Free Will or Divine Will? What Islam Actually Says

Before we start, inshallah, I just want to make mention that our brother Hassan, the youth coordinator, brother Hassan is traveling to visit his mother. it seems that she is unwell. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to heal her and we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make her journey back to recovery swift and rewarding. If you want to reach out to him or maybe message him or just make dua for his mother inshallah. Alhamdulillah.

[Silence]

We are concluding the final verse of surah and then moving on to surah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the final verse of surah mud which is a verse that is repeated throughout the Quran or its meaning even if it has slightly different wording is repeated in multiple places throughout the Quran. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in this verse Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says that the Quran is a reminder and whoever wishes to refer to this reminder and be reminded Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then says, "And they do not choose nor will to remember except that it is the will of Allah." They do not remember. They do not embrace. They do not follow the path of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They do not find benefit in the Quran except that it is the will of Allah except that Allah wills for them to do so. We understand from this that a person who wishes to be guided has wished to be guided only after Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has desired for him to become guided. Now in this verse Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala predicates our will on his will. Subhanahu wa ta'ala. We do not will something until Allah has first willed it. This as well is for tba. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala he is the one who he is the one who u guides them to repentance in order for them to repent. Likewise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala he says that you all do not desire or wish or will except that Allah has first willed for you to will. Now as we mentioned that this is a fine line and a middle path between free will and destiny. We are not forced to make the choices that we make. We are allowed we are not forced to make those choices. We make them with our own free will. However, who has allowed us to make those choices? Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. This is the path of the Quran. A middle path. We don't have complete free will in the sense that we can do anything that we imagine. No, it's within the confines of the options that we have been given by Allah. But then again, we do not have no free will to the point where we are automatons that have zero agency. It's a middle path that is sufficient for the believer in his path to Allah. When it comes to his end, he puts in the effort. And when it comes to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's recompense or response, that is to Allah subhanahu wa tala. The fruits of our labor come to us only by Allah. If you could imagine with me a game of chess for instance. Now I have free will as a player in this game. I can choose to move the pieces wherever I want but I have to follow the rules of the game. Otherwise I'm not playing chess anymore. And so I have free will, but the choices that I may exercise my free will in are limited by the rules of the game. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has given us free will. However, he has willed for us to have a finite amount of choices that we have to make within the confines of our existence. We mentioned before also the levels of decree. This is very important for every Muslim to know. The information that we discuss here, the knowledge that is discussed in these talks or or what have you, these are largely not just optional extra knowledge. This is we are only usually speaking about the most critical parts of our religion. The things which every Muslim should know about his book, about his messenger, about his creator subala. But there has to be an effort from the person seeking that knowledge. Why is that? Because usually people are drawn to entertainment. If it has to be catchy, it has to be entertaining. It has to, you know, every time we hear it, it's got to really just , you know, tickle our fancy just in the right way. This is not entertainment here. This is knowledge and knowledge takes patience and diligence. It takes a lot of dedication. And part of that dedication is that a person absorb and question etc. Otherwise a person may be exposed to knowledge for many many many years and not really learn anything. Why? Because they haven't held up their end. A lot of knowledge is not exciting at first a story or a motivational speech or what have you. It's not exciting that at first. Why? because you're you're taking pieces of a puzzle and until you are able to fit those pieces together and you have enough knowledge to where it connects and shows you a broader picture. It's not, you know, the individual pieces on their own don't really warrant much excitement. But these are things that we have to know about our religion. Especially being that we live as a minority amongst the majority of non-Muslims. If you want to trace 99% of all innovation in Islam, every innovation we can trace it historically to where it originated and where it came from. Upon doing that we find a pattern a very interesting pattern that most of these innovations come from where they come from places where Muslims are interacting and exposed to non-Muslims and they are exposed to the ideologies of non-Muslims and they do not have the knowledge necessary to be guided out of those shooads and that's where innovation comes in most innovation when you trace it where does it trace back to a minority of Muslims living near or amongst a majority of non-Muslims they have holidays we start to make our own holidays they have saints we start to make our own saints They build their churches or synagogues or temples a certain way, we start to build ours a certain way. They dress a certain way, we start to dress a certain way. They have amazing stories, we start to come up with our own stories, etc. Why? Where does this come from? This comes from what a mentions is. What is alen? that a person sees or hears something from just he hears or sees something or an idea and without researching without verifying without understanding whether this is in accordance with the Quran or not they in they it they accept it they think wow that makes sense that really sounds Good. That first point of that is where the avalanche comes from. And if you want to see what innovations do to a people, look at the people of the book before us. Judaism, Christianity, even possible, very possible that even some ancient religions like Buddhism may have originated as you know starting with messengers of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but over the years what happens an innovation Here an innovation. There a word here. Take away a word there. Implement this. Stop implementing that. Rearrange until what happens? Until there are so much innovation that it's not even the same religion anymore. That it's not even the same religion anymore. It is now a completely different religion. That is what happened to the religions of the people of the book before us. Judaism. Why did why was Asa Miam sent? Because Benu is the followers of MS had so changed and innovated the book of Allah that now they needed a messenger to come to them in order to revive the religion because it wasn't even the religion of Allah anymore. They were not even Muslim anymore at that point. Why was our prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam sent? Because the religions and the people of the book changed it so much and added innovation to it so much that it was no longer the religion of Allah. Even the fundamentals were changed. And so we cannot afford to live where we live in the time in which we live and drag our feet learning what Allah and his messenger have said. We can't afford it. And on top of that, we're having children and pushing them out into the world carrying the banner of Islam. But they are just as vulnerable as a babe in the woods. We haven't given them the weapons that they need in order to fight. We haven't given them the armor that they need in order to be protected from the innovations, from the misconceptions, from the ideologies of disbelief. And it is a very dangerous time that we live in. A time where the most ignorant people are the ones who have the loudest voices. A time when the people of true knowledge are very very scarce. As a matter of fact, most people, many people, let me say most, many Muslims today, if you were to ask them, do you love knowledge? Do you love the scholars? We say yes. We say yes because we are supposed to say yes. But then here's the question. Say, "Name five scholars to me, major scholars today." Most will not be able to do so. And if they are, it is only whom they have heard of through the news cycle. El jazz brought a special on him. NBC brought a special on him, right? Alam brought a special on them. And we learn now even who our scholars are through the screen. This is no serious discipline is ever learned through a screen ever. Ever. Ever. If it's not worth writing and printing and traveling, it's not worth learning. And so we cannot afford to be in this situation. We have an additional portion of responsibility because of where we have chosen to live and because of whom we are exposed to. And then if we allow our children to continue to absorb hours and hours and hours of the ways and traditions of the people who do not believe that Allah is one, who do not believe the Quran is the words of Allah. who do not believe Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and they spend all of their days and nights with them and then when they are so far gone we drag them to the masid we say she I need an appointment fix my son fix my daughter please she take out your magic wand from your desk and wave it over them so that they can be a perfect Muslim Again, this is where we are. This can't be the case. This cannot be our situation. And we'll end with this. Had a man brought to him, a man came to him and said, "My son is very disobedient to me. my son is and that's considered not only a major sin but punishable by law in Islamic law. And so summoned his son and he said your father has made a claim that you are disobedient to him and undutifyful. He said, "I have a question." He said, "Do I have rights over my father?" He said, "Yes." He said, "What are the my rights over my father?" He said three things. That he choose for you a good mother. That he choose for you a good name. and that he teach you the Quran, not just reciting the Quran, that he teach you the Quran, what it means, what it says. He said, "My name is such and such." It was very bad, terrible name. My mother is a disbeliever. She's a Christian woman. And he did not teach me the Quran. turned to the father and said he said you cut ties with him before he cut ties with you. This is the result of your actions. Many of us look and we say well Noah had a disbelieving son. Yes, but that was not any fault of Noah. It wasn't that he was sneaking out to go make salah in the masjid. Don't want to disturb the kids. Not pushing the kids to learn anything with regards to Islam. But when it comes to school, when it comes to training for sports at school or whatever society is telling us is important, no, we we rule that with an iron fist. But when it comes to Islam, it'll work itself out. He's a good kid. Look at him. He He's great, right? Kids 15, 16 years old. Doesn't know how to pray. Doesn't know how to say anything from the book of Allah. Doesn't know how to read a line from the Quran. This is a tragedy. And it's not just his father or mother's failure. It's our failure. until we start to see that we're never going to make our way out of the predicament in which we find. So having said that inshallah we will conclude starting the next chapter that we will be moving on to inshallah starting tomorrow will be surah al muzman chapter number 73 chapter number 73 the first five verses Subhanahu Subhanah. And.

[Silence]

Sai wasallam.