MCC Tucson Lectures
Muslim Community Center of Tucson
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May 22, 2026·Dhuʻl-Hijjah 5, 1447 AH·12:58 PM·51m·May 2026

Does Allah Really Respond to You?

Allah's Immediate Response to His Servants: Building a Relationship with Allah

allah's responsehadithremembrance of allahshirkrelationship with allahsuperstitionsprayertawakkul
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Summary

This sermon discusses the concept of reaching out to Allah and how He responds to His servants in real time. Sh. Ali Mashhour begins by addressing superstitions like the evil eye symbol and explains how such practices constitute shirk (associating partners with Allah). The main portion of the sermon focuses on Quranic verses and prophetic narrations that emphasize Allah's immediate responsiveness to His servants' calls and remembrance. Sh. Ali Mashhour cites hadiths from Sahih Muslim where Allah promises that when a servant reaches out to Him, He reciprocates exponentially—reaching out "a cubit" when the servant reaches "a hand span," and running when the servant walks. The sermon emphasizes that Allah responds not only on the Day of Judgment but in real time during a person's lifetime.

Transcript

Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.

You see it on some jewelry in stores now. They they used to call it the the evil eye symbol. So it's it's blue and then it's got a white circle and then in the middle of it it's got a black circle. Right? many of us, you know, look, when you save up in where I grew up, you you save up for a bus or you save up for a car to work on a taxi, you've been saving for 10, 15, 20 years, right? And now you finally got it. You're going to love this thing with all that you got. And this thing is your bread and butter. And so people are prone to try to hold on and latch on to superstitions to try to protect their investment. And so in taxis and buses and places of business, they will hang this this they even have it on girls and women's jewelry or have it on there. And this is supposed to protect you from evil eye, right? This is whenever someone comes by and they have evil eye, it's going to it's going to protect them. It's going to shut it down, right? It's going to stop the evil eye. Why? Because, you know, in Chinese culture, they have a small kind of pentagon that they put a smaller mirror in and they'll put this up outside the house or in their vehicles or in their place of business. And this is supposed to reflect away and deflect you know demons and and so forth. All of this is a type of what type of shirk. These are land mines that are in our homes waiting to claim parts of our dean and waiting to claim our relationship or aspects of our relationship with Allah on the day of judgment. We will continue this inshall next week. Subhan Allah.

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Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in these verses. He says in the verse of so remember me and I in turn shall remember you all and make mention of me and I in return shall make mention of you all. In another verse, he proclaims that your Lord has said, "Call upon me and I shall respond. Worship me and I shall reciprocate with reward." And says in another verse speaking to the prophets and if my servants ask you about me that I am near meaning inform them that I am near. I am saying that I am here. I respond to those who call upon me and reach out to me. And so let them in turn respond to my call and believe in me in order that they may obtain enlightenment and guidance. What do we understand from these verses? And there are many verses in the Quran similar in theme and meaning to these verses. What do we understand from this? We see a pattern that Allah reminds us all that he is not an absentee God. That our creator is not a silent unresponsive creator. that when we reach out to the law, the law in turn reciprocates and reaches out in real time, not eventually, not at the end of it all, not on the day of judgment alone, but in real time. When a person reaches out to Allah, Allah reaches out to him. When a person makes mention of the law, the law makes mention of him. Listen to these narrations. be shut down. He never meal says that I am with my servant my slave every time he makes mention of me and his lips move with my remembrance. And if he makes mention of me to himself in himself, I will in turn make mention of him in myself to myself. And if he makes mention of me amongst a group, I will make mention of him in turn amongst a superior group. The prophet tells us in the narration of Muslim that Allah himself has said that.

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Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in another prophet tells us that Allah himself has said that if my slave reaches out to me a hand span I will reach out to him a cubit in return exponentially. And if he reaches out to me a cubit, I will reach out to him an arms length. And if he comes to me walking, I shall come to him running. Notice here of this narration. I believe that many of us are have heard this narration at least before. If we haven't committed it to memory, at least we we have memorized and are familiar with its meanings. The prophet here tells us that Allah says that if my servant reaches out to me a handspan, I will reach out to him in turn a cubit. This is twice as much. And if he reaches out to me a cubit, I will reach out to him in turn in response an arms length. Meaning that whatever efforts the human being puts in to reaching out to all provided that that reaching out is based and founded on the law. has to be found. has instructed us so we worship the Lord alone. We worship him alone in the way that his prophet has instructed us. There is no shame. There is no innovation and those two things come together. providing those two conditions are when a person reaches out to a wall figuratively obviously we are not sitting around reaching up into the sky figuratively when a person reaches out to the wall they do a good deed they do something to try and garner attention from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when they reach out to Allah exponentially reaches out back. Now when a person reaches out to Allah, Allah doubles that and reciprocates. Why? Because one of the names of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a shepher. What is a shepher? A shepherd meaning the one who is worthy of all gratitude and thanks and she the one who thanks those who from Japan. Yeah. Yes. For sure.

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Allah subhanallah is a meaning he is the one who is to be the recipient. He is worthy of all thanks and gratitude. And he is a meaning he thanks and shows gratitude to those who show him gratitude. He reciprocates our efforts. Not just a little bit, not just a little more. He doesn't just reach out to us equally. Rather he subhanahala dwells our efforts because he is worthy of all things and he subhanah is worthy of all of the best descriptions and attributes. And so when a person reaches out to Allah will double this and Allah will respond. And no, that response is not only on the day of judgment. That response is not only when a person dies and meets a law. No, Allah will respond in real time immediately. Immediately. Listen to this narration. ation of the authority.

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Muslim the prophet tells us that Allah has said I am dividing prayer into two equal halves between myself and my servant and for my servant what he asks of me. And so when the servant says all praise is due to Allah, Allah will respond, my servant has praised me. And when the servant says, Allah will respond, "My servant has double down on his praise of me." And when the servant recites the only being, Allah will say, "My servant has proclaimed my greatness." And when the servant recites, Allah responds, "This is between me and my servant, and for my servant what he asks." And then when the servant recites to the end of the chapter, Allah says, "This is for my servant and for he what he has asked of me." What do we notice here in this narration? We notice that even between verses when a person stands in and recites Allah's words that immediately Allah is interacting with the person in real time immediately. And this is one of the things that many of us do not want. One of the things that does to try to weaken our resolve, to try to weaken and slow our pace to Allah is that we feel we are sometimes worshiping and unresponsive creator. that a person feels that he has prayed and asked and does and Allah does not respond. This couldn't be further from the truth. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala does not let a single word a single utterance even a thought of the remembrance of Allah in the heart unspoken Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reciprocates immediately immediately in real time he reciprocates he responds right away but the problem is is not that a is an absentee God or that love does not respond. That's not the issue. The issue is that he does not respond in the way that you expect him to. That's the issue. You want to know and learn how responds, you read the Quran and you only expect what Allah has promised you in the Quran. You learn to pick up on the responses of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Not a single word, not a single deed, no matter how slight, no matter how obscure, as long as it is done with the intent of worshiping Allah, with the intent of pleasing Allah, Allah will respond immediately. Allah will respond. Allah subhanahu wa tala even responds to disbelievers when they are in a jail and they call to him. He still responds to them. The prophets instruction Yes. I am the only sub. The prophet said there is no one more patient on the terrible alarm or the the the annoyances of what he hears from his servants towards him. They ascribe to him a child and they worship other than Allah and he continues to grant them ease. He continues to grant them and feed them and sustain them and protect them. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he's not petty a human being. He does not have a vendetta against you. Your pain is not special. We are all in pain at times. We are all existing in the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. But when you reach out to Allah, when you remember Allah, when you thank Allah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala responds. He responds every single time. And he will reward you on the day of judgment. and he will respond exponentially and twice because you could never be more merciful than Allah. You could never be more diligent than Allah. You could never be more loyal than Allah. Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala responds. The problem is many of us have not learned how to observe those responses. Some of the opinions of the online commented that he will pick up all a sin that he has committed in the attitude of his spouse or even sometimes in the attitude of his lifestyle that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is constantly constantly interacting responding Even when you stand to rec you are speaking to Allah and he's speaking right back to you. You are speaking to Allah and he is speaking right back to you. The prophet said that when a person stands for Allah fixes his face to the face of his servant to his right and he continues to look back at his servant not looking away until his servant looks away. What more do you want? How much more can we ask for Allah not only responds but responds exponentially and reciprocates every minor effort? And so how does a person build a relationship with Allah? How does a person reach out to Allah? How does a person observe the responses of Allah? This is not something you just know. It's not something you decide. All those responses are not going to be based on what you expect. You have to read the Quran. You have to acquaint yourself with the law. You have to read the prophets of the lawn. You have to acquaint yourself with the law's responses. And then you will start to see them everywhere and all around you. Because our Lord is not absent. He is always there, always responding at every moment and he is at every turn and junction.

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Alhamdulillah.

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I'm not how many of us have done something bad for instance whatever it is and then later on that day we hit our head or we trip or we get into an accident or something bad happens and immediately we say you know what this is punishment for that thing I did earlier today right this happens to everyone many of us I experienced this. You are going to do something that maybe you shouldn't be doing or maybe you're uncertain about and then some kind of pain comes down the road and immediately you think that's that's a punishment for this that I did. Why don't we have that same observation for the good things that we do? The answer is that it is so from a regime that whispers these kinds of things. There's no there's no sunnah that if you do something bad, you're going to hit your head that day later or you're going to hit your finger or you're going to drop your keys or you're going to be late to work or whatever it is that people come up with. This is your imagination mixed with the whispers of Allah is ever slow to punishment and he is immediate in reward. Allah will take back his punishment. He will never take back his reward. Why are we not that sensitive to good? I'll tell you why. Because the human being is twice as sensitive to pain as he is to pleasure. That's why you ever notice that when you see in the newspaper and the news that a company tells you this product is going to be discontinued and you got to run out and go buy it real quick before it goes. That's because you're afraid of losing something. The pain of losing something is twice as bad as the pleasure of gaining it. That's how we're wired. We are afraid of pain. This is not something that we learn from the Quran and we are to think good thoughts and make the best of it Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Why is it that all bad things we ascribe to Allah and then good things we ascribe to other than Allah? No, it is exactly the opposite. It is exactly the opposite. Look and become hyper sensitive to the good things in your life. Day to day you will lose count before the first hour of your day. Those who are in nothing but fear and have and nothing to hurt from their creator. We have so many more chances and are so much more likely to find ourselves stumbling into the graces of the world that we are to be held to account and punish doesn't mean doesn't mean that I balance of justice is that's not the case. However, Allah doesn't have a feel against you. He doesn't hate you. Who are you or me to be this is taking on as a particular tells us. He says what does the world want with your punishment? What benefit does he from your punishment if you are thankful and believe in him?

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Stand shoulder to shoulder. Align your shoulders and feet with the shoulders and feet of your two neighbors. Use the lines in the carpet as a guide, but ultimately align your shoulders and your feet with the shoulders and feet of your two neighbors. Straightening the row and maintaining the coherence of the row and is part of and when one of us is out of place, it affects the reward of all of us in the prayer. You've worked this hard to come all the way out here. Take this time out of your day. Finish it. Put the dots on the eyes and the crosses across the te's. please double check your phones. Make sure that they are silent. Do not join a row until the row ahead of you is completely.

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