The Good Person - On God-Consciousness (Taqwa)

Reflections from The Risale-Nur  a Qur'an commentary by Bediüzzaman Said Nursi

The Words - The Twenty-Third Word - First Point

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Transcript

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I seek refuge in Allah from Satan the accursed. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Last time I had mentioned that I would like us to reflect on the notion of what a good person looks like, how a good person is supposed to be. And so we started off talking about sincerity, ikhlas, but I already alluded to it when we think about the good person in Islam. Of course, we have the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, in mind. And in the Islamic tradition, he is known as al-insan al-kamil, the perfect human being. Now, that doesn't mean that the prophets were reform error or didn't do any mistakes. They did because they were fully human, but they didn't commit major sins, major sins that are identified in the tradition like idolatry or adultery or fornication or taking interest or usury. Those are clearly defined major sins. So the prophets are immune from or major sins. Nevertheless, we know from the prophetic narratives that sometimes in order to be good human role models for us as believers, Allah allows them to make mistakes, small mistakes where they show us how to seek God's repentance, how to repent, how to seek Allah's forgiveness, and how to return to Him and how to Erase a bad deed or mistake with a good one and how to display humility, which we will also talk, inshallah, in the future sessions. But when we think about the good person in Islam, and like I said, everybody aspires to be a good person, a good human being. We all come to this world and we want to be constantly good. Our quest for growth, our thirst for growth and learning never ceases. We all want to improve ourselves. We want to better ourselves. We want to be the best version of ourselves. And so that never stops. That is something that starts when we are entering this world as infants. We are in constant mode of growing and learning and improving ourselves. The quest for knowledge never ceases. So everybody has an understanding or this innate understanding, this intrinsic understanding of what a good person has to look like or is supposed to act like, what kind of moral conduct they need to display. Now, for us as Muslims, of course, we look up to the prophetic teachings, to the prophetic model, to the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. For us, he is... the ultimate role model in every aspect of our lives, in all human affairs. And that's why he is called a mercy to the world, to all communities, to everyone, to all creatures, to not just the world of humankind, but also the world of the supernatural being. So he is a mercy for all the worlds. That's why we look up to him in our quest to be a good person. So in these future reflections, I want to talk about some of the main characteristics when the Quran and the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, especially in this month of Rabi al-Awwal, where we are celebrating the birthday and honoring and remembering the Prophet more than ever, and thinking about his legacy. What does it mean to be a good person? And last time, I... I said that one of the number one characteristics that the Quran lifts up is sincerity, ikhlas. But while I was thinking through that, reflecting through that, I already connected it with the notion of taqwa. So the good person in Islam is only good when he has God-awareness. And taqwa is often translated as the fear of God, mindfulness of God. I'd rather think of taqwa, which the Quran always refers to as a main characteristic of a good person, is the one who is mindful of God, who has an awareness of God, who is conscious of their creator, who is ever mindful of their creator. and who also has this intense love for the Creator. That's all in that. When you are aware of the divine presence, when you are mindful that you are in constant presence of the divine, that will impact all your feelings and thoughts and actions. So number one characteristic, so I need to go back, and actually that should have been the main starter, In Islam, from a Muslim perspective, a good person, the good person is the one who has taqwa, who has consciousness of God, who is mindful of God, who is aware of the ultimate reality, who is always in reverence, living in reverence to God. Reverence meaning a deep sense of awe and wonder and love for Allah, reverence. So revering Allah in all their actions and feelings and thoughts. And that needs to be, that informs all their conduct. So the good person has taqwa. Now, why is that so important? Because taqwa, faith in God, being aware of a creator, connects us to Allah. the source of being. Now imagine, this is something, especially consciousness, this is something where, especially when it comes to science, a lot of scientists say that we cannot explain the mystery of consciousness. How is it that a human being is conscious of themselves? And I've talked about this in the past, so imagine you have a piece of play-doh or a piece of slime. My children love to play with a putty and slime and play-doh. But there is this lifeless, unconscious matter, like a piece of lifeless, unconscious substance. Like the Quran says, we were made out of a lump of flesh. There's nothing. It's just It's just lifeless matter. We were dead. And then all of a sudden, Allah breathes into it. The spirit and the human being becomes a conscious being. Glory be to God. Allahu Akbar. Allah is the greatest. How can there be out of nothing, out of dead peace and lump of flesh, like the Quran says, you were a piece of And then all of a sudden, Allah breathes into us, gives us consciousness. And the highest level of consciousness is being aware, being conscious of your creator. Now, you can exist, but that doesn't necessarily mean you are alive. That doesn't mean that I'm really living. Being alive means that I'm conscious of my creator. Who has given me consciousness? And just to elaborate a little bit more, what does it mean to have consciousness? Consciousness means that there is this center in our human reality that the power of choice, there's free will. We can choose. So it's a center of volition, what it's called volition, will. We have will. We can decide things. We can make choices, good or bad. So volition, the power of volition rests in consciousness. Then the power of memory, the power of imagination, the power of dreaming, the power of fantasizing, the power of being innovative, and the power of feeling, of having emotions, all of this resides in our sense of consciousness, the greatest gift. Now, in this section, it alludes to the fact, I mean, it speaks to why consciousness of having iman and awareness of a creator is so important and makes a human being truly a good human being. The good person is only good if they are connected, related, or live in a relationship, in a constant relationship with the source of consciousness, who is Allah, who is the one God, ultimate reality. Now, again, imagine peace of flesh, like the Quran says, always brings us back to the creation story. The story of our beginning is that we were lifeless matter. Any mother who has ever conceived a child will witness a test and testifies that there is first nothing, lifeless matter in your body. And all of a sudden, this life starts to evolve, starts to have consciousness, a sense of self, a sense of personhood, a sense of identity. I mean, we are not really thinking, pondering about these things because we are living in this climate or in a system or in this universe that makes everything ordinary. This is not ordinary. That's why Allah points always to the first creation. Don't you think about the fact that you were dead? You were dead flesh. How is this happening that out of nothing Allah creates us? everything, consciousness, awareness, right? So being the good person who is aware of their creator, of their Lord, of their sustainer, is the one who's truly good. Let me give you an example that always is mentioned in the Risaleh before I read this short portion here. Now, imagine you stand in front of this amazing piece of art. like a great piece of artistry, a picture that a famous artist has painted. And as somebody who is aware of art, very skilled in art, you were trained in art school, at art school, and you're very gifted, and you know the intricacies and the nuances of art. You look at that amazing picture, that piece of art, you detect all the nuances, you see all these amazing arrangements, of the colors, of the beautiful composition and all of that. And behind you is the artist. Behind you is the artist who made that amazing composition, that piece of art, who is showcasing his skills and abilities, his artistry, his design, his ability to plan and imagine and put this amazing piece of art together. displaying his wisdom and his creativity, his innovation. And then you are in awe of this picture, of this piece of art. And then you turn around to the artist and then tell him, isn't it amazing, this outstanding piece, unique, amazing composition, and how all these colors came together, how these brushes and paints came together to bring this art into existence. You look at the artist and the artist is just simply left speechless. Because what you didn't understand, or you're basically implying, saying that this amazing piece of art came together through these causes, through these brushes and paints and these different cans of colors, and you look into the face of the artist who is so evident, who is so present, who is observing you, and you do not acknowledge his art, his creativity, his skills, his amazing faculties, his imagination, his planning, his wisdom, his beauty, his aesthetical skills, potential, and you look into his face and say, all these brushes, all these paints, all these colors, they came together and they made this amazing piece of art. That is how it feels when we are not living in awareness of Allah. When we do not have taqwa, when we do not acknowledge his presence, his art, his artistry, his creativity, his wisdom, his planning, his power, His presence, then what does it basically come to? We are committing the greatest crime, which is denial and kufr and covering up the truth, concealing the artist, this amazing extraordinary artist, and basically committing a crime against God, which is the greatest injustice. The greatest injustice to God is is to look at all his art, all his skill. This world is an amazing piece of art. It's an exhibit with endless meanings and wisdom and beauty and aesthetics. Everybody is in awe. Everybody testifies to it constantly, but then looks around and says, it all came into being randomly, coincidentally, through the random communication, collaboration, or ordination of causes and nature, or Mother Nature has created it. That is how kufr then becomes this endless crime against not only God, not only the Creator, who has put this on display for you to be aware of Him and to be in a relationship with Him. But because of a lack of consciousness of Him, we are then committing the crime of kufr, the crime of unbelief. And kufr means to conceal the truth. The truth is obvious, evident. Allah is al-Zahir. He's so evident, obvious to anybody who seeks Him. But consciously to deny Him, to look at the piece of art, which is life in all its facets and aspects, and then to deny Him, that is the greatest crime. the greatest injustice that can be perpetrated. That's why the human being will be held accountable. If we are not living in awareness, in consciousness of God, then we have basically seized our purpose. So here in the 23rd word, and the goal of these sessions is not to do long readings, okay? I'll just give you nuggets of wisdom so that you then hopefully take this and then dive further. But I take a lot here because this is basically coming down to number one characteristic of a good person is that they cultivate constant deep awareness of the greatest artist, the greatest designer, the greatest creator. That's why the Quran is full of pointing us to the cosmological book, which is the universe. Don't they see? Don't they reflect? Don't they witness? How can they assign all that beauty, that wisdom, that fine-tuning that even scientists are now saying is completely impossible to assign to random causes because there is some mathematical genius who operates in such detail? in such accuracy, in such fine measurement that it's impossible to say that this all came into being randomly. This is how we act when we stand in front of this amazing piece of art and then turn around, look at the face of the artist and then say, everything just came into being randomly. Not being aware of his presence. I'm in front of you. How can you not see me? How can you not see that you are a piece of art and how can you witness and testify to the extraordinary nature of this universe and still claim that it came into being randomly or because of causes who millions of times through some kind of evolutionary process came into existence. That's why here in the 23rd word, when it interprets the verse of Surah At-Tin, and Allah says, Indeed, we have created the human being on the most excellent of patterns. Indeed, we have created the human being on the most excellent patterns. Right? And then send him down to the lowest of the low, except those who believe and do good deeds. So Allah has created us in the best fashion, in the original, the most excellent, the most beautiful of ways. Indeed, we have created the human being in the most beautiful, the most excellent patterns. I'm a Taqweem. I'm the best beautiful display of Allah's art. There is no other creature No other being on this planet who is as conscious as I am, who has more willpower than I am, who has more constructive potential than I am, who has an imaginary power, who has a power of dreaming and creating and being innovative. I'm in awe of my fellow human being, says Ustad Bediüzzaman. Yes, we should be in awe of ourselves. and about the potential. I mean, look around of what human beings are capable of doing in the best way, but also they can lower themselves to the lowest of low. Allah has given us the greatest gift, which is the freedom of choice, free will, which is a great gift, but it's also a great responsibility. It's a trust that He shared His beautiful attributes and qualities with us. But we are fully responsible of how we are using them. We can use them in the most constructive and beautiful way. We can create and innovate and heal and invent amazing things. We can write the greatest poetry, the greatest odes and poems and litanies and supplications and books, and they are out there. But we can also write the most destructive chapters of human history. We can also commit the greatest atrocities. No other being can do that. We have that dual potential. So we are only beautiful When we are the ones who believe in Allah, who affirm existence in Him, who have taqwa, like I said, I translated into God consciousness, mindfulness of God, love of God, living in the constant presence of God, living in reverence to God. loving him so much that you want to please him in every aspect of your life. And that translates to that love overflows, that consciousness overflows, and then translates into good deeds. You can't be responding to Allah other than good deeds because you've now realized through that consciousness, through that greatest gift of being aware of what's going on, of who you are, And you look at yourself and think, Allahu Akbar, God is the greatest. He equipped me, endowed me with so many amazing skills, abilities, such amazing potential. I want to live up to that. I want to rise higher and higher and higher. I want to be the best version of myself. Ya Allah, O my Lord, allow me to realize my best potential. Make me, guide me, hold my hand. Let me speak truthfully. Let me think and feel beautifully. And thoughts are very important because everything starts first with awareness. Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Who's my creator? And like we've always read in these quotes, Beware of your thoughts. Beware of your feelings. They can become thoughts. Beware of your thoughts. They become actions. So everything is first premeditated. Even the false ideologies or evil ideologies out in the world and throughout human history, first they start out as a thought, as a meditation. Destructive? Yes. and then carries out into actions. They are then put into action. Very scary, frightening. But because of this dunya as a place of test and examination and allowing good and evil to clash and compete, we are deciding where we are, what we are thinking, what we are feeling. Are we feeling good thoughts? Are we feeling positive, beautiful feelings? And then we also, of course, weigh them in the framework of God's guidance, revelation, and the prophetic teachings. Some of my feelings might not be pleasing to Allah. Some of my feelings and emotions might not be in the realm of the sunnah and the prophetic example. But I can only know that if I sincerely seek Allah's guidance. Ya Allah, is this feeling, is this feeling, this emotion, or this thought, is this something that is beneficial, helpful? Is this bringing me closer to you? Then help me to put it into action. If it's distancing me from you, Ya Allah, then free me from it. So that kind of Deep God consciousness said, taqwa goes so deep that wherever you are, even in your tiny dark corner, you're aware of Allah's presence. Allah says in the Quran, he is a third when two people meet. He is there, he's listening. And that adds quality to our lives. Not fear, not a destructive or harmful fear, but a healthy fear. A fear of losing his love. Because when he is present with you, if he is your closest intimate, If you have that kind of strong taqwa, strong God consciousness, you will always be thinking of him that he is reading your secret thoughts. Like Allah says, I know your secret thoughts. I know what's in your chest. I know what's going on in your heart. How beautiful. I was reading this sacred narration, this hadith Qudsi, where Allah says, I am according to the thinking of my servant. If he thinks of me, I will remember him. I mean, who on earth, when you are sending out a thought about them, let's say you are in your bed at 3 a.m., you're thinking of someone. Do they know that you're thinking of them? They probably don't, right? Because no human being will ever know that at 3 a.m., a deep, dark night, that you're thinking of them, and then they respond with a thought back. But look at Allah's presence. When you are living in constant taqwa, in remembrance of Him, glorifying Him, loving Him, when you're living in consciousness of Him, you think of Him, and He'll say, I will remember you too. In my own presence, I will remember you. I respond to your thought. Like who on earth is capable of doing that? SubhanAllah, but we want somebody to listen to us. We want somebody to follow our secret thoughts, our deep feelings, emotions. Sometimes we are not able to make sense of them. But this is how beautiful God awareness is. You are alone, but you will never feel lonely. Because the moment you think of Allah, If you remember me, I will remember you. I mean, how honorable is that? How much more worth and value can someone achieve? That is how important awareness is. Awareness. Allah says in another hadith, Qudsi, if a servant has a bad thought, and they do not put it into action, Allah will reward them. How generous is our Lord. How loving and caring and compassionate is He. Because this realization that everything starts out with a thought, even if it's a bad thought and you don't put it into action, will be rewarded. This is how generous Allah is. This is how compassionate and giving He is. But if we have a good thought and we put it into action, Allah also rewards it 100 times more. Because doing good is so much harder. You have to overcome your nafs, your own lower ego. You have to maybe overcome societal pressures, peer pressures. You have to overcome the whispers of the shaitan, of satan, of the devil. You have to follow rules and regulations. There's morality, there's a conduct. It's always harder to do good. That's why Allah in His generosity, even though He doesn't have to, rewards us even for the things that we don't, evil thoughts that we are not putting into action, and rewards us beyond measure for things that we do that He doesn't have to even reward in such degree. So I want us to understand how important God consciousness is, taqwa. Number one reason that we can call a good person a good person is when they have faith in Allah. Taqwa goes deeper. And living in constant divine presence, even if I'm alone, I know that Allah is in my presence, watching me, observing me, looking at me, guarding me, recording my thoughts. elevates the quality of my life. It doesn't threaten me, it elevates me. It allows me to live a life with beauty and grace and dignity, the way I stand and sit. That's why the Quran says, when they are sitting and sleeping on their sides, when they are standing, they are in constant remembrance of their Lord. How beautiful is that, that kind of holistic, that kind of wholesome being of a Muslim. So to be a good person, is to acknowledge your creator, the giver of the gifts, the giver of your talents, the creator of this art and beauty that you are witnessing and enjoying. To acknowledge him, that is so important. We've talked about this so many times. Imagine you are invited to this banquet, to this feast, five stars feast, this amazing, generous host. You're sitting at the table. There's everything. All the lights you can imagine. You enjoy. You savor everything. You're like overcome by all these delicacies and blessings. And then you leave without even expressing your gratitude to the host. You do not even say thank you. The host is not in need of our acknowledgement. Our creator is not in need of our gratitude, but it is such an immoral, not to say inhumane, but immoral and unethical act to not pay or express gratitude to the one who has invited you to this feast, to this banquet, not out of your own deserving, but really freely, generously. That I'm able in this world and can enjoy this amazing landscape, this extraordinary tree, the beauty of the leaves and the fall season. That I'm invited to this amazing exhibit of this beautiful creation and I get to witness, free, not something of my own making, but it's because of His generosity. And if I cannot turn around to the host and say, I'm so grateful that you invited me, you honored me to be at this table, to have a seat at your honorable banquet, to be in your audience, it gives me honor and dignity and value. Thank you for valuing me. Thank you for honoring me. I am in awe. I'm speechless. How can I respond to you? How can I even express my gratitude? That's why ingratitude goes along with kufr. It goes along with unbelief and concealing the truth. Who has invited you in this palace? Who has invited you in this amazing exhibit that we call the cosmos? And you get to witness a little bit. We are not even conscious of the 100% of things that are going on. But even the little bit of awareness of Allah's beauty and art showers us with so much peace and joy. joy and gives you such comfort, gives you such illumination and ease into your heart, right? Like we all witness it every day, now walking through the fall season and everybody is in awe. Everybody is in awe and wonder of the one who's truly the artist. So that's why the seeds of saying, masha'Allah, Allah has willed and created it to say, SubhanAllah, glory be to my Lord. How beautiful. There is no deficiency, no imperfection, no absence, no mistake, no flaw. And then to glorify him and to say, Allahu Akbar, Ya Allah, you are the greatest. There is nobody, nobody like you. And like the Quran says, they walk on the earth and then they say, Oh, our Lord, you have not created this in vain. You are glorified. You are free from any deficiency. Save us from the hellfire. Amen. So this is our response to this amazing, extraordinary exhibit that we are in. And when we are living in awareness of Allah, can we ever feel extreme loneliness? Can we ever feel deprived? Can we ever feel despair? Can we ever feel hopeless? So this is what's going on in this section. It's saying, let me just read this first point here, first chapter. We shall explain in five points only five of the virtues of belief out of thousands. So Iman and Taqwa, basically go hand in hand. Iman flows out from the awareness of a creator, looking everything and realizing this is not random. Coming into a room and seeing an amazing cake and saying, well, eggs, flour, water, sugar magically came together over five millions of years and then created this amazing, delicious cake is completely impossible. But to say, looking at the cake and say, who? Who on earth? Who is the artist? Who is the baker? Who is the most generous maker? Who measured? Who planned? Who prepared? Who invited me? That is then flows out of awareness from a creator, God consciousness, and then seeking out and then believing in the creator. Believing, iman flows out of that. Awareness, finally arriving at the conclusion, this cannot be random. Causes cannot create such an amazing, extraordinary cake that flatters all my senses, that caters to all my needs, my desires and passions. We come into this world and we realize somebody has prepared it for us. It's the only inhabitable planet in the universe. The air we breathe, fresh, clean, amazing. Refreshing, rejuvenating, re-energizing the water that we enjoy. Clean, pure. The earth that we plant and use, the soil, perfect condition. Perfectly prepared for us, for our use with minerals and vitamins. Not too muddy, not too hard, not too dry. Who, who, who has prepared all of this? That is the question that people do not ponder. It's not something that people, because it is the subtle atheism all around us. Nobody mentions God, completely marginalized that he's not in the books, he's not in the media, he's not out in the conversation, he's not in the communities, he's not at the workplace. And when we are swimming in those waters, we get affected. We don't reflect, we don't think, we are not aware. Or we are aware in a shallow way, and it doesn't translate into deep actions. We can be Muslim outwardly, but because of the lack of depth in the relationship with Allah, we can still commit atrocities. There are Muslims who do horrible things. We are all prone to do evil things. There are reflections of that in our own lives. We know how to speak, yet we insist in hurting, or we insist on harming, or destroying. So we all have glimpses of that evil potential, that destructive nature in our nefs. Nobody can say, I'm immune from wrongdoing. No, that's why Allah says we are all prone to wrongdoing. But yet, alhamdulillah, thanks be to God, he opened always the door for repentance, for seeking forgiveness, for returning to him. Everybody knows the story of the man who killed 99 people and then was seeking God's forgiveness. And then the narration goes that, you know, he kills another person because the person tells him that God will not forgive him. So then it makes it 100. But at the end, God forgives him. Why? I mean, imagine none of us, alhamdulillah, grateful. None of us killed 99 people. But because of the acknowledgement, because what I mentioned earlier, Allah says, I am according to the thinking of my servant. If I think and I'm aware of Allah as the most forgiving, that no sin is greater than his mercy, compassion and forgiveness, Allah will forgive me. So my awareness of him, how I think of him, my good assumption about him, that awareness transforms all my sins, all my wrongdoings of the past, even if they might be as cruel and evil as killing 99 people. The door of hope and mercy and forgiveness is wide open. And Allah forgives. That's how important it is for him that we acknowledge every day our deficiency, our wrongdoings, our harms. We constantly seek istighfar. Ya Allah, forgive me. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, blessings be upon him, every day, more than 70 times, He sought Allah's forgiveness. And it's in this humility, in this awareness, when we declare, Ya Allah, O my Lord, I am so deficient. There's nothing I can do that will ever, ever repay the blessings, endless blessings you have showered me with. None of my worship, none of my prayers and good actions will ever be deserving of you. And that acknowledgement, that awareness, that is something that Allah is so pleased with. That is something that He so loves, the humility and the decency and the acknowledgement of our vulnerability. And in that, displaying His greatness, saying, Ya Allah, I am a nothing, but You are great. I am sinful, but You are the one who loves those who repent and turn to You. Allah, accept my repentance. I seek your forgiveness. And then Allah says in the Quran, he will transform their bad deeds, their sayyiat, into asanat. And we see that in the lives of the sahaba, the most beautiful companions. You see somebody like Omar radiallahu anhu, who says, there are two things that I cry when I think of the age of ignorance, the jahiliyyah. One thing is cry and laugh, two things. And he says, we would make idols out of halwa, and we would, out of sweet flour and sugar, like a sweet dish, we would make idols out of halwa, and if we would get hungry, we would eat them. And the one thing that I cry about the age of ignorance, before Islam, blessed me is, I buried my baby girl alive. This is Ummah, one of the greatest companions, one of the rightly guided caliphs, one of the leaders of the Ummah. And Allah elevates such a person. What an amazing transformation. What a change in human nature. What an honorable human being. Because of his acknowledgement and understanding who Allah was, that he sought his forgiveness, he sought repentance, and Allah forgave him and honored him and actually made him one of the greatest leaders of the Muslim community, a star to follow. So we see how important taqwa is for a good person. It's constantly cultivating deeper and deeper and stronger consciousness of Allah, mindfulness of Allah, reverence for Allah, so much that it goes, enters your thoughts and feelings. When we catch ourselves having a hurtful, harmful, destructive thought or feeling to say, Ya Allah, I seek your forgiveness. This is so inappropriate. You are seeing this. I should not have this lot. Forgive me and then collect yourself and then come back to Allah. That's how beautiful our tradition is, showing us how to be the best human being. Which flows out from belief in Allah, a connection, like it says here. In the first point, let me read this. But it's all related to the section. All what I've said now is basically all, I received all this inspiration, all this knowledge from the Risale-i Nur. Nothing what I've said so far is from me. It's from the Quranic treasure of this amazing tafsir that taught me the depth of the Quran. So this is what really makes the Risale-i Nur a jewel because it really gives you depth of the Quranic ocean. It's not new, but it gives you a deeper understanding of how to understand taqwa, how to understand iman, how to be in a relationship with Allah. Then you can live anywhere. You can live anywhere and you'll be in constant presence of Allah. Nothing will change. Nothing will shatter your relationship. So it says here, through the light of belief, through the light of iman, man rises to the highest of the high. and acquires a value worthy of paradise. And through the darkness of unbelief, through the darkness of kufr, he descends to the lowest of the low and falls to a position fit for hell. For belief, iman connects man to the all-glorious maker. It is a relation, it is a relationship. So when we have iman, when we have belief, when we have aqwa, constant connection with Allah, when he's in every aspect of our human life, we are in the sacred relationship. He's our most intimate companion. He's our welly, our best friend. And we are always rising up to the highest of the high. We are able to forgive people that we never thought that we will be able to forgive. Right? That's how beautiful Allah makes a person of faith. That's why we see in the life of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, that we are able to show forgiveness to people that harmed us in such a great manner, but because we want to be close to Allah, we are able to forgive. That's what we see in the life of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, who forgave the greatest atrocities. Because his only goal was to bring people closer to God. He was not after power. He was not after conquering lands. He was not after conquering victory, having victory. What was he after? His highest goal, his highest secret goal was to remember Allah and help others remember him too, to bring them close to Allah. It was not about gaining privilege in this dunya or power in this dunya or glory. being victorious and conquering lands. No, he didn't see none of this he saw. So what's our priority? My highest goal in this world is to live in remembrance of Allah, to remember him in all of my affairs, all of my practices, all of my feelings, to be an honorable servant of Allah, to rise up to the Ahsan al-Taqreem, and to help others remember Allah too, to help others bring them closer to Allah. That's why I can forgive them. That's why I hope they will forgive me because if this person, by my forgiveness or by my help, comes closer to Allah, then my life had meaning. Because we are concerned with eternal happiness, trying to help people to get to that eternal happiness, not to a dunya, worldly, comfortable life. Not about seeking power and being influential, have prestige or have some career or money, wealth. Those are nothing. Allah does not value those. But if through me or through you, somebody comes closer to God, somebody remembers God more, Then our life had meaning. That's how this is a spiritual elevation. That's how then we become honored. But darkness of kufr, cutting ourselves off from Allah, makes us fall into darkness and low. Then our life is just, you know, relates to the worldly realm, is only concerned with selfish interests. We are not expanding. Right? So, But somebody who has constant taqwa is always in the state of gratitude. Even if something is missing or something is taken, they will always be in the state of gratitude and love for God. Sometimes you see on these cars, you know, people displaying their relationship with a certain university, right? A graduate of this university and graduate of this. Why? because they want to show they have credibility. They have a reputation. They're a graduate of the school. It's a school, a university, an academic institution that has prestige, that has reputation, that has credibility. It shows that you are an intellectually informed human being. It's an elite place. But does this, that's not to devalue academic education, but it is a desire to, of people to relate to something and acquire value and worth, to say to others, I have worth. But when you look at the prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, you look at his life and he was asked, do you want to be a king prophet or a servant prophet? What was his response? I want to be, I desire to be a servant prophet because as long as I'm in relation with Allah, I have value, I have honor, I have worth, I have dignity. I am honored human being. That's enough for me as a relationship. And then I do not seek out or chase worldly aspirations. You can be ambitious in your world as long as the goal is to please Allah. Everything is permissible. It says nothing wrong with being ambitious in this world or acquiring certain things. but they are not the goal. The end goal is through these means to come closer to Allah. Then may Allah grant success to those who seek that. If the goal through work, through money, through wealth, through children, through family, through a mansion is to come closer to Allah, to use it for Allah's purposes, for a holy cause, a sacred cause, then we are in relationship with Allah. then it's beautiful to have it. It's a blessing. But it's not the end goal. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam's end goal was not to have a comfortable life, to be wealthy, to have mansions, to acquire power, privilege. Those are things that are low. His goal was to make other people come closer to Allah, acknowledge his existence. That's the most honorable goal for us. But we don't understand that kind of deep, sacred cause. Because we are so dunya-focused that the world pushes us to always have worldly ambitions. But the person who lives in a relationship with God, what is it that God values? God values that you bring others closer to Him and make them mindful of Him and ask healthy questions. Raise healthy questions. And to engage people in this type of thinking and hopefully make them also more mindful. So to conclude, thus man acquires value by virtue of the divine art and inscriptions of the dominical names which become apparent in him through belief. Through Iman, all these amazing pieces of divine art in you come to shine. So for example, you have a potential to be patient. to be kind, to be generous, to be forgiving, to be loving, to be compassionate. How does this come into full potential? Through iman, through taqwa. Like we become this elevated human being, this ahsan al-taqweem, that through God consciousness rises up high, is able to forgive because why? We want that person also come closer to Allah. We want them, to remember Allah, to be hopeful. That's why we are able to forgive. We want people to remember Allah. That's why we are generous with our time. We are giving, we are hospitable. We are kind, we are charitable. We want to uplift the lives of others. That's why we give. We are not in competition with others, unhealthy competition, because we believe that our risk, our provision is guaranteed in this world. And so we do not deny others to have those kind of worldly achievements as well. So when we are people who have God consciousness, when we are people who have taqwa, when we live with true, sincere, authentic iman, holistic iman, that translates into all our human actions. Our feelings and thoughts, our God awareness translates into deep action. When I use my water, Even if nobody sees me, I'm mindful that Allah is watching and he doesn't love wastefulness. So I become frugal person, frugality. I do not become wasteful in terms of my food because I want to be grateful. And so I try to be content and acknowledge Allah's blessings and try to live more in harmony with the creation, try to respect their rights and desires. their God-given dignity. So then I become such an elevated human being that translates into all of my actions. The way I use my water, the way I use my light, the way I connect with people, the way I'm an ethical, moral worker at my workplace, that all comes to shine through Iman, through God-awareness. Now, somebody will say, well, A people who has no faith can also be a moral person. Yes and no. They can be a good person, but at the same time, they do not acknowledge the giver of the God-given gifts, the skills, the intellect, the brain, the emotions, their faculties. They didn't push a button for that to come into existence. Somebody has given those abilities and faculties and skills. Somebody has given me the intellect and consciousness and knowledge to do these things. So even if somebody says, well, I'm not a religious person, but I'm still a good person. Well, from this definition, because you do not acknowledge the creator, you do not acknowledge the giver, you do not credit the resource, it's unethical. Even in worldly realms, We all know from academic work, if you do not credit an author's thought, it's academic dishonesty. It's actually punishable in worldly courts because you did not credit the thought. When you do not credit the thought or the idea of another person, of that scholar, it's called plagiarism. So in Islam, from an Islamic perspective, the Quran says, acknowledge, acknowledge the source of beauty, of generosity, of goodness, and give proper credit where credit is due. If not, we are like this person who I mentioned in the beginning, who turns around, looks at the artist, but then credits other causes as the source of goodness and perfection and beauty. That's a huge crime. And from a Quranic perspective, Somebody who does not acknowledge their creator, who created them out of nothing, gave them life, gave them blessings, gave them love and community and family, care, protection, food, endless blessings, you name it, is absolutely immoral, is not a good person because they failed to acknowledge the one who is the source of all goodness and wisdom and beauty. So unbelief, kufr, like I said, severs the relationship, cuts off the relationship, like I said. And due to that severance, the dominical art is concealed. You do not acknowledge who has given you that amazing human nature so you're able to perform these amazing skills and art and work. His value then is only in respect to the matter of his physical being. And since this matter has only... a transitory, passing, temporary animal life, its value is virtually nothing. We shall explain this mystery by means of a comparison. So I'll stop here and then inshallah we will continue God willing. But those are my thoughts. Number one, basic foundation for a good person to have. Number one characteristic that the Quran highlights over and over and over is taqwa, awareness. God awareness, mindfulness of God, consciousness of God, reverence of God, and that then translates into actions.