I Created You to be Merciful to You

Why does the Qur'an elevate Imam Husayn in Surah al Fajr, and this is the ultimate, the ultimate success of Imam Husayn when the Qur'an itself says: "Irji'ee ila rabbiki radhiyatan mardhiya"(89:28). Return back to your Lord where not only are you happy with Allah, but Allah in turn is happy with you as well.

You look at anybody who has achieved anything in the eyes of Allah, it has all been through struggle. We live in a society that equates ease to value. Meaning what? If it is easy, it must be good for you. If it is difficult, run away from it. But the deen of Islam says, wait a second, our equation is something else. Our equation is struggle equals success. This dunya, this world was meant to do what? To test all of you.

A man comes to Amir al mu'mineen, this is just such a beautiful tradition. He comes to Amir al mu'mineen and he begins to complain about his state. He says, 'You know I am struggling with my finances, Amir al mu'mineen, my household isn't under control. My health is not the best. This dunya is drowning me.' Complaint after complaint. Amir al mu'mineen listens and after he is done, he says to this man that inshaAllah I will pray for you. And the man leaves. They say this man came back to Amir al mu'mineen one week later, came back to Imam Ali one week later and said, 'Mawla, my state from last week has gotten worse this week.'

And now the hadith says Imam Ali became a little bit annoyed. He says, 'Look, you are looking from this dunya what it can't give you. Instead of you searching for a stress-free, hassle-free, hardship-free, problem-free life, ask Allah that while you are going through that hardship, that my Iman doesn't suffer. That is the du'a that I want from you.

That is when our Iman gets tested. Words of shirk and kufr come out of our mouth, that how dare You God take my father away from me? How dare You God give my mother cancer? How could You do this to me? How could You break off my engagement? How could You make my child this? I have done nothing but serve You and worship You and do khidma of You, and You return the favor by doing this? Words of kufr, words of shirk.

You do not mean them obviously, but that pool began to wave, and that dirt comes to the surface. Hassle-free is not the solution. Keeping our Iman strong during that hassle is the solution.

Point number two: at a very young age, how we introduce Allah to these children is vital. It is vital. We use Allah as a component of fear to get the job done. "If you don't pray Salat, Allah will punish you, if you don't clean your room, Allah will punish you. If you don't go to school, Allah will punish you. Do you want Allah to hate you? Do you not know that if you don't pray Salat, you are going to burn in hell?"

That is all we hear: Allah, hate. Allah, fire. Allah, punishment. Allah this, Allah that. We are like 'whoa'. And then at 17, 18, what do we say? We are like, you know what, serve Allah, love Allah, worship Allah. Wait a second. Maybe you could say not that "Allah will punish you if you don't clean your room," but rather, "Allah loves those who clean their room." Or "If one hair is peeking out of your hijab, that one hair will be the reason why you will burn for eternity in the hell fire." Instead of saying that, why don't you say that "Allah loves those who present themselves in a pure and beautiful way during Salat."

A young, young girl with a lot of courage says to me that 'Mawlana, excuse me, I have a question. Is it okay if you don't want your Imam to come.' I said, why? She said, 'You know what, because I don't like the sight of blood, so as long as he is in ghaybat, it is better for us.' This is what we have done to our kids. Really? You think actually that your Imam will come and start chopping off heads?

The Imam's mission will mirror the Holy Prophet's mission. Those who know history, who have read history, you know, the first war in Islam did not happen until 15 years after the announcement of his Prophethood. The sword was not needed until 15 years. Why? Because the Prophet of Allah spoke to the hearts of the people. And they went running to him, why? Amongst the darkness, he lit that kind of noor and they came towards him. When the Prophet of Allah came, it was, Wa'in kanu min qablu lafi dhalalin mubeen.(62:2) It was utter and complete darkness. He came. He provided that noor in that candle. Where he went, people followed.

The Imam that you and I are dying to come back to, is that same Imam that will come and light that candle amongst the darkness. There is no swords, there is no bloodshed, there is no Zulfiqar. Yes, you will defend yourself. Absolutely. But brought to your knees? No, there will be noor 'ala noor. There will be hidayat upon hidayat. Those of you who are dying for a solution, an answer, a light. The Imam will come and provide that light for you inshaAllah.

So let us be careful. Let us reintroduce God inside of us. God is not of those who wishes to punish you. He says in the Qur'an, what will I gain, what will I gain out of punishing you? What will I gain? What do you think I will gain? You think I created you to punish you? All I need from you is an excuse to strengthen My mercy on you.

He has forgiven us so many times and all of you know your own lives, you know what is in your closet, you know what you have done, you know the fact that even after all of what you have done, Allah still has allowed you to have some respect in this world. That is a sign of His forgiveness.

After all of that, we still are not ready to serve His cause? We still believe that God will punish me. "Yeah but Sayyid, you have no idea what kind of life I live." You are right, I don't know what kind of life you live. I don't know what kind of sins you have done. I don't know how horrible, how great you are. I know nothing about you. What I do know is about the greatness of Allah, Subhana Wa Ta'ala.

And the moment that we, the moment that we have convinced ourselves that my sin is greater than the power of mercy of my Lord, we have disrespected that same Lord. Because He says that, what? What is the one sin that is not forgivable? Shirk. As long as you are saying 'La ilaha illa Allah' anything you do, is not bigger than My mercy. We don't believe in the point of no return. And meanwhile, God is begging us: look, I know what you did last night, but what I would love is for you to recognize that if I want to go back to any other door, it is the door of Allah Subhana Wa Ta'ala.

He doesn't want you to avoid Him. He wants you to come running towards Him. Believe in My mercy, He says. Believe in My forgiveness. I created you to be merciful towards you.

It is a two way street, my brothers and my sisters. If your creation and its purpose was to serve and worship Him, Him as your Lord is to be merciful towards you. Don't ever believe that any sin that you do within the umbrella of Tawhid, is bigger than Allah's mercy. Absolutely not. He has defended you behind your back when no one else did. He defends you today.

That very first discussion, you and I were not even there. We were not even created. When He talks about the idea that I want to create this insaaan, make him My khalifa on this earth. Who was the first group that had a problem with it? The angels. They said, Come on, man, don't make this insaan. He is going to shed blood, he is going to cause corruption. You want someone to do Your hamd in Your place? We will do it, we are right here. Twenty four hours, we will do tawaf of Your arsh and say SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah, SubhanAllah. Meaning what? Before you and I were even born, the angels were talking smack about us. Who was there to defend us? Our Creator Allah, Subhana Wa Ta'ala. Inni a'lamu ma la ta'lamoon. (2:30)I know about this insaan what you don't.

Nabi Musa was leading the Bani Isra'il out from the clutches of Fir'awn. They reach an area of complete desert land. These people are thirsty. They beg to Nabi Musa, let us pray for rain, let us come together as a congregation, and pray for rain. The story narrates that every time they begin to pray for rain, the clouds begin to form and then they disappear again. This happened several times and the drought becomes more intense. Now, Nabi Musa says to Allah, 'Allah, look, I am asking you for rain. These people are dying of thirst right now.' Wahi comes down, the answer comes to Musa. 'Musa, inside your group is a man who for 40 years has disrespected My command and My kingdom, has sinned against Me for 40 years, ask him to beg for My forgiveness, I will grant you rain, very simple.'

Musa addresses the entire tribe and says there is somebody in this tribe amongst all of you who has committed crime after crime, sin after sin, for 40 years. Until you come forward, ask Allah for forgiveness, we will not enjoy the pleasure of that rain. Can you imagine how difficult that must be? The man who is responsible for those 40 years begins to talk to Allah inside the heart of his hearts. And says to Allah, 'Allah, you know it is me, I know it is me. I have wronged You. I have disrespected You. I have sinned against You. I know that if I don't speak up, these people won't be blessed with rain, I beg You for my forgiveness. I ask You inside the heart of my hearts whispering to Allah, to please erase it. I am sorry. It won't happen again.'

This man finishes his du'a, the clouds begin to form and the rain comes gushing down. Nobody has stepped forward yet. Nabi Musa is very, very confused. After the rain happens, he goes to Allah, 'Allah, nobody came forward, what happened?' He says to Musa that 'Musa, the man who is responsible spoke to Me inside of his heart. I forgave him. I blessed you with rain.' And then Nabi Musa asked Allah a question and said, 'Allah, can you show me who that person is?'

He says, 'Musa, for 40 years, he was sitting against Me. I did not expose him to you. Now that he is actually come back to Me and cleansed his heart, you want Me to expose him to you now?'

Look at the extent Allah does to protect our dignity. And we still want to believe that He is a horrible boogey man, monster of a god. No, He deserves our worship. He deserves in this day and age, when everybody wishes for us to be pulled off the path, shave your beard, take off your hijab, change your name, do not travel for tableegh. There is going to be this. You are going to end up in Guantanamo. You do, all these things will happen.

Allah says, No, look, trust My plan. Trust Me, follow My path, believe Me. Get through this problem, at the end, Qad aflah al mu'minoon(23:1). The mu'min will be successful.

Allahumma wa hadha maqamu a'bdin dhaleelin i'tarafa laka bil tawhid, wa aqarra 'ala nafsihi bil taqseer fi adaa' haqqik. Wa shahida laka bil subooq ni'matika 'aleyh. Wa jameeli 'adatika 'indahu wa ihsanika ilayh. Fahabli ya ilahi wa sayyidi min fadhlika ma ureedahu ila rahmatik. Wa atakhidhuhu sullaman a'raju feehi ila mardhatik wa amanu bihi min sakhatika bi'izzatika wa tawbik.

[Oh, my God, this is the situation of a humble servant [of You], who professes Your Oneness, and confesses of his failure to carry out this duty towards You, and testifies to Your ample favouring him, and Your excellent habits in treating him, and Your bestowal of graces upon him. So my God and Master, confer upon me an amount of Your benevolence that I can use as a path taking me to Your Mercy, as a ladder by which I ascend to Your satisfaction, and I can be secured from Your wrath in the name of Your might and supremacy - Du'a Jawshan Al-Sagheer]