Names Of Allah And His Attributes | Introduction | Allah | Ustadh Hisham Abu Yusuf transcript

[Music] for attending this session and the start of the series on one of the greatest topics and the greatest subjects that anybody could ever study and that is the subject of allah subhanahu wa and there is no greater thing to study there is no greater subject to study nothing greater we can understand beyond allah subhana wa allah says in the quran so call him using those names and allah oh believers be conscious of allah and everybody should look at what they have prepared for the day of judgment and be conscious of allah allah is all aware of what you do and then allah begins a few verses later to describe his beautiful names from start to end and so the topic that we are studying is one of the greatest topics in the quran and one of the topics most frequently studied and if we were to start with a story let us start with the story of musa alayhi salah when musa alayhi salam at the age of around 40 is given his mission to be a prophet and he's given the very difficult problem of going and standing up to the tyrant the dictator of his time firaoun you can imagine that this man musa salaam is very scared because he is standing against not just a man but an army and he is one man and how does allah subhanahu ta'ala prepare him to stand up to firaoun when allah ta'ala communicates to moosa for the first time and he reveals to musa for the first time the first thing allah subhanahu ta'ala says to him is that he introduces himself to musa when musallam sees the burning tree and he comes close to the tree musa al-islam hears the words of allah as allah says in nani you should know it is me i am allah there is nothing you should reach to in your times of difficulty except me so be in service of me and establish salah to remember me the first thing the first speech allah gives to musa is i am allah and we won't realize the weight of this statement until we understand what does allah really mean this sentence ayam allah was enough to make musa stand alone in front of an army to make musa alayhi islam stand alone in front of the most the biggest dictator and the most fearsome man on the planet the statement i am allah was enough to motivate him because he knew who he was doing it for many of us our lives we live them on autopilot like zombies we wake up in the morning and we go through our routine and we sleep at night and in the day in the busyness and the hecticness of the day there is not a moment where we remember what are we doing it all for in fact according to some scholars the core reason allah made us is to know him we all know this in the quran i only created humankind and jin kind just to worship me to worship me meaning i created them so they can know me imagine that that allah made us and gave us minds and eyes and ears so that we can get to know allah that is the reason he created these faculties and we know so much about so many things in this world from the trees to the plants to the bricks but how much do we know about allah we should really be ashamed of ourselves and this is why when the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam asked one of his companions he asked him what is the greatest ayah in the quran it's a very difficult question the quran has so many verses and they're all great verses how can you choose one in fact if i take you to a shop and i ask you to choose a t-shirt you will take 30 minutes but um asked choose the greatest verse in the quran now and ube nucab says i don't know allah and his messenger know best so the prophet salallahu salaam says no tell me what is the greatest verse in the quran and then says is it allah you have destroyed all of knowledge you killed him as we say today you smashed him you've done a brilliant job how did he know that this is the greatest verse in the quran because this verse describes allah and it describes allah in the most complete way that is why the prophet salallahu salaam would recite it after every prayer and before he slept and in the morning and in the evening if you count it the prophet alaihi wasallam would read this verse eight times every day because it describes allah and what better to move a person's heart and to bring it back to life than to remember who it is all of it is for what are we doing it all for so now that you know how important this subject is and that this was the core focus of the messenger when he taught his companions the first and the number one and the most important thing he taught them who is their creator and he taught it to them in a way they could relate one day in medina a woman lost her child and back in the day they didn't have lost and found they didn't have missing persons department they didn't have the police so the child is lost the child is lost they didn't have gps location either the child is gone and for days and weeks this mom is looking for her child and anybody who knows what their mother is like or any mother or any female or sister in the audience knows what is it like for a mother to lose her child even for 10 minutes a mother starts to panic but imagine days and weeks and one moment happened in madina where this woman found her child and when she found her child she began running to him and crying and sobbing and she grabbed her child and the prophet salallahu turned around and all of his companions were crying just watching the incident and he said to his companions you see this lady can you imagine her burning her child in a fire they said impossible he said to his companions more merciful to you than this mother to her child you see you knew allah was merciful but when he gave that example you understood it in a different way right this is how the prophet saw allah would introduce allah and emphasize who is allah to his companions now coming to this topic the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam says in hadith the creme de la creme of hadith the most one of the most authentic hadith allah has 99 names 100 minus 1. whoever internalizes them i will explain this later they are guaranteed paradise now this hadith with the this wording that i've given is one of the most is in the most authentic collections of hadith but there are other versions of this hadith there are other versions of this report there are weak meaning they are not strong in authenticity we cannot say that the prophet saw allah definitely said these words and these other versions of the hadith have a list of names of allah many of you have heard the nasheed the song you've all heard this nasheed and these 99 names are taken from these other versions of the hadith these are hadith all week according to many scholars including ibn hazm and all of these many of these scholars they consider this list of names to be weak so how did it get there how did it come in the hadith they say that this is this used to happen is that sometimes somebody will narrate a hadith a narrator a reporter he will say the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam said xyz and then he'll say something else from himself [Music] but the person listening thinks all of that is the hadith of the prophet they call this mudraj it's like imagine if i said to you the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam i said from the goodness of a person is islam is to keep their mind out of what is not their business and we keep our minds in so many people's business you see that extra line i added that's not the hadith that's from me but somebody could mistakenly write that as part of the hadith and pass it on that's a mistake and so this happened and so when you look at all of the narrations the 99 names that are written down or that are passed on by the these narrators they are conflicting they're different different many different versions and there are 20 or 30 odd names that are not in the quran and not in the sunnah in this list of names and so many scholars said that these 99 names are not from the hadith not from the statement of the prophet sallallahu alaihi and so what does that mean that means he told us allah has 99 names whoever internalizes them enters paradise and that's it we have to go look for these names just like he told us about laylatul he didn't tell us where is leila similarly many scholars understood it this way and of course many scholars have tried and derived from the quran what are these 99 names but first here's a question does this hadith mean allah only has exactly 99 names not 105 not 103 how many names does allah really have we'll ask all of you what do you think does allah have exactly 99 names or does he have more or less yes young man sorry more who thinks this is exactly how many names allah has don't be shy if anybody gives you eyes i will deal with them insha'allah share your opinion uncle says if the prophet says 99 99 we follow this one okay so many scholars when the scholars looked at this hadith they concluded some of them said what is our respected uncle is saying that allah has exactly 99 names not more not lest other scholars said no because some of the narrations that came have 103 105 names and when some scholars collected all the names of allah in the quran and so now they said oh this is more than 99. but also if i told you i have a hundred pounds does that mean i don't have a thousand pounds in another bank account right so it's not does not mean many majority of scholars have come to the conclusion allah subhanahu wa ta'ala doesn't have exactly 99 names he has more and the most clear evidence for this is the hadith in which the prophet sallallahu alaihi islam used to make dua to allah and he said oh allah i ask you with every name of yours names you have given yourself or names you have revealed in your scripture or names you have taught somebody in your creation or names which nobody knows and you have kept a secret hidden with yourself in the unseen that means there are some names of allah nobody will know it is with allah in the unseen and that is the clear evidence to state there are more names of allah perhaps but we don't know all of them however these 99 are the ones that will help us enter jannah these are the special 99. what does it mean whoever many translate this hadith to say whoever memorizes them enters jannah so if your child knows this he knows all the golden ticket vip ticket to paradise automatically that's not how it works recorded it he uses it to mean the word recording uses this word to mean your ability your actions and this is why many of the scholars said this is what it means it's not about memorizing his names this doesn't have any value it's about can you think of these names understand what they mean and act upon that understanding this is what will enter you into jannah so if you know allah will you cheat your neighbor in order to get some little bit of extra money if you know allah is will you register you and your wife on different addresses and lie to the government to get some job seekers allowance is what people do no you won't do that allah will provide you why do you need to cheat why do you need to steal so if you know allah will provide and you trust in his providence this is what will enter you into jannah not just memorizing the names now how do we deal with the names of allah how can we interact with them the names of allah the prophet salallahu alaihi wasallam somebody asked him if i'm dressed nicely i'm wearing louis vuitton and gucci and i'm wearing nice clothes branded clothes looking nice and smelling nice does this mean i'm proud and arrogant the prophet saw allah said no in allah allah is the most beautiful you have bull jamal he loves to see beauty this is the first thing when allah has a name he loves to see his creation trying to have some of that quality in their lives if allah is the most beautiful he loves to see people trying to be beautiful if allah is the most patient he loves to see you trying to be patient with your husband with your wife with your children when they irritate you and they annoy you you are patient allah loves to see that if allah is the most merciful he loves to see you being merciful to those who wrong you to those who hurt you to those who belittle you to forgive them to be merciful from them what does allah say in the quran forgive and forget wouldn't you like for allah to forgive you as well do to others as you would like allah to do to you so this is the first way we should learn from allah's names how to behave with others and how to be in this world the second thing allah tells us in the quran call upon me using my names and this is a skill and we can learn this skill and we will do this every lesson we are going to bring a dua of the prophet sallallahu alaihi from the quran where they use this name of allah to speak to him because they use it in the right way they use it in the correct way i'll give an example the prime minister the queen or the prime minister let's say the prime minister drives a car right so it's fair to say the prime minister is a driver right but if you want something from the prime minister you're making a request would you call him hey driver can you give me some you wouldn't right how would you call him your majesty your eminence sir madam you with respect so every name of allah subhana has a place and a time to speak to him with correct for example my mother i can call her mama i can call her ummi i can call her my beloved but usually i will not call her darling this is something that usually husbands will call their wives right there are certain things the husband would call his wife and certain things a child will call their mother so same person they have multiple names people know them by different names and so you choose the right name for the right situation when my mother is angry with me she does not say abu yusuf she says what are you doing full name the full name comes when i know she's angry with me i start to run yes so every name has the correct situation this is just when we give examples in our day-to-day life this is just for us to understand allah is beyond all of these human interactions to give him a gift that he has given nobody else he says you are the giver of gifts and you give gifts not according to how much is in your wallet you give gifts as much as you want allah give me please see when he wanted something from allah he used the correct name he got it if you use the correct names of allah it increases your chance of dual being accepted this is the second the first way is to when you learn the names of allah bring it into your life practically and number two when you learn the names of allah speak to him with them and use the right name in the right place in the right situation now before we enter the names of allah there are a few things we need to understand about allah's names the first what is the difference between a name of allah and a description of allah and action of allah for example if somebody drove drove a car just one time never again can i call them a driver no who's a driver what's a driver tell me he drives often very very very common he's always driving he or she is always driving so you call this person as a driver right so when allah has a name in arabic names means something constant something always there something permanent an action of allah is something it happens one-off or it happens occasionally for example allah says in the quran they plotted against the prophet sallallahu alaihi but allah was plotting against them but allah plotted against them this is a verb it happened in the it happened you will not call allah al-makir the plotter right it's an action of allah it's not necessarily his name he doesn't call himself as his this is his name this is one important thing to understand so the names of allah are things are descriptions that are permanently part of allah subhanahu ta'ala's description and another thing allah's names all of them have descriptions of allah inside them for example what's your name ali when i say this man is ali does it tell you anything about him do you know how tall is ali how short his ali what color is his skin what he just for you don't know anything about ali right it's just a name mexico mexico is just a name it doesn't tell you anything about mexico now i tell you tall man now you know something about ali this is the description short man intelligent man handsome now you know about ali these are descriptions allah's names are all descriptions of him so when i say it's the name of allah you can call allah just like i can call him ali but it also tells you something about him it tells you that he is ultimately merciful you can call allah as a name as samir the old hearing but it tells you something about him it describes him he can hear every single thing including the whispers in your mind and so every name of allah has a description inside it of allah yeah so this is something important to understand about the names of allah and there's another thing to import and understand about the names of allah allah says in the quran there is nothing like allah and he is the old hearing and the all seeing now for example when i tell you mercy sometimes a person can be merciful to another person to get some benefit from them maybe what's your name ankur sorry beautiful name maybe ali wants to marry uncle fazilichudda's daughter so he's very merciful to uncle he carries his shoes yes gives him a back massage uncle you are the most handsome uncle in the masjid this is rahma this is mercy but behind the mercy there is a motivation secret motivation yes if you are laughing don't worry inshallah your names will be next in the examples okay don't worry it's coming as well it's coming nobody will be left behind so this is mercy human beings show mercy but they never show mercy they don't show mercy in a perfect way allah's mercy is perfect allah doesn't need anything from you to show mercy allah doesn't want anything from you he has no motivation no agenda my father allah will be becoming why would allah punish you he has nothing to gain from you or to lose from you this is just one example allah when we say allah subhanahu ta'ala is the ultimately merciful you may know mercy but allah's mercy is something else and in these lessons we will talk about the differences when we say allah provides he doesn't provide like a father provides for his family his provision is different how is it different we'll explain and like this for every name of allah so you know he is not like you and he is not like other people and many people they leave islam they forget allah they become angry with allah because they feel like allah they begin to dislike allah subhanahu wa because something bad happened in their life because they misunderstand allah when somebody does something wrong in your life it's because he hates you right or he dislikes you he's angry with you if you come to my car that's parked outside and you slash my tires it means you like me you're my best friend no i mean you dislike me you don't like me you don't want me to drive home you came when you slashed my tires but when allah subhanahu ta'ala gives us difficulty in life is it because he dislikes us well we are the builder but some people we feel this way we lose a child we lose a parent we lose a job something bad happens to us we feel angry with allah subhanahu wa tala because we don't understand allah is different to humans he doesn't give us difficulty because he dislikes us he gives us difficulty because he loves us if only we understood him it would change our life and so these sessions inshaallah they will change your life because you will begin to understand really allah who he is and with these introductions so he said allah is not like anybody we said the difference between allah's name and allah's description and allah's action and we talked about the importance of knowing allah and that it is the very purpose we exist is to know who he is and it is the greatest thing we can ever know now let us go to the first name the first name of allah that we will discuss and that is the name allah who allah he is allah what does allah mean the arab linguists they had a debate because in arabic names they come from root letters like when you go to the gold shop you see a ring you see a necklace and what else what other jewelry you see earrings rings for you but when you ask what is the price of this what's the main way for someone to know the value of this is the gold how many grams of gold in the end all of these things are different forms different shapes but in the end it comes back to gold like this in arabic there are words he's a beater madhub someone who was beaten so in arabic the way words work it's not like that in english you have root letters and many words come out of that semitic languages are like this hebrew persian urdu arabic they are like this they have root letters and many words are coming out of this think of it like gold and then you have rings and you have bracelets and you have so many different forms each one is beautiful in a different way but it has the same source now allah this is one type of word words they have a source they come from specific letters there's another type of word in arabic it's a proper name it's not taken from anything like for example manchester does manchester have some rootlet no that is the name of the city it wasn't taken from anything else that is a proper name of the city manchester mexico is the name of the city it wasn't derived from basra in iraq now basar means i does the city of basra have anything to do with the i no there's no relation there's no link it's just a name so this is what the scholars the arabic scholars of the arabic language they had a disagreement allah is that the proper name of allah his actual name or does it come from some root letters will describe what is it the majority of scholars went to the opinion that it is derived this name comes from al-ilah not the proper name of allah and they had a number of evidences for this but one interesting evidence that i can share with you think about it the quran is in arabic the arabs knew the name allah before the quran came the arab poets the jahili poets before islam before the prophet muhammad they were saying the word allah yes but before before before before didn't allah reveal books to other prophets what language did isa islam speak does anybody know yes aramaic very good a language called aramaic not arabic and in the oldest now we don't know really what was in the injeel that allah revealed to isa because it's been edited by many many many many editors but the best our best guess what was the way what was the word used to call allah in the aramaic scripture elohim elohim sounds very similar to al-ilah elohim other other words in the hebrew bible they use the word yahweh or similar comes from similar root al-ilah and so this is why many scholars they said that allah comes from the words and when the aramaic or the hebrew or the other people spoke to allah they didn't use the word allah they used elohim they used el-lai they used other words but it mean the same thing other scholars in the in islam they said no allah is his name and everybody called him allah and they have their evidences we we're not going to go into this because you'll all go to sleep but the majority of scholars including sibawaii uh many arabic languages they said now we come to this what does mean so we know what is allah al-ilah we know al in arabic means what the but what does mean this is now we have come to the gold we have put took taken the jewelry apart we've melted it we come to the gold the source what does mean yes sorry a god yes god you were scratching your head weren't you you didn't have your hand so it gets gone the one who's being worthy of worshipped now all the english translations will tell you illah means the one worthy of worship so allah means the one worthy are worshipped no no have the word is much more deeper than this the english translation killed it it destroyed it if i tell you mexico is a country that's it yeah it's not nothing interesting there just it's just it's a country allah scholar said it has two possible root letters this is the first possibility which means to be in awe of something you know when you say this is awesome to be amazed to be amazed by something so allah al-ilah he is the most amazing the one who makes your jaw drop when you know who he is he fills you with fear and with all and with respect this is the first meaning of then you have another meaning in arabic is used when somebody is afraid of something and they go and they hide yes when you're in war and you see the bullets and the bombs what you go quickly and you dig a tunnel and you hide you have just done you have just sought protection on the earth which means when the world pushes you and shoves you and squeezes you and troubles you you go looking for your source of peace and protection and contentment that's what is the one you go to when you are in trouble your sos line your 999 that is the one you go to for peace the one you go to for comfort the one you go to for contentment the one you go to for help for protection this is al-ilah how many of us in our lives when something bad happens to us the first thing we think of is our mother or we think of something to cool us down something to put us to sleep something to calm us when there's a storm difficult times problems in the marriage financial difficulties the petrol rates are going up the supermarket everything is more expensive where do you go the prophet saw allah said when the world got tough for him he would run away to salah that was his peace that was his sauna that was his steam that was his happiness salah cooled him that is what al-ilah the one you go to to find peace and cool when everything gets hot and difficult this is just one portion of the meaning of ilah there's a second some scholars said al-ilah comes from which is intense love the one who you love to such an extent it makes you forget everything else that is in arabic there are many words to use for love who can give me some words for love yes hope give me another one mahaba same thing go give me another one give me another one i'm waiting for one more stronger huh these words are only used by whom generally in arabic by the poets the ones writing the love stories and the love letters only they use these words those who are urdu speakers you know the word right people don't usually use it for mother and father or for allah they use it only for their beloved right in arabic is one of the highest forms of love it is one of the ways it's used is one is the love of a mother for her child and the love of a child for their mother and so al-ilah is the one whom we love and in the one when we love we find peace and we find calmness and everything else makes sense because of our love for him these are the two meanings of al-ilah the one who is most intensely loved the one who we go to in times of difficulty and struggle and pain the one who we seek protection and refuge and calm and peace from and the one is what some of you mentioned in the translation the one who is worshiped the one who we bow our heads down to the one whom when he says we do and we don't ask the one who we give our souls for we take a bullet for we sacrifice for we do anything for he is these are the three meanings of al-ilah and al-ilah they call it ibdal became allah and this is just one name of allah subhana and the scholars said that this is the greatest name of allah al-ismun it's called as differed because there is a statement of the prophet sallallahu alaihi sallam that allah has one name the greatest name of allah either durya bihista if he's called by this name he responds and if you ask him using this name he gives you it's called as different which name is this many scholars said this is like we don't know but we have to search using every name of allah to see which name is that one that golden name but many scholars said it is allah because all of the names come under this name and they describe this name and this is the ultimate description of allah and it is rated in hadith of the prophet sallallahu alaihi that the day of judgment will not come until there is not a person on this earth who says allah allah when there is on this earth nobody who says the name of allah the day of judgment is going to come so as long as you guys are here and the ladies and the gentlemen are here saying the name of allah inshaallah it's not time yet yes he's asking does it mean only the name of allah or all the names of allah who can tell me an ayah in the quran that responds to this question her father her father when we say the day of judgment will not come until there is nobody who says allah he is asking jamil but not the one i was looking for he's saying is it only the name of allah or what about other names of allah so if somebody's saying does that mean that their judgment will still come all of them are his names so many scholars deduce that this doesn't mean you have to say the word allah but any name of allah there's nobody on earth to remember him that is when the day of judgment will come and this is where our brother mentioned this would never punish them while they are seeking forgiveness of him the day of judgment will not come as long as we are remembering allah subhanahu wa and so this is one name of allah one meaning is the one one who is most intensely loved and one meaning is the one we go to in times of difficulty the one who protects us the one who shades us the one we find peace and contentment in and we said al-ilah is the one who only deserves worship and deserves servitude and deserves sada and zakah and all of our attention because people can make anything in their life is it not true that people love some things more than allah it's true it happens right what does allah say in the quran have you seen people who made their desires what does that mean whenever they difficult time painful time they go straight to their desire they fulfill their desires they go out for a munch makes them feel better yes they fulfill some of their more haram desires makes them feel better they don't turn to allah they love those things more than allah this is very dangerous and what about those as allah says in the quran they have equals to allah they love something else more than allah there are people who love wealth more than allah they love their job more than allah they love their spouse more than allah so if their wife or husband or their job or money tells them something they're willing to throw allah's laws in the bin in order to get a bit more of their wealth or a bit more happiness from their wife or a bit more recognition from society because allah doesn't matter that much to them so when you say that means there is no one you love more than allah there is no one who deserves your attention more than allah there is no one you turn to when push comes to shove and difficult times come more than allah there is no one you worship but allah when you cry you cry for allah when you give up you give up with your head on the ground when the world pushes you to your knees you raise your hands to allah this is what means nothing matters to you more than allah if somebody is giving you a job and it displeases allah you say no because allah is more beloved to you if a woman is offering herself or a man is offering himself and they slide into your direct messages and they are tempting you you throw them in the bin because you love allah subhanallah not physically just for disclaimers i do not advocate any violence towards anybody but you push them aside because allah subhanahu talaha this is what it means to say allah in allah and that is all we will cover today and inshallah in the coming weeks we will continue in our journey to get to know our creator muhammad so inshallah remember allah between salah and salah salaam you