
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glorifying Him, loving Him, whenyou're living in consciousness
of Him, you think of Him, andHe'll say, I will remember you
too.
In my own presence, I willremember you.
I respond to your thought.
Like who on earth is capable ofdoing that?
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SubhanAllah, but we wantsomebody to listen to us.
We want somebody to follow oursecret thoughts, our deep
feelings, emotions.
Sometimes we are not able tomake sense of them.
But this is how beautiful Godawareness is.
You are alone, but you willnever feel lonely.
Because the moment you think ofAllah, If you remember me, I
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will remember you.
I mean, how honorable is that?
How much more worth and valuecan someone achieve?
That is how important awarenessis.
Awareness.
Allah says in another hadith,Qudsi, if a servant has a bad
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thought, and they do not put itinto action, Allah will reward
them.
How generous is our Lord.
How loving and caring andcompassionate is He.
Because this realization thateverything starts out with a
thought, even if it's a badthought and you don't put it
into action, will be rewarded.
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This is how generous Allah is.
This is how compassionate andgiving He is.
But if we have a good thoughtand we put it into action, Allah
also rewards it 100 times more.
Because doing good is so muchharder.
You have to overcome your nafs,your own lower ego.
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You have to maybe overcomesocietal pressures, peer
pressures.
You have to overcome thewhispers of the shaitan, of
satan, of the devil.
You have to follow rules andregulations.
There's morality, there's aconduct.
It's always harder to do good.
That's why Allah in Hisgenerosity, even though He
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doesn't have to, rewards us evenfor the things that we don't,
evil thoughts that we are notputting into action, and rewards
us beyond measure for thingsthat we do that He doesn't have
to even reward in such degree.
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So I want us to understand howimportant God consciousness is,
taqwa.
Number one reason that we cancall a good person a good person
is when they have faith inAllah.
Taqwa goes deeper.
And living in constant divinepresence, even if I'm alone, I
know that Allah is in mypresence, watching me, observing
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me, looking at me, guarding me,recording my thoughts.
elevates the quality of my life.
It doesn't threaten me, itelevates me.
It allows me to live a life withbeauty and grace and dignity,
the way I stand and sit.
That's why the Quran says, whenthey are sitting and sleeping on
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their sides, when they arestanding, they are in constant
remembrance of their Lord.
How beautiful is that, that kindof holistic, that kind of
wholesome being of a Muslim.
So to be a good person, is toacknowledge your creator, the
giver of the gifts, the giver ofyour talents, the creator of
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this art and beauty that you arewitnessing and enjoying.
To acknowledge him, that is soimportant.
We've talked about this so manytimes.
Imagine you are invited to thisbanquet, to this feast, five
stars feast, this amazing,generous host.
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You're sitting at the table.
There's everything.
All the lights you can imagine.
You enjoy.
You savor everything.
You're like overcome by allthese delicacies and blessings.
And then you leave without evenexpressing your gratitude to the
host.
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You do not even say thank you.
The host is not in need of ouracknowledgement.
Our creator is not in need ofour gratitude, but it is such an
immoral, not to say inhumane,but immoral and unethical act to
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not pay or express gratitude tothe one who has invited you to
this feast, to this banquet, notout of your own deserving, but
really freely, generously.
That I'm able in this world andcan enjoy this amazing
landscape, this extraordinarytree, the beauty of the leaves
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and the fall season.
That I'm invited to this amazingexhibit of this beautiful
creation and I get to witness,free, not something of my own
making, but it's because of Hisgenerosity.
And if I cannot turn around tothe host and say, I'm so
grateful that you invited me,you honored me to be at this
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table, to have a seat at yourhonorable banquet, to be in your
audience, it gives me honor anddignity and value.
Thank you for valuing me.
Thank you for honoring me.
I am in awe.
I'm speechless.
How can I respond to you?
How can I even express mygratitude?
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That's why ingratitude goesalong with kufr.
It goes along with unbelief andconcealing the truth.
Who has invited you in thispalace?
Who has invited you in thisamazing exhibit that we call the
cosmos?
And you get to witness a littlebit.
We are not even conscious of the100% of things that are going
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on.
But even the little bit ofawareness of Allah's beauty and
art showers us with so muchpeace and joy.
joy and gives you such comfort,gives you such illumination and
ease into your heart, right?
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Like we all witness it everyday, now walking through the
fall season and everybody is inawe.
Everybody is in awe and wonderof the one who's truly the
artist.
So that's why the seeds ofsaying, masha'Allah, Allah has
willed and created it to say,SubhanAllah, glory be to my
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Lord.
How beautiful.
There is no deficiency, noimperfection, no absence, no
mistake, no flaw.
And then to glorify him and tosay, Allahu Akbar, Ya Allah, you
are the greatest.
There is nobody, nobody likeyou.
And like the Quran says, theywalk on the earth and then they
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say, Oh, our Lord, you have notcreated this in vain.
You are glorified.
You are free from anydeficiency.
Save us from the hellfire.
Amen.
So this is our response to thisamazing, extraordinary exhibit
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that we are in.
And when we are living inawareness of Allah, can we ever
feel extreme loneliness?
Can we ever feel deprived?
Can we ever feel despair?
Can we ever feel hopeless?
So this is what's going on inthis section.
It's saying, let me just readthis first point here, first
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chapter.
We shall explain in five pointsonly five of the virtues of
belief out of thousands.
So Iman and Taqwa, basically gohand in hand.
Iman flows out from theawareness of a creator, looking
everything and realizing this isnot random.
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Coming into a room and seeing anamazing cake and saying, well,
eggs, flour, water, sugarmagically came together over
five millions of years and thencreated this amazing, delicious
cake is completely impossible.
But to say, looking at the cakeand say, who?
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Who on earth?
Who is the artist?
Who is the baker?
Who is the most generous maker?
Who measured?
Who planned?
Who prepared?
Who invited me?
That is then flows out ofawareness from a creator, God
consciousness, and then seekingout and then believing in the
creator.
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Believing, iman flows out ofthat.
Awareness, finally arriving atthe conclusion, this cannot be
random.
Causes cannot create such anamazing, extraordinary cake that
flatters all my senses, thatcaters to all my needs, my
desires and passions.
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We come into this world and werealize somebody has prepared it
for us.
It's the only inhabitable planetin the universe.
The air we breathe, fresh,clean, amazing.
Refreshing, rejuvenating,re-energizing the water that we
enjoy.
Clean, pure.
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The earth that we plant and use,the soil, perfect condition.
Perfectly prepared for us, forour use with minerals and
vitamins.
Not too muddy, not too hard, nottoo dry.
Who, who, who has prepared allof this?
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That is the question that peopledo not ponder.
It's not something that people,because it is the subtle atheism
all around us.
Nobody mentions God, completelymarginalized that he's not in
the books, he's not in themedia, he's not out in the
conversation, he's not in thecommunities, he's not at the
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workplace.
And when we are swimming inthose waters, we get affected.
We don't reflect, we don'tthink, we are not aware.
Or we are aware in a shallowway, and it doesn't translate
into deep actions.
We can be Muslim outwardly, butbecause of the lack of depth in
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the relationship with Allah, wecan still commit atrocities.
There are Muslims who dohorrible things.
We are all prone to do evilthings.
There are reflections of that inour own lives.
We know how to speak, yet weinsist in hurting, or we insist
(38:35):
on harming, or destroying.
So we all have glimpses of thatevil potential, that destructive
nature in our nefs.
Nobody can say, I'm immune fromwrongdoing.
No, that's why Allah says we areall prone to wrongdoing.
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But yet, alhamdulillah, thanksbe to God, he opened always the
door for repentance, for seekingforgiveness, for returning to
him.
Everybody knows the story of theman who killed 99 people and
then was seeking God'sforgiveness.
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And then the narration goesthat, you know, he kills another
person because the person tellshim that God will not forgive
him.
So then it makes it 100.
But at the end, God forgiveshim.
Why?
I mean, imagine none of us,alhamdulillah, grateful.
None of us killed 99 people.
But because of theacknowledgement, because what I
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mentioned earlier, Allah says, Iam according to the thinking of
my servant.
If I think and I'm aware ofAllah as the most forgiving,
that no sin is greater than hismercy, compassion and
forgiveness, Allah will forgiveme.
So my awareness of him, how Ithink of him, my good assumption
(40:09):
about him, that awarenesstransforms all my sins, all my
wrongdoings of the past, even ifthey might be as cruel and evil
as killing 99 people.
The door of hope and mercy andforgiveness is wide open.
And Allah forgives.
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That's how important it is forhim that we acknowledge every
day our deficiency, ourwrongdoings, our harms.
We constantly seek istighfar.
Ya Allah, forgive me.
The Prophet Muhammad, peace beupon him, blessings be upon him,
every day, more than 70 times,He sought Allah's forgiveness.
(40:54):
And it's in this humility, inthis awareness, when we declare,
Ya Allah, O my Lord, I am sodeficient.
There's nothing I can do thatwill ever, ever repay the
blessings, endless blessings youhave showered me with.
(41:14):
None of my worship, none of myprayers and good actions will
ever be deserving of you.
And that acknowledgement, thatawareness, that is something
that Allah is so pleased with.
That is something that He soloves, the humility and the
decency and the acknowledgementof our vulnerability.
(41:37):
And in that, displaying Hisgreatness, saying, Ya Allah, I
am a nothing, but You are great.
I am sinful, but You are the onewho loves those who repent and
turn to You.
Allah, accept my repentance.
I seek your forgiveness.
And then Allah says in theQuran, he will transform their
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bad deeds, their sayyiat, intoasanat.
And we see that in the lives ofthe sahaba, the most beautiful
companions.
You see somebody like Omarradiallahu anhu, who says, there
are two things that I cry when Ithink of the age of ignorance,
the jahiliyyah.
(42:20):
One thing is cry and laugh, twothings.
And he says, we would make idolsout of halwa, and we would, out
of sweet flour and sugar, like asweet dish, we would make idols
out of halwa, and if we wouldget hungry, we would eat them.
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And the one thing that I cryabout the age of ignorance,
before Islam, blessed me is, Iburied my baby girl alive.
This is Ummah, one of thegreatest companions, one of the
rightly guided caliphs, one ofthe leaders of the Ummah.
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And Allah elevates such aperson.
What an amazing transformation.
What a change in human nature.
What an honorable human being.
Because of his acknowledgementand understanding who Allah was,
that he sought his forgiveness,he sought repentance, and Allah
(43:27):
forgave him and honored him andactually made him one of the
greatest leaders of the Muslimcommunity, a star to follow.
So we see how important taqwa isfor a good person.
It's constantly cultivatingdeeper and deeper and stronger
(43:47):
consciousness of Allah,mindfulness of Allah, reverence
for Allah, so much that it goes,enters your thoughts and
feelings.
When we catch ourselves having ahurtful, harmful, destructive
thought or feeling to say, YaAllah, I seek your forgiveness.
This is so inappropriate.
You are seeing this.
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I should not have this lot.
Forgive me and then collectyourself and then come back to
Allah.
That's how beautiful ourtradition is, showing us how to
be the best human being.
Which flows out from belief inAllah, a connection, like it
says here.
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In the first point, let me readthis.
But it's all related to thesection.
All what I've said now isbasically all, I received all
this inspiration, all thisknowledge from the Risale-i Nur.
Nothing what I've said so far isfrom me.
It's from the Quranic treasureof this amazing tafsir that
(44:48):
taught me the depth of theQuran.
So this is what really makes theRisale-i Nur a jewel because it
really gives you depth of theQuranic ocean.
It's not new, but it gives you adeeper understanding of how to
understand taqwa, how tounderstand iman, how to be in a
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relationship with Allah.
Then you can live anywhere.
You can live anywhere and you'llbe in constant presence of
Allah.
Nothing will change.
Nothing will shatter yourrelationship.
So it says here, through thelight of belief, through the
light of iman, man rises to thehighest of the high.
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and acquires a value worthy ofparadise.
And through the darkness ofunbelief, through the darkness
of kufr, he descends to thelowest of the low and falls to a
position fit for hell.
For belief, iman connects man tothe all-glorious maker.
It is a relation, it is arelationship.
(45:52):
So when we have iman, when wehave belief, when we have aqwa,
constant connection with Allah,when he's in every aspect of our
human life, we are in the sacredrelationship.
He's our most intimatecompanion.
He's our welly, our best friend.
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And we are always rising up tothe highest of the high.
We are able to forgive peoplethat we never thought that we
will be able to forgive.
Right?
That's how beautiful Allah makesa person of faith.
That's why we see in the life ofthe Prophet, peace and blessings
(46:35):
be upon him, that we are able toshow forgiveness to people that
harmed us in such a greatmanner, but because we want to
be close to Allah, we are ableto forgive.
That's what we see in the lifeof the Prophet, peace and
blessings be upon him, whoforgave the greatest atrocities.
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Because his only goal was tobring people closer to God.
He was not after power.
He was not after conqueringlands.
He was not after conqueringvictory, having victory.
What was he after?
His highest goal, his highestsecret goal was to remember
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Allah and help others rememberhim too, to bring them close to
Allah.
It was not about gainingprivilege in this dunya or power
in this dunya or glory.
being victorious and conqueringlands.
No, he didn't see none of thishe saw.
So what's our priority?
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My highest goal in this world isto live in remembrance of Allah,
to remember him in all of myaffairs, all of my practices,
all of my feelings, to be anhonorable servant of Allah, to
rise up to the Ahsan al-Taqreem,and to help others remember
Allah too, to help others bringthem closer to Allah.
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That's why I can forgive them.
That's why I hope they willforgive me because if this
person, by my forgiveness or bymy help, comes closer to Allah,
then my life had meaning.
Because we are concerned witheternal happiness, trying to
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help people to get to thateternal happiness, not to a
dunya, worldly, comfortablelife.
Not about seeking power andbeing influential, have prestige
or have some career or money,wealth.
Those are nothing.
Allah does not value those.
(48:43):
But if through me or throughyou, somebody comes closer to
God, somebody remembers Godmore, Then our life had meaning.
That's how this is a spiritualelevation.
That's how then we becomehonored.
But darkness of kufr, cuttingourselves off from Allah, makes
us fall into darkness and low.
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Then our life is just, you know,relates to the worldly realm, is
only concerned with selfishinterests.
We are not expanding.
Right?
So, But somebody who hasconstant taqwa is always in the
state of gratitude.
Even if something is missing orsomething is taken, they will
(49:29):
always be in the state ofgratitude and love for God.
Sometimes you see on these cars,you know, people displaying
their relationship with acertain university, right?
A graduate of this universityand graduate of this.
Why?
because they want to show theyhave credibility.
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They have a reputation.
They're a graduate of theschool.
It's a school, a university, anacademic institution that has
prestige, that has reputation,that has credibility.
It shows that you are anintellectually informed human
being.
It's an elite place.
But does this, that's not todevalue academic education, but
(50:14):
it is a desire to, of people torelate to something and acquire
value and worth, to say toothers, I have worth.
But when you look at theprophet, peace and blessings be
upon him, you look at his lifeand he was asked, do you want to
be a king prophet or a servantprophet?
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What was his response?
I want to be, I desire to be aservant prophet because as long
as I'm in relation with Allah, Ihave value, I have honor, I have
worth, I have dignity.
I am honored human being.
That's enough for me as arelationship.
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And then I do not seek out orchase worldly aspirations.
You can be ambitious in yourworld as long as the goal is to
please Allah.
Everything is permissible.
It says nothing wrong with beingambitious in this world or
acquiring certain things.
but they are not the goal.
The end goal is through thesemeans to come closer to Allah.
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Then may Allah grant success tothose who seek that.
If the goal through work,through money, through wealth,
through children, throughfamily, through a mansion is to
come closer to Allah, to use itfor Allah's purposes, for a holy
cause, a sacred cause, then weare in relationship with Allah.
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then it's beautiful to have it.
It's a blessing.
But it's not the end goal.
The Prophet Sallallahu AlaihiWasallam's end goal was not to
have a comfortable life, to bewealthy, to have mansions, to
acquire power, privilege.
Those are things that are low.
His goal was to make otherpeople come closer to Allah,
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acknowledge his existence.
That's the most honorable goalfor us.
But we don't understand thatkind of deep, sacred cause.
Because we are so dunya-focusedthat the world pushes us to
always have worldly ambitions.
But the person who lives in arelationship with God, what is
it that God values?
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God values that you bring otherscloser to Him and make them
mindful of Him and ask healthyquestions.
Raise healthy questions.
And to engage people in thistype of thinking and hopefully
make them also more mindful.
So to conclude, thus manacquires value by virtue of the
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divine art and inscriptions ofthe dominical names which become
apparent in him through belief.
Through Iman, all these amazingpieces of divine art in you come
to shine.
So for example, you have apotential to be patient.
to be kind, to be generous, tobe forgiving, to be loving, to
(53:13):
be compassionate.
How does this come into fullpotential?
Through iman, through taqwa.
Like we become this elevatedhuman being, this ahsan
al-taqweem, that through Godconsciousness rises up high, is
able to forgive because why?
We want that person also comecloser to Allah.
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We want them, to remember Allah,to be hopeful.
That's why we are able toforgive.
We want people to rememberAllah.
That's why we are generous withour time.
We are giving, we arehospitable.
We are kind, we are charitable.
We want to uplift the lives ofothers.
That's why we give.
We are not in competition withothers, unhealthy competition,
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because we believe that ourrisk, our provision is
guaranteed in this world.
And so we do not deny others tohave those kind of worldly
achievements as well.
So when we are people who haveGod consciousness, when we are
people who have taqwa, when welive with true, sincere,
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authentic iman, holistic iman,that translates into all our
human actions.
Our feelings and thoughts, ourGod awareness translates into
deep action.
When I use my water, Even ifnobody sees me, I'm mindful that
Allah is watching and he doesn'tlove wastefulness.
(54:43):
So I become frugal person,frugality.
I do not become wasteful interms of my food because I want
to be grateful.
And so I try to be content andacknowledge Allah's blessings
and try to live more in harmonywith the creation, try to
respect their rights anddesires.
(55:04):
their God-given dignity.
So then I become such anelevated human being that
translates into all of myactions.
The way I use my water, the wayI use my light, the way I
connect with people, the way I'man ethical, moral worker at my
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workplace, that all comes toshine through Iman, through
God-awareness.
Now, somebody will say, well, Apeople who has no faith can also
be a moral person.
Yes and no.
They can be a good person, butat the same time, they do not
acknowledge the giver of theGod-given gifts, the skills, the
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intellect, the brain, theemotions, their faculties.
They didn't push a button forthat to come into existence.
Somebody has given thoseabilities and faculties and
skills.
Somebody has given me theintellect and consciousness and
knowledge to do these things.
So even if somebody says, well,I'm not a religious person, but
(56:10):
I'm still a good person.
Well, from this definition,because you do not acknowledge
the creator, you do notacknowledge the giver, you do
not credit the resource, it'sunethical.
Even in worldly realms, We allknow from academic work, if you
(56:31):
do not credit an author'sthought, it's academic
dishonesty.
It's actually punishable inworldly courts because you did
not credit the thought.
When you do not credit thethought or the idea of another
person, of that scholar, it'scalled plagiarism.
(56:52):
So in Islam, from an Islamicperspective, the Quran says,
acknowledge, acknowledge thesource of beauty, of generosity,
of goodness, and give propercredit where credit is due.
If not, we are like this personwho I mentioned in the
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beginning, who turns around,looks at the artist, but then
credits other causes as thesource of goodness and
perfection and beauty.
That's a huge crime.
And from a Quranic perspective,Somebody who does not
acknowledge their creator, whocreated them out of nothing,
gave them life, gave themblessings, gave them love and
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community and family, care,protection, food, endless
blessings, you name it, isabsolutely immoral, is not a
good person because they failedto acknowledge the one who is
the source of all goodness andwisdom and beauty.
(57:56):
So unbelief, kufr, like I said,severs the relationship, cuts
off the relationship, like Isaid.
And due to that severance, thedominical art is concealed.
You do not acknowledge who hasgiven you that amazing human
nature so you're able to performthese amazing skills and art and
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work.
His value then is only inrespect to the matter of his
physical being.
And since this matter hasonly...
a transitory, passing, temporaryanimal life, its value is
virtually nothing.
We shall explain this mystery bymeans of a comparison.
So I'll stop here and theninshallah we will continue God
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willing.
But those are my thoughts.
Number one, basic foundation fora good person to have.
Number one characteristic thatthe Quran highlights over and
over and over is taqwa,awareness.
God awareness, mindfulness ofGod, consciousness of God,
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reverence of God, and that thentranslates into actions.
I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed.
(00:25):
In the name of Allah, the MostGracious, the Most Merciful.
Last time I had mentioned that Iwould like us to reflect on the
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notion of what a good personlooks like, how a good person is
supposed to be.
And so we started off talkingabout sincerity, ikhlas, but I
already alluded to it when wethink about the good person in
Islam.
Of course, we have the ProphetMuhammad, peace and blessings be
(01:12):
upon him, in mind.
And in the Islamic tradition, heis known as al-insan al-kamil,
the perfect human being.
Now, that doesn't mean that theprophets were reform error or
didn't do any mistakes.
(01:32):
They did because they were fullyhuman, but they didn't commit
major sins, major sins that areidentified in the tradition like
idolatry or adultery orfornication or taking interest
or usury.
Those are clearly defined majorsins.
So the prophets are immune fromor major sins.
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Nevertheless, we know from theprophetic narratives that
sometimes in order to be goodhuman role models for us as
believers, Allah allows them tomake mistakes, small mistakes
where they show us how to seekGod's repentance, how to repent,
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how to seek Allah's forgiveness,and how to return to Him and how
to Erase a bad deed or mistakewith a good one and how to
display humility, which we willalso talk, inshallah, in the
future sessions.
But when we think about the goodperson in Islam, and like I
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said, everybody aspires to be agood person, a good human being.
We all come to this world and wewant to be constantly good.
Our quest for growth, our thirstfor growth and learning never
ceases.
We all want to improveourselves.
We want to better ourselves.
We want to be the best versionof ourselves.
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And so that never stops.
That is something that startswhen we are entering this world
as infants.
We are in constant mode ofgrowing and learning and
improving ourselves.
The quest for knowledge neverceases.
So everybody has anunderstanding or this innate
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understanding, this intrinsicunderstanding of what a good
person has to look like or issupposed to act like, what kind
of moral conduct they need todisplay.
Now, for us as Muslims, ofcourse, we look up to the
prophetic teachings, to theprophetic model, to the Prophet
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Muhammad, peace and blessings beupon him.
For us, he is...
the ultimate role model in everyaspect of our lives, in all
human affairs.
And that's why he is called amercy to the world, to all
communities, to everyone, to allcreatures, to not just the world
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of humankind, but also the worldof the supernatural being.
So he is a mercy for all theworlds.
That's why we look up to him inour quest to be a good person.
So in these future reflections,I want to talk about some of the
main characteristics when theQuran and the Prophet, peace and
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blessings be upon him,especially in this month of Rabi
al-Awwal, where we arecelebrating the birthday and
honoring and remembering theProphet more than ever, and
thinking about his legacy.
What does it mean to be a goodperson?
And last time, I...
(04:49):
I said that one of the numberone characteristics that the
Quran lifts up is sincerity,ikhlas.
But while I was thinking throughthat, reflecting through that, I
already connected it with thenotion of taqwa.
So the good person in Islam isonly good when he has
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God-awareness.
And taqwa is often translated asthe fear of God, mindfulness of
God.
I'd rather think of taqwa, whichthe Quran always refers to as a
main characteristic of a goodperson, is the one who is
mindful of God, who has anawareness of God, who is
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conscious of their creator, whois ever mindful of their
creator.
and who also has this intenselove for the Creator.
That's all in that.
When you are aware of the divinepresence, when you are mindful
that you are in constantpresence of the divine, that
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will impact all your feelingsand thoughts and actions.
So number one characteristic, soI need to go back, and actually
that should have been the mainstarter, In Islam, from a Muslim
perspective, a good person, thegood person is the one who has
taqwa, who has consciousness ofGod, who is mindful of God, who
(06:24):
is aware of the ultimatereality, who is always in
reverence, living in reverenceto God.
Reverence meaning a deep senseof awe and wonder and love for
Allah, reverence.
So revering Allah in all theiractions and feelings and
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thoughts.
And that needs to be, thatinforms all their conduct.
So the good person has taqwa.
Now, why is that so important?
Because taqwa, faith in God,being aware of a creator,
connects us to Allah.
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the source of being.
Now imagine, this is something,especially consciousness, this
is something where, especiallywhen it comes to science, a lot
of scientists say that we cannotexplain the mystery of
consciousness.
How is it that a human being isconscious of themselves?
(07:31):
And I've talked about this inthe past, so imagine you have a
piece of play-doh or a piece ofslime.
My children love to play with aputty and slime and play-doh.
But there is this lifeless,unconscious matter, like a piece
(07:55):
of lifeless, unconscioussubstance.
Like the Quran says, we weremade out of a lump of flesh.
There's nothing.
It's just It's just lifelessmatter.
We were dead.
And then all of a sudden, Allahbreathes into it.
The spirit and the human beingbecomes a conscious being.
(08:21):
Glory be to God.
Allahu Akbar.
Allah is the greatest.
How can there be out of nothing,out of dead peace and lump of
flesh, like the Quran says, youwere a piece of And then all of
a sudden, Allah breathes intous, gives us consciousness.
(08:45):
And the highest level ofconsciousness is being aware,
being conscious of your creator.
Now, you can exist, but thatdoesn't necessarily mean you are
alive.
That doesn't mean that I'mreally living.
Being alive means that I'mconscious of my creator.
(09:06):
Who has given me consciousness?
And just to elaborate a littlebit more, what does it mean to
have consciousness?
Consciousness means that thereis this center in our human
reality that the power ofchoice, there's free will.
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We can choose.
So it's a center of volition,what it's called volition, will.
We have will.
We can decide things.
We can make choices, good orbad.
So volition, the power ofvolition rests in consciousness.
Then the power of memory, thepower of imagination, the power
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of dreaming, the power offantasizing, the power of being
innovative, and the power offeeling, of having emotions, all
of this resides in our sense ofconsciousness, the greatest
gift.
Now, in this section, it alludesto the fact, I mean, it speaks
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to why consciousness of havingiman and awareness of a creator
is so important and makes ahuman being truly a good human
being.
The good person is only good ifthey are connected, related, or
live in a relationship, in aconstant relationship with the
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source of consciousness, who isAllah, who is the one God,
ultimate reality.
Now, again, imagine peace offlesh, like the Quran says,
always brings us back to thecreation story.
The story of our beginning isthat we were lifeless matter.
Any mother who has everconceived a child will witness a
(11:05):
test and testifies that there isfirst nothing, lifeless matter
in your body.
And all of a sudden, this lifestarts to evolve, starts to have
consciousness, a sense of self,a sense of personhood, a sense
of identity.
(11:25):
I mean, we are not reallythinking, pondering about these
things because we are living inthis climate or in a system or
in this universe that makeseverything ordinary.
This is not ordinary.
That's why Allah points alwaysto the first creation.
Don't you think about the factthat you were dead?
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You were dead flesh.
How is this happening that outof nothing Allah creates us?
everything, consciousness,awareness, right?
So being the good person who isaware of their creator, of their
Lord, of their sustainer, is theone who's truly good.
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Let me give you an example thatalways is mentioned in the
Risaleh before I read this shortportion here.
Now, imagine you stand in frontof this amazing piece of art.
like a great piece of artistry,a picture that a famous artist
has painted.
And as somebody who is aware ofart, very skilled in art, you
(12:36):
were trained in art school, atart school, and you're very
gifted, and you know theintricacies and the nuances of
art.
You look at that amazingpicture, that piece of art, you
detect all the nuances, you seeall these amazing arrangements,
of the colors, of the beautifulcomposition and all of that.
(12:59):
And behind you is the artist.
Behind you is the artist whomade that amazing composition,
that piece of art, who isshowcasing his skills and
abilities, his artistry, hisdesign, his ability to plan and
imagine and put this amazingpiece of art together.
displaying his wisdom and hiscreativity, his innovation.
(13:23):
And then you are in awe of thispicture, of this piece of art.
And then you turn around to theartist and then tell him, isn't
it amazing, this outstandingpiece, unique, amazing
composition, and how all thesecolors came together, how these
(13:43):
brushes and paints came togetherto bring this art into
existence.
You look at the artist and theartist is just simply left
speechless.
Because what you didn'tunderstand, or you're basically
implying, saying that thisamazing piece of art came
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together through these causes,through these brushes and paints
and these different cans ofcolors, and you look into the
face of the artist who is soevident, who is so present, who
is observing you, and you do notacknowledge his art, his
creativity, his skills, hisamazing faculties, his
(14:32):
imagination, his planning, hiswisdom, his beauty, his
aesthetical skills, potential,and you look into his face and
say, all these brushes, allthese paints, all these colors,
they came together and they madethis amazing piece of art.
That is how it feels when we arenot living in awareness of
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Allah.
When we do not have taqwa, whenwe do not acknowledge his
presence, his art, his artistry,his creativity, his wisdom, his
planning, his power, Hispresence, then what does it
basically come to?
We are committing the greatestcrime, which is denial and kufr
(15:19):
and covering up the truth,concealing the artist, this
amazing extraordinary artist,and basically committing a crime
against God, which is thegreatest injustice.
The greatest injustice to God isis to look at all his art, all
(15:41):
his skill.
This world is an amazing pieceof art.
It's an exhibit with endlessmeanings and wisdom and beauty
and aesthetics.
Everybody is in awe.
Everybody testifies to itconstantly, but then looks
around and says, it all cameinto being randomly,
coincidentally, through therandom communication,
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collaboration, or ordination ofcauses and nature, or Mother
Nature has created it.
That is how kufr then becomesthis endless crime against not
only God, not only the Creator,who has put this on display for
you to be aware of Him and to bein a relationship with Him.
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But because of a lack ofconsciousness of Him, we are
then committing the crime ofkufr, the crime of unbelief.
And kufr means to conceal thetruth.
The truth is obvious, evident.
Allah is al-Zahir.
He's so evident, obvious toanybody who seeks Him.
But consciously to deny Him, tolook at the piece of art, which
(16:54):
is life in all its facets andaspects, and then to deny Him,
that is the greatest crime.
the greatest injustice that canbe perpetrated.
That's why the human being willbe held accountable.
If we are not living inawareness, in consciousness of
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God, then we have basicallyseized our purpose.
So here in the 23rd word, andthe goal of these sessions is
not to do long readings, okay?
I'll just give you nuggets ofwisdom so that you then
hopefully take this and thendive further.
But I take a lot here becausethis is basically coming down to
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number one characteristic of agood person is that they
cultivate constant deepawareness of the greatest
artist, the greatest designer,the greatest creator.
That's why the Quran is full ofpointing us to the cosmological
book, which is the universe.
Don't they see?
Don't they reflect?
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Don't they witness?
How can they assign all thatbeauty, that wisdom, that
fine-tuning that even scientistsare now saying is completely
impossible to assign to randomcauses because there is some
(18:16):
mathematical genius who operatesin such detail?
in such accuracy, in such finemeasurement that it's impossible
to say that this all came intobeing randomly.
This is how we act when we standin front of this amazing piece
of art and then turn around,look at the face of the artist
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and then say, everything justcame into being randomly.
Not being aware of his presence.
I'm in front of you.
How can you not see me?
How can you not see that you area piece of art and how can you
witness and testify to theextraordinary nature of this
universe and still claim that itcame into being randomly or
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because of causes who millionsof times through some kind of
evolutionary process came intoexistence.
That's why here in the 23rdword, when it interprets the
verse of Surah At-Tin, and Allahsays, Indeed, we have created
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the human being on the mostexcellent of patterns.
Indeed, we have created thehuman being on the most
excellent patterns.
Right?
And then send him down to thelowest of the low, except those
who believe and do good deeds.
(19:50):
So Allah has created us in thebest fashion, in the original,
the most excellent, the mostbeautiful of ways.
Indeed, we have created thehuman being in the most
beautiful, the most excellentpatterns.
(20:10):
I'm a Taqweem.
I'm the best beautiful displayof Allah's art.
There is no other creature Noother being on this planet who
is as conscious as I am, who hasmore willpower than I am, who
has more constructive potentialthan I am, who has an imaginary
(20:32):
power, who has a power ofdreaming and creating and being
innovative.
I'm in awe of my fellow humanbeing, says Ustad Bediüzzaman.
Yes, we should be in awe ofourselves.
and about the potential.
I mean, look around of whathuman beings are capable of
doing in the best way, but alsothey can lower themselves to the
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lowest of low.
Allah has given us the greatestgift, which is the freedom of
choice, free will, which is agreat gift, but it's also a
great responsibility.
It's a trust that He shared Hisbeautiful attributes and
qualities with us.
But we are fully responsible ofhow we are using them.
(21:19):
We can use them in the mostconstructive and beautiful way.
We can create and innovate andheal and invent amazing things.
We can write the greatestpoetry, the greatest odes and
poems and litanies andsupplications and books, and
(21:41):
they are out there.
But we can also write the mostdestructive chapters of human
history.
We can also commit the greatestatrocities.
No other being can do that.
We have that dual potential.
So we are only beautiful When weare the ones who believe in
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Allah, who affirm existence inHim, who have taqwa, like I
said, I translated into Godconsciousness, mindfulness of
God, love of God, living in theconstant presence of God, living
in reverence to God.
(22:27):
loving him so much that you wantto please him in every aspect of
your life.
And that translates to that loveoverflows, that consciousness
overflows, and then translatesinto good deeds.
You can't be responding to Allahother than good deeds because
(22:48):
you've now realized through thatconsciousness, through that
greatest gift of being aware ofwhat's going on, of who you are,
And you look at yourself andthink, Allahu Akbar, God is the
greatest.
He equipped me, endowed me withso many amazing skills,
abilities, such amazingpotential.
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I want to live up to that.
I want to rise higher and higherand higher.
I want to be the best version ofmyself.
Ya Allah, O my Lord, allow me torealize my best potential.
Make me, guide me, hold my hand.
Let me speak truthfully.
Let me think and feelbeautifully.
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And thoughts are very importantbecause everything starts first
with awareness.
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Why am I here?
Who's my creator?
And like we've always read inthese quotes, Beware of your
thoughts.
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Beware of your feelings.
They can become thoughts.
Beware of your thoughts.
They become actions.
So everything is firstpremeditated.
Even the false ideologies orevil ideologies out in the world
and throughout human history,first they start out as a
(24:13):
thought, as a meditation.
Destructive?
Yes.
and then carries out intoactions.
They are then put into action.
Very scary, frightening.
But because of this dunya as aplace of test and examination
and allowing good and evil toclash and compete, we are
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deciding where we are, what weare thinking, what we are
feeling.
Are we feeling good thoughts?
Are we feeling positive,beautiful feelings?
And then we also, of course,weigh them in the framework of
God's guidance, revelation, andthe prophetic teachings.
Some of my feelings might not bepleasing to Allah.
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Some of my feelings and emotionsmight not be in the realm of the
sunnah and the propheticexample.
But I can only know that if Isincerely seek Allah's guidance.
Ya Allah, is this feeling, isthis feeling, this emotion, or
this thought, is this somethingthat is beneficial, helpful?
(25:23):
Is this bringing me closer toyou?
Then help me to put it intoaction.
If it's distancing me from you,Ya Allah, then free me from it.
So that kind of Deep Godconsciousness said, taqwa goes
so deep that wherever you are,even in your tiny dark corner,
you're aware of Allah'spresence.
Allah says in the Quran, he is athird when two people meet.
(25:46):
He is there, he's listening.
And that adds quality to ourlives.
Not fear, not a destructive orharmful fear, but a healthy
fear.
A fear of losing his love.
Because when he is present withyou, if he is your closest
intimate, If you have that kindof strong taqwa, strong God
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consciousness, you will alwaysbe thinking of him that he is
reading your secret thoughts.
Like Allah says, I know yoursecret thoughts.
I know what's in your chest.
I know what's going on in yourheart.
How beautiful.
I was reading this sacrednarration, this hadith Qudsi,
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where Allah says, I am accordingto the thinking of my servant.
If he thinks of me, I willremember him.
I mean, who on earth, when youare sending out a thought about
them, let's say you are in yourbed at 3 a.m., you're thinking
of someone.
(26:52):
Do they know that you'rethinking of them?
They probably don't, right?
Because no human being will everknow that at 3 a.m., a deep,
dark night, that you're thinkingof them, and then they respond
with a thought back.
But look at Allah's presence.
When you are living in constanttaqwa, in remembrance of Him,
(27:18):
glorifying Him, loving Him, whenyou're living in consciousness
of Him, you think of Him, andHe'll say, I will remember you
too.
In my own presence, I willremember you.
I respond to your thought.
Like who on earth is capable ofdoing that?
(27:39):
SubhanAllah, but we wantsomebody to listen to us.
We want somebody to follow oursecret thoughts, our deep
feelings, emotions.
Sometimes we are not able tomake sense of them.
But this is how beautiful Godawareness is.
You are alone, but you willnever feel lonely.
Because the moment you think ofAllah, If you remember me, I
(28:03):
will remember you.
I mean, how honorable is that?
How much more worth and valuecan someone achieve?
That is how important awarenessis.
Awareness.
Allah says in another hadith,Qudsi, if a servant has a bad
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thought, and they do not put itinto action, Allah will reward
them.
How generous is our Lord.
How loving and caring andcompassionate is He.
Because this realization thateverything starts out with a
thought, even if it's a badthought and you don't put it
into action, will be rewarded.
(28:45):
This is how generous Allah is.
This is how compassionate andgiving He is.
But if we have a good thoughtand we put it into action, Allah
also rewards it 100 times more.
Because doing good is so muchharder.
You have to overcome your nafs,your own lower ego.
(29:06):
You have to maybe overcomesocietal pressures, peer
pressures.
You have to overcome thewhispers of the shaitan, of
satan, of the devil.
You have to follow rules andregulations.
There's morality, there's aconduct.
It's always harder to do good.
That's why Allah in Hisgenerosity, even though He
(29:27):
doesn't have to, rewards us evenfor the things that we don't,
evil thoughts that we are notputting into action, and rewards
us beyond measure for thingsthat we do that He doesn't have
to even reward in such degree.
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So I want us to understand howimportant God consciousness is,
taqwa.
Number one reason that we cancall a good person a good person
is when they have faith inAllah.
Taqwa goes deeper.
And living in constant divinepresence, even if I'm alone, I
know that Allah is in mypresence, watching me, observing
(30:13):
me, looking at me, guarding me,recording my thoughts.
elevates the quality of my life.
It doesn't threaten me, itelevates me.
It allows me to live a life withbeauty and grace and dignity,
the way I stand and sit.
That's why the Quran says, whenthey are sitting and sleeping on
(30:34):
their sides, when they arestanding, they are in constant
remembrance of their Lord.
How beautiful is that, that kindof holistic, that kind of
wholesome being of a Muslim.
So to be a good person, is toacknowledge your creator, the
giver of the gifts, the giver ofyour talents, the creator of
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this art and beauty that you arewitnessing and enjoying.
To acknowledge him, that is soimportant.
We've talked about this so manytimes.
Imagine you are invited to thisbanquet, to this feast, five
stars feast, this amazing,generous host.
(31:16):
You're sitting at the table.
There's everything.
All the lights you can imagine.
You enjoy.
You savor everything.
You're like overcome by allthese delicacies and blessings.
And then you leave without evenexpressing your gratitude to the
host.
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You do not even say thank you.
The host is not in need of ouracknowledgement.
Our creator is not in need ofour gratitude, but it is such an
immoral, not to say inhumane,but immoral and unethical act to
(31:59):
not pay or express gratitude tothe one who has invited you to
this feast, to this banquet, notout of your own deserving, but
really freely, generously.
That I'm able in this world andcan enjoy this amazing
landscape, this extraordinarytree, the beauty of the leaves
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and the fall season.
That I'm invited to this amazingexhibit of this beautiful
creation and I get to witness,free, not something of my own
making, but it's because of Hisgenerosity.
And if I cannot turn around tothe host and say, I'm so
grateful that you invited me,you honored me to be at this
(32:45):
table, to have a seat at yourhonorable banquet, to be in your
audience, it gives me honor anddignity and value.
Thank you for valuing me.
Thank you for honoring me.
I am in awe.
I'm speechless.
How can I respond to you?
How can I even express mygratitude?
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That's why ingratitude goesalong with kufr.
It goes along with unbelief andconcealing the truth.
Who has invited you in thispalace?
Who has invited you in thisamazing exhibit that we call the
cosmos?
And you get to witness a littlebit.
We are not even conscious of the100% of things that are going
(33:29):
on.
But even the little bit ofawareness of Allah's beauty and
art showers us with so muchpeace and joy.
joy and gives you such comfort,gives you such illumination and
ease into your heart, right?
(33:50):
Like we all witness it everyday, now walking through the
fall season and everybody is inawe.
Everybody is in awe and wonderof the one who's truly the
artist.
So that's why the seeds ofsaying, masha'Allah, Allah has
willed and created it to say,SubhanAllah, glory be to my
(34:12):
Lord.
How beautiful.
There is no deficiency, noimperfection, no absence, no
mistake, no flaw.
And then to glorify him and tosay, Allahu Akbar, Ya Allah, you
are the greatest.
There is nobody, nobody likeyou.
And like the Quran says, theywalk on the earth and then they
(34:35):
say, Oh, our Lord, you have notcreated this in vain.
You are glorified.
You are free from anydeficiency.
Save us from the hellfire.
Amen.
So this is our response to thisamazing, extraordinary exhibit
(35:00):
that we are in.
And when we are living inawareness of Allah, can we ever
feel extreme loneliness?
Can we ever feel deprived?
Can we ever feel despair?
Can we ever feel hopeless?
So this is what's going on inthis section.
It's saying, let me just readthis first point here, first
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chapter.
We shall explain in five pointsonly five of the virtues of
belief out of thousands.
So Iman and Taqwa, basically gohand in hand.
Iman flows out from theawareness of a creator, looking
everything and realizing this isnot random.
(35:43):
Coming into a room and seeing anamazing cake and saying, well,
eggs, flour, water, sugarmagically came together over
five millions of years and thencreated this amazing, delicious
cake is completely impossible.
But to say, looking at the cakeand say, who?
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Who on earth?
Who is the artist?
Who is the baker?
Who is the most generous maker?
Who measured?
Who planned?
Who prepared?
Who invited me?
That is then flows out ofawareness from a creator, God
consciousness, and then seekingout and then believing in the
creator.
(36:24):
Believing, iman flows out ofthat.
Awareness, finally arriving atthe conclusion, this cannot be
random.
Causes cannot create such anamazing, extraordinary cake that
flatters all my senses, thatcaters to all my needs, my
desires and passions.
(36:47):
We come into this world and werealize somebody has prepared it
for us.
It's the only inhabitable planetin the universe.
The air we breathe, fresh,clean, amazing.
Refreshing, rejuvenating,re-energizing the water that we
enjoy.
Clean, pure.
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The earth that we plant and use,the soil, perfect condition.
Perfectly prepared for us, forour use with minerals and
vitamins.
Not too muddy, not too hard, nottoo dry.
Who, who, who has prepared allof this?
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That is the question that peopledo not ponder.
It's not something that people,because it is the subtle atheism
all around us.
Nobody mentions God, completelymarginalized that he's not in
the books, he's not in themedia, he's not out in the
conversation, he's not in thecommunities, he's not at the
(37:51):
workplace.
And when we are swimming inthose waters, we get affected.
We don't reflect, we don'tthink, we are not aware.
Or we are aware in a shallowway, and it doesn't translate
into deep actions.
We can be Muslim outwardly, butbecause of the lack of depth in
(38:13):
the relationship with Allah, wecan still commit atrocities.
There are Muslims who dohorrible things.
We are all prone to do evilthings.
There are reflections of that inour own lives.
We know how to speak, yet weinsist in hurting, or we insist
(38:35):
on harming, or destroying.
So we all have glimpses of thatevil potential, that destructive
nature in our nefs.
Nobody can say, I'm immune fromwrongdoing.
No, that's why Allah says we areall prone to wrongdoing.
(39:00):
But yet, alhamdulillah, thanksbe to God, he opened always the
door for repentance, for seekingforgiveness, for returning to
him.
Everybody knows the story of theman who killed 99 people and
then was seeking God'sforgiveness.
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And then the narration goesthat, you know, he kills another
person because the person tellshim that God will not forgive
him.
So then it makes it 100.
But at the end, God forgiveshim.
Why?
I mean, imagine none of us,alhamdulillah, grateful.
None of us killed 99 people.
But because of theacknowledgement, because what I
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mentioned earlier, Allah says, Iam according to the thinking of
my servant.
If I think and I'm aware ofAllah as the most forgiving,
that no sin is greater than hismercy, compassion and
forgiveness, Allah will forgiveme.
So my awareness of him, how Ithink of him, my good assumption
(40:09):
about him, that awarenesstransforms all my sins, all my
wrongdoings of the past, even ifthey might be as cruel and evil
as killing 99 people.
The door of hope and mercy andforgiveness is wide open.
And Allah forgives.
(40:31):
That's how important it is forhim that we acknowledge every
day our deficiency, ourwrongdoings, our harms.
We constantly seek istighfar.
Ya Allah, forgive me.
The Prophet Muhammad, peace beupon him, blessings be upon him,
every day, more than 70 times,He sought Allah's forgiveness.
(40:54):
And it's in this humility, inthis awareness, when we declare,
Ya Allah, O my Lord, I am sodeficient.
There's nothing I can do thatwill ever, ever repay the
blessings, endless blessings youhave showered me with.
(41:14):
None of my worship, none of myprayers and good actions will
ever be deserving of you.
And that acknowledgement, thatawareness, that is something
that Allah is so pleased with.
That is something that He soloves, the humility and the
decency and the acknowledgementof our vulnerability.
(41:37):
And in that, displaying Hisgreatness, saying, Ya Allah, I
am a nothing, but You are great.
I am sinful, but You are the onewho loves those who repent and
turn to You.
Allah, accept my repentance.
I seek your forgiveness.
And then Allah says in theQuran, he will transform their
(42:00):
bad deeds, their sayyiat, intoasanat.
And we see that in the lives ofthe sahaba, the most beautiful
companions.
You see somebody like Omarradiallahu anhu, who says, there
are two things that I cry when Ithink of the age of ignorance,
the jahiliyyah.
(42:20):
One thing is cry and laugh, twothings.
And he says, we would make idolsout of halwa, and we would, out
of sweet flour and sugar, like asweet dish, we would make idols
out of halwa, and if we wouldget hungry, we would eat them.
(42:44):
And the one thing that I cryabout the age of ignorance,
before Islam, blessed me is, Iburied my baby girl alive.
This is Ummah, one of thegreatest companions, one of the
rightly guided caliphs, one ofthe leaders of the Ummah.
(43:05):
And Allah elevates such aperson.
What an amazing transformation.
What a change in human nature.
What an honorable human being.
Because of his acknowledgementand understanding who Allah was,
that he sought his forgiveness,he sought repentance, and Allah
(43:27):
forgave him and honored him andactually made him one of the
greatest leaders of the Muslimcommunity, a star to follow.
So we see how important taqwa isfor a good person.
It's constantly cultivatingdeeper and deeper and stronger
(43:47):
consciousness of Allah,mindfulness of Allah, reverence
for Allah, so much that it goes,enters your thoughts and
feelings.
When we catch ourselves having ahurtful, harmful, destructive
thought or feeling to say, YaAllah, I seek your forgiveness.
This is so inappropriate.
You are seeing this.
(44:07):
I should not have this lot.
Forgive me and then collectyourself and then come back to
Allah.
That's how beautiful ourtradition is, showing us how to
be the best human being.
Which flows out from belief inAllah, a connection, like it
says here.
(44:28):
In the first point, let me readthis.
But it's all related to thesection.
All what I've said now isbasically all, I received all
this inspiration, all thisknowledge from the Risale-i Nur.
Nothing what I've said so far isfrom me.
It's from the Quranic treasureof this amazing tafsir that
(44:48):
taught me the depth of theQuran.
So this is what really makes theRisale-i Nur a jewel because it
really gives you depth of theQuranic ocean.
It's not new, but it gives you adeeper understanding of how to
understand taqwa, how tounderstand iman, how to be in a
(45:11):
relationship with Allah.
Then you can live anywhere.
You can live anywhere and you'llbe in constant presence of
Allah.
Nothing will change.
Nothing will shatter yourrelationship.
So it says here, through thelight of belief, through the
light of iman, man rises to thehighest of the high.
(45:31):
and acquires a value worthy ofparadise.
And through the darkness ofunbelief, through the darkness
of kufr, he descends to thelowest of the low and falls to a
position fit for hell.
For belief, iman connects man tothe all-glorious maker.
It is a relation, it is arelationship.
(45:52):
So when we have iman, when wehave belief, when we have aqwa,
constant connection with Allah,when he's in every aspect of our
human life, we are in the sacredrelationship.
He's our most intimatecompanion.
He's our welly, our best friend.
(46:14):
And we are always rising up tothe highest of the high.
We are able to forgive peoplethat we never thought that we
will be able to forgive.
Right?
That's how beautiful Allah makesa person of faith.
That's why we see in the life ofthe Prophet, peace and blessings
(46:35):
be upon him, that we are able toshow forgiveness to people that
harmed us in such a greatmanner, but because we want to
be close to Allah, we are ableto forgive.
That's what we see in the lifeof the Prophet, peace and
blessings be upon him, whoforgave the greatest atrocities.
(46:55):
Because his only goal was tobring people closer to God.
He was not after power.
He was not after conqueringlands.
He was not after conqueringvictory, having victory.
What was he after?
His highest goal, his highestsecret goal was to remember
(47:16):
Allah and help others rememberhim too, to bring them close to
Allah.
It was not about gainingprivilege in this dunya or power
in this dunya or glory.
being victorious and conqueringlands.
No, he didn't see none of thishe saw.
So what's our priority?
(47:38):
My highest goal in this world isto live in remembrance of Allah,
to remember him in all of myaffairs, all of my practices,
all of my feelings, to be anhonorable servant of Allah, to
rise up to the Ahsan al-Taqreem,and to help others remember
Allah too, to help others bringthem closer to Allah.
(48:01):
That's why I can forgive them.
That's why I hope they willforgive me because if this
person, by my forgiveness or bymy help, comes closer to Allah,
then my life had meaning.
Because we are concerned witheternal happiness, trying to
(48:21):
help people to get to thateternal happiness, not to a
dunya, worldly, comfortablelife.
Not about seeking power andbeing influential, have prestige
or have some career or money,wealth.
Those are nothing.
Allah does not value those.
(48:43):
But if through me or throughyou, somebody comes closer to
God, somebody remembers Godmore, Then our life had meaning.
That's how this is a spiritualelevation.
That's how then we becomehonored.
But darkness of kufr, cuttingourselves off from Allah, makes
us fall into darkness and low.
(49:06):
Then our life is just, you know,relates to the worldly realm, is
only concerned with selfishinterests.
We are not expanding.
Right?
So, But somebody who hasconstant taqwa is always in the
state of gratitude.
Even if something is missing orsomething is taken, they will
(49:29):
always be in the state ofgratitude and love for God.
Sometimes you see on these cars,you know, people displaying
their relationship with acertain university, right?
A graduate of this universityand graduate of this.
Why?
because they want to show theyhave credibility.
(49:51):
They have a reputation.
They're a graduate of theschool.
It's a school, a university, anacademic institution that has
prestige, that has reputation,that has credibility.
It shows that you are anintellectually informed human
being.
It's an elite place.
But does this, that's not todevalue academic education, but
(50:14):
it is a desire to, of people torelate to something and acquire
value and worth, to say toothers, I have worth.
But when you look at theprophet, peace and blessings be
upon him, you look at his lifeand he was asked, do you want to
be a king prophet or a servantprophet?
(50:35):
What was his response?
I want to be, I desire to be aservant prophet because as long
as I'm in relation with Allah, Ihave value, I have honor, I have
worth, I have dignity.
I am honored human being.
That's enough for me as arelationship.
(50:56):
And then I do not seek out orchase worldly aspirations.
You can be ambitious in yourworld as long as the goal is to
please Allah.
Everything is permissible.
It says nothing wrong with beingambitious in this world or
acquiring certain things.
but they are not the goal.
The end goal is through thesemeans to come closer to Allah.
(51:22):
Then may Allah grant success tothose who seek that.
If the goal through work,through money, through wealth,
through children, throughfamily, through a mansion is to
come closer to Allah, to use itfor Allah's purposes, for a holy
cause, a sacred cause, then weare in relationship with Allah.
(51:44):
then it's beautiful to have it.
It's a blessing.
But it's not the end goal.
The Prophet Sallallahu AlaihiWasallam's end goal was not to
have a comfortable life, to bewealthy, to have mansions, to
acquire power, privilege.
Those are things that are low.
His goal was to make otherpeople come closer to Allah,
(52:08):
acknowledge his existence.
That's the most honorable goalfor us.
But we don't understand thatkind of deep, sacred cause.
Because we are so dunya-focusedthat the world pushes us to
always have worldly ambitions.
But the person who lives in arelationship with God, what is
it that God values?
(52:28):
God values that you bring otherscloser to Him and make them
mindful of Him and ask healthyquestions.
Raise healthy questions.
And to engage people in thistype of thinking and hopefully
make them also more mindful.
So to conclude, thus manacquires value by virtue of the
(52:50):
divine art and inscriptions ofthe dominical names which become
apparent in him through belief.
Through Iman, all these amazingpieces of divine art in you come
to shine.
So for example, you have apotential to be patient.
to be kind, to be generous, tobe forgiving, to be loving, to
(53:13):
be compassionate.
How does this come into fullpotential?
Through iman, through taqwa.
Like we become this elevatedhuman being, this ahsan
al-taqweem, that through Godconsciousness rises up high, is
able to forgive because why?
We want that person also comecloser to Allah.
(53:35):
We want them, to remember Allah,to be hopeful.
That's why we are able toforgive.
We want people to rememberAllah.
That's why we are generous withour time.
We are giving, we arehospitable.
We are kind, we are charitable.
We want to uplift the lives ofothers.
That's why we give.
We are not in competition withothers, unhealthy competition,
(53:59):
because we believe that ourrisk, our provision is
guaranteed in this world.
And so we do not deny others tohave those kind of worldly
achievements as well.
So when we are people who haveGod consciousness, when we are
people who have taqwa, when welive with true, sincere,
(54:22):
authentic iman, holistic iman,that translates into all our
human actions.
Our feelings and thoughts, ourGod awareness translates into
deep action.
When I use my water, Even ifnobody sees me, I'm mindful that
Allah is watching and he doesn'tlove wastefulness.
(54:43):
So I become frugal person,frugality.
I do not become wasteful interms of my food because I want
to be grateful.
And so I try to be content andacknowledge Allah's blessings
and try to live more in harmonywith the creation, try to
respect their rights anddesires.
(55:04):
their God-given dignity.
So then I become such anelevated human being that
translates into all of myactions.
The way I use my water, the wayI use my light, the way I
connect with people, the way I'man ethical, moral worker at my
(55:25):
workplace, that all comes toshine through Iman, through
God-awareness.
Now, somebody will say, well, Apeople who has no faith can also
be a moral person.
Yes and no.
They can be a good person, butat the same time, they do not
acknowledge the giver of theGod-given gifts, the skills, the
(55:46):
intellect, the brain, theemotions, their faculties.
They didn't push a button forthat to come into existence.
Somebody has given thoseabilities and faculties and
skills.
Somebody has given me theintellect and consciousness and
knowledge to do these things.
So even if somebody says, well,I'm not a religious person, but
(56:10):
I'm still a good person.
Well, from this definition,because you do not acknowledge
the creator, you do notacknowledge the giver, you do
not credit the resource, it'sunethical.
Even in worldly realms, We allknow from academic work, if you
(56:31):
do not credit an author'sthought, it's academic
dishonesty.
It's actually punishable inworldly courts because you did
not credit the thought.
When you do not credit thethought or the idea of another
person, of that scholar, it'scalled plagiarism.
(56:52):
So in Islam, from an Islamicperspective, the Quran says,
acknowledge, acknowledge thesource of beauty, of generosity,
of goodness, and give propercredit where credit is due.
If not, we are like this personwho I mentioned in the
(57:13):
beginning, who turns around,looks at the artist, but then
credits other causes as thesource of goodness and
perfection and beauty.
That's a huge crime.
And from a Quranic perspective,Somebody who does not
acknowledge their creator, whocreated them out of nothing,
gave them life, gave themblessings, gave them love and
(57:36):
community and family, care,protection, food, endless
blessings, you name it, isabsolutely immoral, is not a
good person because they failedto acknowledge the one who is
the source of all goodness andwisdom and beauty.
(57:56):
So unbelief, kufr, like I said,severs the relationship, cuts
off the relationship, like Isaid.
And due to that severance, thedominical art is concealed.
You do not acknowledge who hasgiven you that amazing human
nature so you're able to performthese amazing skills and art and
(58:18):
work.
His value then is only inrespect to the matter of his
physical being.
And since this matter hasonly...
a transitory, passing, temporaryanimal life, its value is
virtually nothing.
We shall explain this mystery bymeans of a comparison.
So I'll stop here and theninshallah we will continue God
(58:40):
willing.
But those are my thoughts.
Number one, basic foundation fora good person to have.
Number one characteristic thatthe Quran highlights over and
over and over is taqwa,awareness.
God awareness, mindfulness ofGod, consciousness of God,
(59:02):
reverence of God, and that thentranslates into actions.
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