When Allah's Plan Surpasses Your Expectations

[Arabic recitation]

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Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in recounting to us the Story of the birth of Miam. Miam, daughter of Imran, the mother of Isaam. And that is that her mother made fervent dua to Allah subhanahu waala that he blessed her by accepting her offering of her child. You see when the wife of the mother of Miam the grandmother of Isa when she found out she was pregnant she made fervent dua to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that he accept her offering of her child who at the time was still in her womb that oh Allah accept from me this offering. I hereby devote and dedicate my child that is in my womb to your service. This child is for your religion specifically. And she made that vow and she took the most precious thing to her which was her own flesh and blood her child and she endowed that child and dedicated that child to Allah. But here's the twist. She thought that the child in her stomach was a male. She thought it was a boy. And so she made this vow to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala thinking that this was a boy he would be born and she would send him to the Kisa to the house of worship and that this boy would grow up amongst the prophets amongst the scholars of Benny Israel. in and be completely devoted to serving the kinesisa. And this was something that is largely specific to boys as it is with our mass that a boy is eligible to become the imam, a boy is eligible to become the muadin, etc. She thought this was a boy. And so the surprise came when she had her child and it was a girl. She did not expect this. She did not expect this and she did not expect that Allah had very much so accepted her vow and specifically gave her a girl. See in her mind this child was going to serve Allah in a very specific way. However, Allah subhanahua he knows best. He knows best what is needed when and where. AND SO, SURE, if she had had a boy, that boy may have been a very great and righteous man, but he would never have been Miam. He would never have been the mother of Isa. He would never have been one of three or four women in the history of humanity marked as the most righteous women in all of history. cream of the crop, Maria Maret. And so when she had this child, it was a girl and it was a very different scene now in her than what was in her mind and her plans. But she knew that I have already made this vow that this child is to the Kisa and is to be dedicated to the houses of worship. And so Zechariah, he took her into his care and he was the current prophet of Benel at the time, the father of Yah. And he built for her a he built for her a place of worship specific to her on the premises of the current house of worship at the time at the Kisa. And he made it to where she was in a place where she could devote herself to the worship of Allah. And she grew up in the care and under the guidance of Zachariah. And Zachariah became a very old man at the ripe old age of 120 years old. Zechariah went to see Modiam to bring her her dinner and found that not once, not twice, but constantly he would go to her in the summertime to bring her her dinner, her food, and find that she had fruits that are only around during the winter that she's eating from. And during the winter months, she would come and find that she is enjoying fruits that are only available during the summertime. NOWHERE IN ANY KNOWN PLACE COULD YOU FIND THAT fruit at that time of year. She he asked Miam, "Where are you getting this from?" And she said, And so she said, he said, "WHERE ARE YOU getting these from?" She said, "This is sustenance that has been sent to me from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Allah indeed does bestow upon whom he chooses, what he chooses, and when." And at that moment, Zechariah, even though he was 120 years old and his wife was over 80, some say around 90, between 80 and 90 years old, he makes dua that Allah bless him with a son. And Allah gives him a son. He gives him a son at 120 years old. A person may look at this and say, "WHY NOW? WHY NOT WHEN I WAS A young man? We wouldn't have needed the miracle." No, that's not the plan of Allah. Your job, my job, what we are to learn from these stories is that you are to make yourself fit and ready to be called upon by Allah. And you are NOT TO DETERMINE for yourself how, when, or where you will be called upon. You're just to make yourself ready. IF YOU TRULY VOW YOURSELF FOR ALLAH, you will be ready AT ALL AND EVERY time and moment, preparing yourself to be called upon by Allah. How? You don't know. And that's not your job to know. If Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala chooses to use you, which is the the greatest honor any of us could ever hope for, our prophet sallall.aii Wasam tells us in the narration of Annis. He says, "WHOMEVER ALLAH CHOOSES AND DESIRES GOOD FOR, he will use him before his death, Allah will use him as a tool to further his agenda." Subhanahu wa ta'ala and his plan and his destiny and his that's the greatest honor and any of us could hope for but it is not our position to dictate how when and where this this use will take place we are merely tools vessels and the greatest of hearts are those hearts which have been chosen by Allah to bear his book his revelation the best of hands hands are those hands which have been chosen by Allah to further his revelation. The best of feet are those feet which have been chosen by Allah. Those eyes which have been chosen by Allah. Those ears which have been chosen by Allah. those tongues WHICH HAVE BEEN CHOSEN by Allah to be used for the furtherance of his way and his revelation. And so many times we will find that things don't work out the way that we expected. And that is a good thing because our expectations in comparison to Allah's destiny, our expectations are incredibly juvenile, incredibly shortsighted. A great man, a great companion of our prophet sallall.aii wasallam, he made a statement regarding this issue. and lines of poetry. He said,.

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A great companion of our prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam said and it does not matter to me which side I fall on when I am martyed for the sake of Allah because my martyrdom is only for Allah and if Allah so desires he will place his baraka even in a torn up twisted body. This are the words of a man named is one of the reciters of the Quran, one of the memorizers of the Quran. is a great hero of Islam who said these words just before his execution. See what happened is after the battle of the mushik of and the neighboring villages and the neighboring tribes they were very very angry and they wanted blood from the prophet sallallah.aii Wasam and his companions. But they couldn't attack Medina. Every time they met them in battle, they lose. And so they resorted to trickery to try to get out as many companions as they could out into the open into a vulnerable place in order to kill them, to ransom them, to take them as prisoners, to take them as slaves. And so it was a man named Safwanbaya, his father, a great disbeliever who was killed by the prophet sallall.aii wasallam himself in the battle of he was so upset about his father's death that he made an agreement with one of his childhood friends. He agreed with him. Look, I will take care of your debts and your family. Go pretend to be Muslim and go and assassinate Muhammad. This was their agreement. And so Omeared himself and childhood friends, what could go wrong? And so he went to Medina and he became Muslim IN SPITE OF HIMSELF. He went to kill him. When he arrived there, he found himself overwhelmed by the words of Allah and he accepted Islam became one of the best Muslim men. So every attempt they MADE TO GET BACK at him would fail. Every assassin met them in legitimate Bided you know and let us say that we have become Muslim and draw out some of his companions. So they DID THAT. THESE TWO tribes they went to Medina. They sat with the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam and they said we are starting to come around to Islam. We're starting to warm up to it and we're becoming Muslim quickly and so we would for you to send with us a delegation of your best companions so that they can teach us the Quran and teach us about the religion of Allah and our tribe. And so the prophet sallall.aii Wasam in the fourth year after hijah in the month of Safar he sent a delegation of 10 companions some of the best companions was their commander their leader and he sent with them and he sent with them Zina etc. And so when they reached the outskirts of Mecca around the tribes of Houd in a place called Al they called the those two tribes. They came out and they chased the companions up onto a mountain. 10 companions against over 100 skilled archers. They were referred to as the most skilled archers in all of the Arab Peninsula, that tribe. They were known for their archery. And so many of the companions decided not to come down. And they fought until they were martyed. And there were only four of them left. And he said to them, "We have to continue fighting until death. If they take us as prisoners, you know that they will betray their word." Because as they have them up on this mound, they're saying, "Hey, JUST COME DOWN. WE PROMISE we won't kill you. We promise." And so Aam said obviously I'm not going to accept their word and they continued to fight. They killed Asam. Three of them now were left. They came down. They said we have your word. We give you our word. So when they came down, they said, "Come, come." And they took out the the part of their bow that the strings from their bows and they started to tie them up. The other companion said and so he started to fight and they killed him as well. We are left with and Zade. They tied them up, but they didn't have any particular problem with Hub and Zade. So what did they do? They took our brothers Zade and Kub to the slave market in Mecca and they sold them to as slaves to the tribe of the son of the son who later become became Muslim. He bought and another son, the son of Safwanbaya, he bought Zate. And so they kept them as prisoners for a time and then took them out of the borders of Mecca because they're very righteous people. You see these idoltors, they felt we cannot spill their blood in the haram. This is a sacred place. Let us go murder them outside of the haram. So they took them to a tenim to kill them. And they did so. But during that time, Zade and remember they were sent to call to Allah. They came out of Medina were sent by the prophet sallall.aii as a delegation of teachers. They came out to teach. They had in their minds a very specific way this was going to play out. They were going to have students and teach the book of Allah etc. Very as we all have plans in our lives. But their da was to be very different than their expectation. They were taken out to aim. And as they were kept as prisoners, the daughter of Alh hadith, she said about Kub, "We kept him as a prisoner in our home. And every time I would come to him, I would see him eating fruits that are not found in Mecca during that time." impossible to find those fruits in the Arab peninsula at that time. He is chained and held prisoner and somehow he has the best of fruits there from Allah subhanahu wa tala. And so when they told him, "We are going to execute you now." He asked for a razor so that he could prepare his body. He could shave himself and prepare himself for martyrdom. And she wasn't paying attention to her toddler. She had a little son. And she looked up and found that the son, her toddler, had wandered over to Hubed and sat on his lap. and in his hand was a razor. And so she became terrified that he was going to hurt her son. And he saw the look on her face and he said, "You think I would hurt him? Of course I wouldn't do this inshallah." And so as they took him out to kill him, the little boy Iban Hadith, he was a young kid at the time, probably about eight or nine years old. And an older man from he took the young boy and said, "This man, he killed your father. you need to take his blood in his place. So he gave him a spear and he put his hand over the boy's hand and he used the spear to continue to stab Hub in the presence of all of these people and they stabbed him to death there and they crucified him and that is when he said these words. But do you want to know what is most impressive about this story? The boy, he accepted Islam. And the old man that took the boy's hand and stabbed to death, he accepted Islam. And the man that killed the man that killed Zina, he accepted Islam. AND THE DAUGHTER THAT SPENT THAT TIME WITH Hub in his in HER HOUSE, SHE ACCEPTED ISLAM. As a matter of fact, most of those tribes accepted Islam because of what they saw from Kuben Z during those few days that they were held captive. Much more impressive than any teaching they could have done. They were used. AND THIS IS WHY FUB SAID WHAT HE SAID. IF ALLAH CHOOSES, he can use my body TWISTED AND BROKEN, PLACE HIS BARAKA in said body and use it for his purposes. And so Allah did. And he is the first of the companions to make two raqai before martyrdom. And he made two very brief ra. He said, "I would have made prayer longer, but I don't want you to think I'm afraid of your execution. Let's get on with it. Let's get this over with." And so we see that our position in this life is not to dictate TO ALLAH HOW AND WHAT HE IS TO DO WITH US. Our position is to prepare ourselves and hope that Allah would use us in any way to further his religion. Any one of us that is used by Allah, this is an immense blessing from Allah. Be thankful lest Allah take it away from.

[Arabic recitation]

Allah Islam. for.

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Allah. Allah Allah.

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Becoming.

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Phil.

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Allah. Allah.

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Alhamdulillah. Allah sh I I high.

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Please double check your phones. If you remembered to bring your phone into the masid, double check it. Ensure that it is silent so as not to interrupt our time with Allah. Ensure that your lines are as straight and coherent as possible. Align your shoulders and feet with the shoulders and feet of your two neighbors. Straightening the road is paramount and part of our salah in Jama. A straight road is largely what we will be rewarded for in our prayer together.

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Alhamdulillah.

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For.

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Any All I Allham.

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Allah thou Allah Oh,.

[Arabic recitation]

Brothers and sisters, asalamu alaikum. I got few announcements. Please bear with me. First, I want to convey the greetings from brother Roman. Alhamdulillah. He's doing better, but he is pass he's sending the greetings and salams to every one of you. also the the prayer times are changing starting tomorrow inshallah. So please take a note of this thing here. Fudger prayer is at 5:45 a.m. Theama for fudger will be at 5:45 a.m. So most of you can join right. the assur is going to be at 4:45 starting tomorrow. and Isha will be at 7:30 starting tomorrow inshallah. So today the schedule remains the same. Everything is for tomorrow morning and starting tomorrow morning throughout the day inshallah. The weekend school I just want to remind you the registration is still open. This is a good opportunity for you the especially the children that are in the public or private schools. They can benefit from this program and at least get the basics of Islam. So that is the school is available to anybody between the age of 5 and 7 to 17 and it is here on Sunday from 10:30 to 1:30 p.m. inshallah. U also please donate generously on the way out. Also that there is a a table outside for the Rahma Academy. I just don't want everybody to forget that alhamdulillah we are we have expanded the program to the fifth grade now. So we have up to five grade from preK to 5. Anybody with a child of that age they can benefit from it and you can talk to brother Ahmed Jabber to get some more details. But believe me brothers and sisters this is a tremendous opportunity that we have that masjid is providing and please take advantage of that. Please donate generously on the way out. I got to take the first one.

[Arabic recitation]

Take your So this is the other.