 عوذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء والمرسلين حبيبي إله العالمين بالقاسم للمستفى محمد وعلى لبيتي الطيبين الطاهرين الذين أذهب عنهم الرجسة وطهرهم تطهيرا واللعن الدائم الأمدي والسرمدي وعلى عدائهم أجمعين مدل آن إلى قيام يوم الدين أمين رب العالمين نبدأ نام الله the most beneficent the most merciful all praises be to him everlasting and omniscient he is and we send our peace and blessings upon محمد and his holy household and our everlasting damnation and curses upon their enemies أمين رب العالمين and once again we congratulate صاحب العصر والزمان الإمام المهدي المنتظر on the special occasion that marks the birth of فاطمة الزهراء عليها أفضل الصلاة وأتم السلام and insha'Allah we will be continuing from our last two episodes in which we were discussing the importance of seeking the most appropriate and most pleasant and beautiful name for one's children and once again before we continue and expand upon the last narrations that we discussed the disclaimer that when I am speaking about the names of children I am speaking about those who are naming their children their newborn children so the new parents and new mothers in no way am I discriminating those who for example came into the ردون of Islam later on into their life for those people who sought Islam after or who became Muslim after who are either reverse or converts in their religion I actually say for them to keep their names because their names have a very big effect on the community that they are in and they are able to influence people more but our focus today and in these last episodes and these narrations as well is that for those people who decide to give their children un-Islamic names for no apparent reason or because they are scared of what they call Islamophobia or they are scared that their children not fit in the West well as we can see from the narrations that we had in hand that the names of Al-Muhammad and of course we haven't really discussed that yet but the Prophet and the Imams have told us to choose the appropriate name for one's children and the last narration that we did look at was the narration of Yaqub Al-Sarraj when he spoke to the young Imam Al-Kadim when Imam Al-Kadim was still in his crib and he told Yaqub Al-Sarraj to go change the name of his daughter that was recently born and he had called his daughter Humaira and we know that Humaira is a name that Allah SWT is angered with and then he went of course and changed the name of his daughter and from that narration we concluded or we're concluding right now the importance of choosing that correct name for one's child because we noticed that that name is a name of course why is that name Humaira in the first place a name that Allah SWT does not like because of course it's one of the names of those who are considered an enemy of Al-Muhammad especially the name Humaira who was the name of that individual who had a hand in murdering Allah SWT now like I said we're going to continue we have a couple more narrations actually one more narration in terms of instructions from the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم of choosing an appropriate name for one's child then after that we will go to the narrations I think we have here yes the narrations from the imams that inform us of which is or what are the best names to choose for one's children so the last of these reports is a report from Masool Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم and this report is very important it says قادر صلى الله عليه وسلم وآله كان يغير لأسماء القبيحة في الرجال والبلدان so he says that the مام الباقر عليه السلام sorry yeah مام الباقر عليه السلام from his forefathers says that صلى الله عليه وسلم used to change الأسماء القبيحة the filthy names given to the individuals around him when he would hear a name that is considered filthy considered unpleasant he would tell them no change your name to فلان as well notice here that even the البلدان so the cities because even cities and locations were given filthy names and unpleasant names and the Rasool الله عليه وسلم would also change these names now we are entering the second portion of our discussion now which is then now what are the best names for us to choose and we did of course claim that the names of أحمد عليهم أفضل الصلاة وتم السلام are considered the best and most appropriate names and for that of course we have a couple of narrations and we'll start with this narration which is a narration narrated by مام الباقر عليه السلام مام الباقر عليه السلام says أصدق الأسماء ما سمي بالعبودية وأفضلها أسماء الأنبياء مام الباقر عليه السلام says and the best of names is the names that remind oneself or reminds others and oneself of the Lord, of God then he said the preferred name to the name of the prophets what does it mean though that reminds someone of God in another narration one of the companions of the Imam responds to the Imam and he says to him يا أبا جعفر الباقر well what do you mean by الأسماء التي مرتبط بالعبودية what are those names that are connected to the Lord to God سبحانه وتعالى he says to him name like عبد الرحمن name like عبد الرحمن for example name like عبد الله any name that once hearing it a you feel some sort of connection that okay this name عبد الرحمن a slave of the رحمن who is the رحمن رحمن is one of the names of Allah سبحانه وتعالى عبد الجبار for example another example and all these other names that we see there are common names so basically a name like that that when the individual especially if he the individual lives somewhere in the west and he hears and a non-Muslim for example here's the name عبد الرحمن and then the non-Muslim says to the Muslim well what does عبد الرحمن mean and then a conversation begins and then he begins to explain well عبد الرحمن means slave of the رحمن رحمن is one of the names of Allah which means the merciful and as you can see you have began a chain reaction from just a single name you are able to open an entire discussion see that's one of the important that's one of those important characteristics that a Muslim has that his name alone is able to open an entire conversation now for example imagine if you begin using the names of عالمحمد you begin using the name for example of حسن and حسين and somebody asks you well what is who is حسين who is حسن a conversation begins well for example let's say somebody is named محسن and then a conversation begins as well well your name means محسن what does محسن mean he goes and he researches what محسن means when he researches in the Arabic meaning of محسن as well who is محسن in terms of history or محسن is the unborn child of فاوت الزراء عليه السلام this unborn child who was killed unjustly and so on and so forth you have opened an entire door of discussion you have just given your friend or colleague at work or at school an entire history lesson by just pronouncing your name some people are intrigued especially here in the west you'll find that our fellow colleagues and our friends either at work at the workplace or in the university they are sometimes interested in these names as they call them exotic names because they are not names that they are familiar with even though if you were to look at the statistics that we have today one of the most common name in the world I think either the second most common or the first most common name in the world right now is محمد اللهم صلى على محمد وعلي محمد محمد is one of the most common names in the world imagine how many things but of course other than محمد we have to start expanding on the other names of the other names of the other names of the other names and we'll see of course how important these names are now this narration here besides the best of names or the preferred names or the names of the Prophet or the names that have some sort of connection to Allah Now that is true but we have other narrations so you can say نقول إذا نضع هذا العمل في هذه العمل و نضع هذه العمل و نضعهم معاً نجد أن نجد بأسيحة و بسيحة سوف يذهب إلى المملكين التي تذكروا أنها سيصبح الله و تعالى سيكون يوجد كمية المملكين من ألم محمد ثم سيجد المملكين من المملكين والذين سوف يرى هذا مثل when somebody mentions the name Ali right away Ali is a symbol and a sign that makes us reflect upon who Ali was نحن نقول علي يكون one who used to spend his nights in prayer and the days and fasting and so on and so forth and then we start asking the question well who is he fasting for who is he praying to and soon like again we've begun we've begun a chain reaction until we have gotten to الله سبحانه وتعالى because we know that the imams عليهم السلام are the door in order for us to reach Allah سبحانه وتعالى so that means in essence that their names as well are the door for us to reach Allah سبحانه وتعالى we read in زيارة الجامع الكبيرة for example in زيارة الجامع الكبيرة we read in one of the فقرات in one of the excerpts of the زيارة it says وما أحلى أسمائكم and how beautiful are your names and it's true the names of حسن and حسين and فاطم one just hearing the name حسن hearing the name حسين hearing the name فاطم brings forth something to the heart some of that emotion that might be brought to the heart either maybe sad emotion that has come forth upon the مسلم or even happiness at the same time it's a mixed emotion so these beautiful names serve a higher you can say reason there's this there's a there's a higher reason behind one calling them their children by the names of المحمد other than the blessings that are attained because like we said it could have an influence on the kind of person you are it can shape the person who that you are because once once you begin knowing okay علي was this حسن was like this and i wish to learn to be like my masters that will have an effect on your life it will change the way you think it will affect your morality and your ethics and make you a better person as well as the external factors which is the community around you the community will begin to ask questions especially the non-muslim community now that was another narration another i have another one another narration that that's also very just for the sake of blessing will narrate this narration it's a narration that is narrated by الأسبق ابن نباته عن علينا عليه السلام so i narrate from علي ابن أبي طالب عليه السلام it says that the messenger of god صلى الله عليه و آله قال ما من أهل بيت فيهم اسم نبي إلا بعث الله عز وجل إليهم ملكا يقد سهما بالغدات والعشية so this narration here by the messenger of Allah look how beautiful it says that there is not a household that in it is a name of a prophet so imagine in a household there is one person and his name is Adam or his name is Noah or Solomon or any of these names any of the names of the prophets it says there is not a household that in it is a name of a prophet except that god sends his angels to accompany them during the day and during the night see as you can see there are unseen forces at play just by the just by having these names in the household it's not about the internal spiritual uplift that an individual acquires but there are external factors out there that have a great effect on just the people living in that household so imagine you live in a household with the names of Muhammad and Hassan and Hussein and Fatima and Adam and Abraham and so on and so forth imagine just having in your room the name Hussein for example the name Muhammad on a tablet somewhere in the room hanging that alone is a blessing and from this narration that house that has such beautiful names the names of Ali Muhammad and the names of the prophets I tell you for now there are unseen angels that are visiting this house day and night now that's for that specific genre that is concerning the names that are the best to be chosen but now I want to narrate the names that are best to be chosen from the names of Ali Muhammad this one is very important especially to the new fathers and new mothers and those who have children especially who have sons in their houses this is the word of Imam Al-Sadaq عليه السلام and here Imam Al-Sadaq عليه السلام is telling you what they do when they are given a newborn son the hadith says we are not blessed with a son except that we name him Muhammad so as soon as that son enters this world we give him the name Muhammad then the Imam عليه السلام says and when seven days pass we either keep his name as Muhammad or we change his name just giving your son the title the name Muhammad when he is born is more than enough of a blessing and according to this hadith that we have after seven days the Imam says we either change it or we either keep it or sometimes you can see that the Imam's for example even in some cultures today you find that people give what they are called names that are connected for example they would call them they'll call their children Muhammad Ali or Fatima Zahra or Noor Fatima and so on and so forth in order to have that extra blessing in the name that is one narration another narration which is a very important narration and it's very it's it's a difficult to take to heart and it says that whoever is granted four sons and he does not call one of them by my name has deserted me has pushed me away this is the words of the prophet so be very careful that if you are given four sons by الله سبحانه وتعالى four blessed sons make sure that at least one of them is Muhammad or call them all Muhammad and Ali and you'll see why call them all Muhammad and Ali because of this narration right here it says جابر بن يديل جعفي narrates from أبي جعفر الباقر عليه السلام أبي جعفر الباقر says to a man named ابن صغير he says to him what is your son's name the man responds and he says his name is محمد then he says to him what is his كنية what is his title that you gave him he said Ali that means this man gave his child the name Muhammad Ali Abu جعفر عليه السلام when he heard this he said you have safeguarded yourself from satan and pushed him far away whenever listen whenever satan here's a caller call out oh Muhammad or Ali satan dissolves like black lead and when he hears someone call the name of our enemies he dances and struts with pride so this is what i mean by choosing the appropriate name when you choose the choose the name which is a name that is connected to Muhammad محمد it makes satan dissolve and makes satan weak you push satan away whereas when you choose that name that is connected to the enemies of Ali Muhammad you are just making satan happy why would you want to please satan when you're pleasing Ali Muhammad in fact you are pleasing الله سبحانه وتعالى correct or no correct now this is what we have right now and i wish want to see what we have left for you we have a couple more narrations in this in this chapter and which is the chapter of the naming of the children by the names of Muhammad and Ali and so on and so forth there's a lot of narrations in this in this chapter but our time is limited so what we will do inshallah is we will go on and in our next episode we will expand a little more we have a couple more narrations with you and depending on time we will either have one more episode after this or two more episodes after this depending on the narration and how lengthy the narration is because i do want to discuss the name of Fatima عليه السلام which is الزهراء as we first mentioned in the beginning of our introduction so i leave you with this and i say السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته