 One of the beautiful things in the dunya is the concept of love. And human being, we have the capability of falling in love. And when you love something or when you love someone, there's a feeling inside of you that only you can describe it. And most of the time we fall short and we are unable to describe the feeling of love. Because according to Ibn Arabi he said, you can't define love is beyond definition. So how do we know if someone else loves us? Because we don't have access to those feelings. But one of the really interesting thing that one of the great saints of the Persia, Abayyazid, Abayyazid al-Bustami who was born in about 138 of Hijrah. In the second century after the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he said something very interesting. He said, they ask him a question. They said, how do we know if Allah loves us? So how do we know if Allah loves us? There's a difference between us loving Allah and Allah loving us. Because he said, you hubbuhum wa you hubbuna. He said this verse, Allah said, Allah loves them and then they love Allah. So that which comes first is more important because our love, no matter how much we love Allah, is still finite. We're limited with our love. Allah has created us with limitation. We're not infinite. There's nothing infinite except Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala and His power, right? The things of this dunya, they're all finite. But when Allah loves is with His infinite love and anything you put over infinity in mathematics, it cancels out. It cancels out. So our love cancels out if Allah loves us. So they ask him, how do we know if Allah loves us? How does a person, how do we know if Allah loves that person? He said, the one that Allah loves by Zid al-Bustami, rahmatullah alaih, the one that Allah loves, they have four characteristics and those people who want to be beloved by Allah, these are beautiful advice from a saint of the second century to become amongst those that Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala love. The first one he said, that they have generosity like the river. It's really struck me as the metaphor that he used for generosity and river, generosity like the river. One of the thing about the river is always there. You can go to the river and get the water. You know what is it at? But the second thing is that it goes to places. Not only you can go to it, but it also goes. It keeps going and gives water whatever is needed, right? But the last and the most fascinating thing for me is that a river endures itself at every ripple. It's always new. It's always fresh. And a generous person is not that you are generous once in your lifetime, that you are generous in Ramadan. You should be more generous in Ramadan, but you are generous all the time like the river. That if somebody comes and asks for it, you help them out. But you also seek those people who need help. It is always new. You're always in search of being the generous person because the hand that gives is better than the hand that takes, right? The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam was the most generous of the human being. One day he was in a mosque and he prayed, and then he run from the mosque and went to the house in a hurry. The Sahaba were shocked, the Prophet was run to the mosque, and then in a hasty he came back and said, O Rasulullah, what was that? He said, someone give me a piece of gold to distribute. Someone give me a piece of gold to distribute. I don't like to keep it overnight at my house. I want to distribute and give it out. Generosity. Because now, oh, I'm going to do that tomorrow. No, I'm going to do it today. Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. But you have to understand that when you give out, you don't give from your pocket. And this is why the Quran is important, that we have a relationship with the Quran that is real. At the beginning of the Quran, Alif, La Mim, That is the book of Al-Araib in the guidance of the righteous. Those who believe in Allah after Allah reveals, the huduf al-Muqata, these letters that nobody knows, only Allah knows the meaning of Alif, La Mim. Right? And then he says, this is a book of guidance. In it, there is no doubt. For who? Those who believe in unseen, the heavenly, and those who establish prayer on the earth. And then, what does he say? And those who spend from what we have given them. So in reality, it's all Allah's dominion. Tabarak alladhi bi yadihi al-mulk, wa huwa ala kulli shay'in qadir. The mulk, everything belongs to Allah. We're all, we're all foqara. We have nothing. Everything is from Allah and we spend back on the way of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So this generosity, there are people on the yawm al qiyamah that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in a hadith, he said, as al-sakha wa shajaratun asulaha fi l-jannah wa aqsanu ha mutadeliyatun fi dunya fa man ta'allu agha bi ghusnin minha madduhu ilal jannah. That generosity is a tree that is roots are in paradise and its branches extend over the earth and whoever clings on to the branches bi ghusnin minha but to the branches of this tree, the tree of generosity will pull them into paradise. Just the fact that you're a person of generosity, you can buy your ticket to paradise. Just the fact that you're a person of generosity. This is a virtue that in every civilization it's praised. From the Romans to the Greeks to the Persian to the Chinese, every culture, every civilization praise people of generosity. It's a virtue, it's a beautiful virtue that goes under the moral virtue of shaja'a. As you all might know, all of virtues are in four. You have shaja'a, bravery, you have justice, adhala, you have temperance, effa, and you have wisdom, haikmah. All of virtue goes under those four categories. It is not a fifth category. Aristotle and his Nukumakian ethics, he's one of the first people to kind of formulate that. And then Imam Ghazali, Farabi, all of the people from our tradition, the scholars of our tradition. Every moral virtue goes under one of those four categories. So where does shaja'a go, where does generosity go under? It goes under shaja'a, bravery. Because you have to be brave to give out. A coward is not gonna be a generous person. You have to be brave to give out. And also in our tradition, you have to have tawakku. You have to have trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when you give out. You have to have trust in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that's the first sign, alama of the person that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves them. The second one, he said, have the love and a compassion. Be a muhip, muhip is interesting word. It's no one who loves, who is compassionate, who is kind. Like the sun, like the sun. See, the nation of the sun, is that there's no, the sun gives its light to everyone. To every human being, to every animal, to every plant, right? And one of the things, why Baizullah Bostami used this compassion and as a metaphor for the sun, for me, is the sun never wants anything back from us. It always gives. It doesn't ask for anything back. That is real compassion. There is no ulterior motive. There's no ulterior motive when you do something, when you're compassionate towards people, when you love them. You love them for the sake of Allah and you want them to become better and you want them to grow and you want them to benefit and you want them to become a better human being. That's a compassion, like the sun, that gives light to the trees so they can bear fruits to the grass to grow so the animal can graze, right? All of the benefit that the sun gives. But what is our hope? What kind of mohib are we? Are we like the sun? Are we like the sun? Do we visit the family members that we just like? Do we visit the family members? Do we like them? The friends that we like? The people that we like? The mosques that we like? Or do we go to the family members that they have a huck over us but they might not like us. We might not like them. But they have a right over us. Allah has given that relationship. Are we like the sun? Are we like the sun in our love and our compassion? That we go to those homes that we don't even like? But Allah says, hey, I put a relationship between you and this person and you have to visit them. And it's a tough visit but that, those are the people that Allah loves. If you want to become amongst one of those, you have to think about this relationship. The third one, he said, be humble like the earth. Those people who have humility like the earth. If you look at the earth, and I love these metaphors, and I've been thinking about these metaphors for the past few nights. Subhanallah, what I've been reading by Zid al-Bustami book, so this is why the khutbe is about him. But what an amazing metaphor. The earth carries all of the jewels. Everything that's valuable is inside the earth. All of the gas, all of the jewels, everything is inside the earth. Yet we walk all over it. Humble, be humble like the earth. Rumi said, look at the earth. You throw feces at it, it gives you flowers. This is the nature of the earth, humility. Arrogance is one of the biggest diseases of the heart. When you think you're somebody, if you shall rise from nowhere up to somewhere, from being a no one up to being a someone, be sure to keep repeating to yourself that you owe it to an arbitrary God whose mercy unto you rather than to others won't bear to critical examination, Robert Frost said. That everything that happens to you, if you rise, know that it is from Allah. Humble yourself. And this is one of the things I love about people of humility. You really don't know if they're rich or poor. You really don't know, you can't tell because they don't show off. They don't show off. We once had a guest in our house and they were just helping out and we had a gathering in our house and somebody came. I didn't know who they were in terms of, I just knew them but I didn't know I'd never been to the home there from out of state. And my wife said, Masha'Allah, she's so good in cleaning up in our house. I thought maybe they do cleaning services or something. That's what I thought. That's why she's so good at cleaning the house and taking the garbage out. She was so good. And we found out there, Subhanallah, Allah's blessing with a lot of wealth. But that humility was so beautiful. My respect for them went multiple layer higher. Multiple layers. Just being humble. And the last one that he said amongst these are signs of the people that Allah loves. These are signs of the people that Allah loves. So he said the last one are those people who have ikhlas, sincerity in their heart. And the way that the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam had that when the verses of Rahmah would come, when the revelation would come, the verses of mercy, he would smile. He would be in a state of ecstasy and joy. When the verses of adab and punishment came, he wept, shed tears and he cried. That is real sincerity. That is real sincerity. What is sincerity? Really, something can be described sincerely, ikhlas. Say now, Jesus Alaihi Wasallam was asking about sincerity. He said sincerity is to do the word and not want to be praised or recognized for it. That is real sincere work in your action. That you do the action, but you don't want to be recognized for it, neither you want to be praised for it. That's a sincere work. That's an action that is with ikhlas. Ikhlas or sirrin min asrari. This is a Hadith Qudsi. It's weak in narration, but its meaning is good. You can benefit from it. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that he, somebody asked him what ikhlas and he asked Jibril and Allah said, ya Jibril, what is my Habib asking you? Allah knows and he said he is asking what is ikhlas because he was asked this question and Allah said al-asrara sirri, al ikhlas or sirri min asrari. Ikhlas is a sirr from my asrara. It's a mystery from my mysteries. It's a secret from my mysteries. Istawdaqtuhu qalbin man ahbabtuhu min ibadih. I put in the hearts of those of my servant that I love. I put it in the hearts of those servant of mine that I love. That is real sincere people that if you have ikhlas, you're amongst the people of sincerity. But remember, there are two types of people in this world. There are people who look with the eyes of deficiency. The eyes will be called su'a zan towards the world. Or the people who look with the eyes of khusna zan. With a good opinion or with a bad opinion. The people of ikhlas, they always look with khusna zan. They always want to make an excuse. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, Make 70 excuses for your brothers and sisters. And people don't understand why he used the word 70. Let me tell you why. Because 70 is a number that doesn't end in Arabic. Just like 100 is a number that doesn't end in Persian. When Persian say sack bar 100 times, they don't mean literally 100. That means infinite number of times. It's like a thousand in English. Oh, I have done it a thousand times. You really didn't do it, but it means the infinite number of times. In other words, keep making excuses for your brothers and sisters. Keep making excuses. Because ikhlas sirrun baynal abdi warabdi. Ikhlas sincerity is a secret, is a mystery between the servant and Allah. And Allah does not allow the angels to know about it so they don't write it. And does now allow shaitan to know about it so he can corrupt it. The intention. Why? Because ikhlas is not quantitative. It's qualitative. The angels cannot write the numbers. There is no quantity that can, you can say, oh, if you are mochilis, I'll give you this many rewards. If you pray, Allah will give you a reward. 10 times, 70 times, 700 times. Sadaqah, Allah will give you a reward. But for ikhlas, the angels cannot even write it. They don't even know it. Why? Because it's qualitative. What Allah gives you with that is His love. You become amongst the beloved of Allah, Subhanahu wa Ta'ala. When you become a mochilis, when you become someone who has ikhlas in their hearts and the sign of a mochilis is that the one who does work like Jesus said and doesn't want to be recognized or praise for it. I'll say this before Allah. Alhamdulillah, the Lord of the worlds, peace and blessings be upon the blessed, and peace be upon the beloved of Allah, and peace and blessings of Allah, these four advices from Baizid al-Bustami are real. And really, if you want to become amongst the people that Allah loves you, if you practice these, that you're generous like the river, that your compassion and kindness and love is like the sun, and your humility is like the earth, and that you have these, that you have ikhlas in the way of the prophets, and in the way of the salihin, and those who walked on the path of the prophet, that you will see, that you become amongst the people that Allah loves you. And there's a difference. You know, Sa'adi Shirazi said, Farqah is the name of the one who is waiting for the beloved. He said, there's a difference between the one who is in the arms of the beloved and the one who's looking at the door waiting for the beloved. There's a difference. But we should all strive to fall in love with Allah and the reason, and the reason, because if you start counting the blessing that Allah has given us from now until the end of time, you will not be able to count. وَإِنْ تُعُدُواْ نِعْمَتَ اللَّهِ لَأْتُحْسُوْحَى If you try to count the blessings of Allah, you will fall short and you will not be able to count it. You can't enumerate them. What He has given you, what He has given us. He is worthy of falling in love. And when you fall in love, all of the problems that you have in your life, every problem, every issue you have, they will dissolve because all of your problems are from your desires. This is the noble truth of the Buddha. Your suffering is from your desires. This is the teaching of Islam, right? Your suffering is from your desires. Rumi said, I once had a thousand desires, but with one desire to know you, all else melted away. That is really to fall in love with Allah. When you fall in love with Allah, here's the beauty of it. Here's the beauty of it. You become pure from the things of this dunya. Everything in the dunya become worthless. Why would things of the dunya become worthless? This is a really good question to ask yourself. If you fall in love with Allah, why the things of the dunya become worthless? Because you become priceless. Once you know your value, it is then that everything in this dunya become worthless to you. And it is then that when people see you, they would remember Allah. In the word of the Urdu poet, Fa na itna huja ho metere zaat me e Allah. Jumuji dekli uchi tutsi muhabbat hoja. That I will become in love with you to the degree Allah. The people see me, they fall in love with you. Why? Because you're so pure, you become a perfect mirror. And you reflect only light. And when you reflect light, it affects people. This is the nature of light. It affects people. We're living in an age that people are living in darknesses. And darknesses are multiplicity. Light is unity. One light can remove a million darknesses from this planet. And you're all the lights. Allah has given you that. Go out and illuminate your heart first, and then illuminate the heart and your household, and then your community, and then the societies, and that's how it works. Change begins right here. And if you change here, everything in the world will change. But as long as we remain the same, and point fingers at others, that is their fault, is their fault, and nothing's gonna happen. These teachings of Bayezid al-Bustami is real. If you want Allah to love you, that's the secret. And those are hard. Those are not easy. But if you wanna change the world without changing yourself, that's a dream that never comes to fruition. But the word of Iqbal, rahmatullah alayhi, who knew the East, who knew the West, he knew the East and West. He knew philosophy, he knew politics. He is al-Lama of our time. In the past two, three centuries, we haven't had a person like al-Lama Iqbal. What did he end up saying about change? Go ahead and start an internal revolution in your heart. Then you will see that your surrounding will change. If you wanna change the world, change yourself. And the beginning of changing of the world is by these to become amongst the people that Allah loves. Don't seek people's likes on Instagram, that people like you. That people like you. That people like you. That people like you. On Instagram, that people like you. That people love you. Those are meaningless and worthless. What's really meaningful is if Allah loves you, not those people on Instagram, that the day you die, three days later, you won't even be a thing remembered. That's it. Your account is closed and gone no more. No more Instagram, no more Facebook, no more Twitter, no more TikTok, all of that. They will go on and do their laughter and joy in liking other people and loving other people. But if you love Allah, that love that Allah has for you, it's in the dunya, it's in the barzakh, it's on the day of judgment, and it's in paradise. It continues forever and never dies. Inna Alhamdulillahi N'ahmadu Wa Nasta'ina Wa Nastaqfiru Wa Naudhu Billahi Min Shururi Anfosina Wa Min Sayyiat Ya'at Ya'a Maalina Ma Nihadi Allah Fa La Maudhilla Allah Wa Man Yudhil Fa La Hadi Ya'a Wa Ashanu An La Ilaha Illa Allah Wahduhu La Shariqa La Wa Ashanu Anna Muhammadan Amduhu Wa Rasuluhu