When Love for Allah Must Come First

Foreign.

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Thank you you you read my mind and my bad continuing with where we left off last week with the causes for a person's heart to become open and accepting to the light and the quran and the sunnah the light of allah amen what opens the heart we discuss some of these things we're at the fourth part and last week we discussed the statement of ibn al-qaeda and loving him with the entirety of your heart and we discussed a very important detail with regards to love we discussed a very important detail with regards to love we said there's two types of love natural love and religious love correct we said natural love does not contradict religious love but if you are in a position to give precedence to one or the other religious love must always be first okay now let's unpack that a little bit we said natural love doesn't have anything to do with religion correct natural love for example we as muslim men are allowed to marry non-muslim women correct there's nothing funny about that okay please we are allowed to marry non-muslim women christian jewish according to the conditions allah stipulated in surat al-maidah okay now when a person marries this non-muslim woman is he not going to love her is correct yeah he's gonna love her hopefully right now how do we how do we harmonize between that and the statement of allah do you mean that you will not find a people who believe in allah in the last day that will have love for those who are enemies to allah and his messenger meaning non-muslims how do we harmonize those two because allah said in surah that the key thing that he placed between a man and his wife is right he placed between them so if you marry a non-muslim woman you're going to have moeda how do we harmonize between that and that it is impermissible to love those who are those who are enemies to allah and his messenger meaning those who are disbelievers any disbeliever even if that enmity is shown and expressed in aggression or that enmity is the mere fact that you disbelieve in the quran in sunnah this is called this is called enmity towards allah and his messenger you have called the prophet salallahu sallam essentially a liar you have said that he is a liar the quran is not true the quran is not the words of allah and this this this man is not a messenger he is a charlatan that's essentially what what you're saying when a person disbelieves in the message of the prophet sallallahu alaihi correct so how do we harmonize those two there's a lot of talk floating around that those two verses are speaking about the same type of love and that's where the mistake comes in those two verses are not speaking about the same type of love those two verses are speaking about two different types of love one is speaking about religious love the other is speaking about natural love right a person's mother a person's father a person's child is a non-muslim they naturally love them naturally the prophet muhammad sallallahu alaihi wasallam naturally loved his uncle who died as a disbeliever correct naturally loved them so he loved him allah said you cannot guide those whom you love rather it is allah who guides whom he chooses so the verse is mentioning that he loved abu talib but did he love him in a religious capacity no he loved him in a natural capacity now let's flip that those who love the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam in a natural capacity okay like the disbelievers from amongst quraish they all loved the prophet salallahu even after he was a prophet they loved they couldn't help but love him he was truthful he was honest he was generous he was brave he was how can you not love someone that right he said to the prophet sallallahu alaihi by allah you are upon great monumental character right but they loved him did that love benefit them with allah did that love benefit them with allah no why because that was what natural love correct it was natural love contrary to religious love is when you love someone for the sake of allah even if you haven't met them so we love abu bakr and uthman and all of the companions and we love all of the taberine and all of the scholars of islam even if we don't know their names even if we haven't met them correct that's called religious love and there is no problem with having natural love for those who do not outwardly fight against allah and his messenger however there are times when religious love and natural love clash you have to choose one one over the other with the prophet sallallahu alaihi perfect example he loved abu talib not but he did not love him that is reserved only for the muslims and so when abu talib died the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam was prohibited from making dua for him.

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There's no contradiction there so abu talib passes away the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam implores him to say and i will i will use it as as as a as a bargaining tool before allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to try to save you from hell and his final words were he said i die upon thee religion and the way of abdul muttalib meaning my people and their idolatry so that is a disbeliever correct when that happened the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said as he was mourning his death he said i swear by allah i will continue to make dua for you as long as allah does not prohibit me from doing so then the verse from surah tituba was revealed yesterday then the verse was revealed in surah it is not permissible for the prophets or those who believe to make and seek forgiveness on behalf of the disbelievers after it has been made clear to them that they are of the people of hell even if they are close relatives of theirs so what happened here we have natural love and we have religious love now he has to choose one of the one or the other which one takes precedence religious love this is the subtle difference between natural and religious love am i making sense very good because many people confuse those two things they confuse natural and religious love so the disbelievers of quraish they love the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam naturally but they hated him what religiously that's why they wanted to kill him correct the companions they loved naturally their uncles and their fathers and their sons and so forth but when they met them in battle what happened they fought against them in battle and there were casualties why because if religious love and natural love cannot be harmonized religious love may must always must always take precedence this is why allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says it is only the believers that are truly brothers right because no matter what your natural love will die with you and on the day of resurrection your love will be taught purely religious love you love what allah loves and you do not love what allah does not love right so your neighbor okay he's nice to you he mows your lawn he takes out your trash whatever he you know brings your kids candy he you know shovels your snow he's just a nice guy wouldn't you naturally love somebody that yeah you would and if he got sick wouldn't you go visit him yeah however religiously would you love this person as long as they are a disbeliever religiously what do we say no religiously no religious love is reserved only for the believers correct okay so when we say when ibn al-qayyam here allah says turning to allah and loving him with all of the heart he's speaking about all of the religious heart the part of your heart which is reserved religious love religious actions not natural things right you naturally love food you naturally love a cold drink of water on a hot day you naturally love this is natural loaf right you naturally love your parent you naturally love your child you naturally love comfortable things however you do not religiously love these things in a way that will take you away from allah in a way that will cause you to disobey allah and these things sometimes in the heart become they cross each other so a person will start to love another person in a way that is unhealthy in a way that is obsessive in a way that is religious and that kind of love is reserved only for allah subhanahu wa so an example of somebody who's religious love is is contradicting his natural love and they're starting to impede on each other is when a person loves their child for instance and their child is an evil person and a disbeliever and maybe goes out and you know leaves islam and goes and becomes a a a a speaker against islam and insults the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam insults allah subhanahu.

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And preaches against islam and fights against islam yet they love their child so much that they support their child in this or they sympathize with their child in this this now is a major sin why is it a major sin because now your natural love has crossed over into the religious part of your heart and that is unacceptable that is when a person's heart hypocrisy will enter into it clear clear clear clear as day correct some some people say how is it possible that you can hate someone religiously but love them naturally it's very possible right because it's two different parts of the heart it's two different parts of the heart and hatred is the opposite of what what is hatred the opposite of love correct just day is the opposite of what night so if it's not daytime what is it so we can't play games with words right.

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He said not only turning to allah and loving allah with all of the heart but as well completely concentrating your love towards allah devoting yourself to him entirely and finding solace in his worship finding solace in worshiping allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala finding comfort finding pleasure in the worship of allah says some of us when we come to salas just come on let's get this over with you.

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He.

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Foreign he says that you are as well to find solace and comfort in the worship of allah many of us for example salah when we make salah it's just begrudgingly yellow just prayed come on let's finish huh and we hear it all the time yeah ma'am all the time is hearing it.

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Foreign.

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My he says here that also a person must find peace and comfort in the worship of allah what does that mean peace and comfort in the worship of allah many of us do not experience this very often we may experience this seldomly and sparingly finding peace in allah's worship finding solace in allah's worship feeling a sense of tranquility in allah's worship what is tranquility in allah's worship and solace and comfort that is that when it comes time let's take an example of salah but it could be anything else but salah many of us begrudgingly drag ourselves to prayer and when the imam starts to recite the quran we listen which surahs he's reciting oh my god he's reciting that surah that one is a long one yamaha foreign they will count the minutes that the imam is leading them in salah methalene and it's not because the imam's voice is terrible i've prayed behind some some people whose voice is terrible the way they read the quran is not correct okay so you are not enjoying anything of the salah that's a different story i'm talking about a well-recited person who leads salah why are we staring at the clock oh it's suppose you're supposed to end it just 10 minutes it was 11 minutes this time one sh one time off it was 11 minutes i'm going to catch the shaykh and tell him he went too long it was 11 minutes this time huh subhanallah they have audacity you just led them in you just recited allah's book to them and they will tell you you want one minute over you want two minutes over as if you have done a major crime don't do this again this is haram right and then after they tell you that they get it off their chest they go in the back and they talk and talk and talk and talk and talk until they get kicked out so it's the lights are all turned off you have to leave you can't you can't stay here you don't have to go home but you can't stay here kind of thing then they go stand outside and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk that's fine it's fine to speak and socialize with your friends and so forth right what's not okay is to be in a state of discomfort when you stand to make salah when you stand and make salah and you're listening to a recitation that is a reasonable recitation of the quran you should be losing yourself in that recitation what do i mean by losing yourself few of us have ever experienced it losing yourself so deeply allah was reciting and praying and a scorpion came and stung him in his foot a scorpion stung him in his foot and he kept praying as his foot was swelling until he finished the sale so why didn't you finish salah quickly he said i was in the middle of a surah and i didn't want to break it off halfway through right yeah another example some of the companions if they had to have some kind of major surgery they didn't have anesthesia at the time right to the point where they would stand for prayer in order for a part of their body to be cut off a foot or a hand because when they stood for salah they had built the discipline that they are in a completely different realm they're in a different world and they would not be able to feel the pain as they would if they were present now honestly speaking how many of us have felt that way in saleh right forget cutting off your hand or or getting stung by a scorpion if your phone just vibrates that's it so that's done if it vibrates in the first rakah the rest of the three that are gone huh they're gone up i wonder who that was i wonder who that is i wonder if it's this bird i know i've been waiting for a call let me finish it i gotta get call us the mind is gone because we are so attached to the illusion of this world now the question comes okay you have discussed to us the problem that we how do we fix that problem as we've mentioned many many times all of these things all of these aspects of islam they are actually what disciplines correct what is the definition of a discipline a discipline is something that you train yourself to do it gets stronger with practice and it gets weaker with negligence that's what discipline is discipline is something that you force yourself to do it's a type of discomfort you force yourself to do it and it gets stronger with practice and gets weaker with negligence if you neglect it it gets weak and if you practice it it gets strong so what does that mean just a muscle just a muscle in your body the more you practice and exercise this muscle the stronger it gets but there's not a point where you reach and you say that's it i'm enough i'm going to be a muscular man for the rest of my life no if you stop exercising that muscle it will start to what it will start to deteriorate and it will start to atrophy and so that's what discipline is discipline is the ability to stand for prayer and force your mind to focus on allah and allah alone and at first when you start this process your mind is going to wander and you're going to pull it back by its collar and every time it wanders you pull it back by its collar until over time it will become less and less difficult you will have strengthened that discipline but if you start to neglect it and you start to not exercise it it can also go away meaning that if you become very concentrated in your prayer you have a lot of hoshur you are to the point of almost mastery if you stop practicing it will go away this is why we have a narration where the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said.

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If a person stands for prayer and his mind does not wander once throughout those two raka' what is past of his sins will be forgiven it sounds easy right no not very easy that why has his sins been forgiven because it took him years to develop that strength of mind to be able to lose himself in prayer so thoroughly that he will not even stray in his mind from what he is doing in prayer not even one time from the beginning of prayer all the way till the end just two how long does it take to make two deca what three four minutes make it a speedy two that got two minutes can you focus for two minutes and not think about anything else other than this if you can what is past of your sins has been forgiven that's the promise of the prophet easier said than done why because this takes years of practice and some people are stronger than others they develop faster maybe it takes months of practice for some one of the taberine he said.

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Is was mentioned to have said i spent 20 years practicing and struggling with prayer and then after those 20 years i was given another 20 where i enjoyed prayer what does that mean that means that the first 20 years he spent fighting with himself every single day no matter what his mood was no matter what his problems were no matter what was happening in his life no excuses i have to do this and then after that 20 years finally his nephs was subdued and he gained the discipline and he gained the strength to be able to stand for prayer and enjoy it how many of us enjoy our prayer how many of us lose ourselves between the verses of allah subhanahu wa ta'ala where you're listening to the quran so deeply that you forget the world for a moment it doesn't occur to you time stops and you are nowhere but with allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is what is meant by very bad this is a sure-fire way that your heart will be open to the quran and sunnah to develop that discipline that is enough for tonight foreign.