Awareness of Allah SWT
Dear brothers and sisters, the khutba this week is on being aware of Allah SWT. This is something that we can easily say, after all we are all here today and we are performing an important commandment of Allah SWT in praying the Friday prayer.
However, being mindful of Allah SWT does not come just by performing weekly actions such as this or indeed more frequent actions such as the five daily prayers alone. No, this is a subtler point being made on our overall awareness of Allah SWT.
However, before we embark on how we can achieve this practically, it is worth mentioning a hadith of the Prophet SAWS in which he is reported to have said:
“O boy! I will instruct you in some matters. Be watchful of Allah (Commandments of Allah), He will preserve you. Safeguard His Rights, He will be ever with you. If you beg, beg of Him Alone; and if you need assistance, supplicate to Allah Alone for help. And remember that if all the people gather to benefit you, they will not be able to benefit you except that which Allah had preordained (for you); and if all of them gather to do harm to you, they will not be able to afflict you with anything other than that which Allah had pre-destined against you. The pens have been lifted and the ink has dried up”.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we analyse, this is telling us about being watchful of Allah means being watchful of any action that is expected of one, and to follow the correct actions and to avoid the sinful ones.
It is also telling you of the direct consequence of doing this and that is that in doing so, Allah SWT would look after you, in this world and next.
What follows then are 3 points that we can all follow that will enable us to practically achieve this.
- Clinging to the Quran. The Quran is the rope of Allah. Whoever clings to it then Allah SWT will prevent him or her from slipping. Make it a part of your life. Through recitation, listening and understanding it through translation, it will provide you with a connection to the author and creator of the book unlike anything else.
And it does not matter if you are a newcomer to the language as both online courses and courses run in this very masjid can assist you in connecting with the book of Allah.
- Dua or Supplication. Keeping mindful of Allah SWT is essentially a matter of the heart dear brothers and sisters. How often is it the case that we are on fast forward in our prayers but our supplications after the prayers are even faster or on complete auto-pilot.
As Muslims, we are people who believe in Allah SWT then why is it that we cannot communicate with Him in a manner that has been taught to us? We are blessed that we have a private counsel with Him 5 times a day in which there is no middleman, no other soul that needs to hear our pleas, our thoughts, our worries and our wishes.
By understanding that the salat is a two-way process, the prayer followed by the supplication (which by the way for those who can’t otherwise can be in your own native tongue) is the perfect way for us to keep mindful of our Lord as by communicating with him personally 5 times a day how can you be anything other than mindful of Allah SWT?
- Live this life to please Allah SWT via interaction with His creation. Whether it is a moment to contemplate the vast miracles of nature around us in our everyday lives or whether it is helping your brother and sisters in Islam and the wider community, it is through helping and doing good to others that the heart feels peace and the remembrance of Allah SWT is manifested into positive action. An example of this is actively participating in the various projects running in this city assisting in the lesser fortunate amongst our community or spreading the word of positive events taking place such as the first of many free drop-in NHS sessions such as the one next Friday.
Dear brothers and sisters, in a world where people are chasing everything the world has to offer in the hope of being happy, we are shown more so thanks to media that this world doesn’t provide happiness in money or power or the material things of this life. In fact, we are told by Allah SWT in the Quran that it is in the remembrance of Him will hearts find peace.
Therefore, with lack of mental wellbeing now the primary ailment of our time and place, we ought to remind ourselves that the solution is simplicity itself and that it is by remembering that all that we are, will be and are blessed with is from Allah SWT and that by remembering Him we can achieve happiness in this life and success in the next.
