BISMILLAH AlRahman AlRaheem

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ خَاتَمِ النَّبِيِّينَ وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ الأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِينَ.

All Praise is due to Alláh, We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Alláh, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Alláh, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, peace and blessings on him, is His servant, and His messenger.

Dear Brothers and Sisters …

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Since my last Khutbah we are discussing about Loving Allah, and how this love is the true power for worshiping Allah. And How Loving Allah allows us to worship him the right way and increases our imaan and faith. We also emphasized that Knowing Allah is the way to love him, and that the best way to know him is through his names and attributes by affirming the Names and Attributes which Allah has affirmed for Himself in a manner befitting His majesty.

We started with the names that Allah started the Quran with: AlRahman AlRaheem (as the Quran starts with the bismala بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم). And we have discussed in last Friday about Alrahman.

Now before going to the Alraheem, just quick summarising the Alrahman. As we typically translate Rahma as mercy, it is not very accurate translation, as mercy in English usually means sparing someone from punishment or help him getting rid or alleviating his suffering. In Arabic, the word Rahma has nothing to do with being spared but actually Rahma has to do with the word Rahem (رحم ) which means the belly of a mother or the womb of the mother when a woman is pregnant they say (Rahma alMara ) meaning she became pregnant. And that’s important, because if we’re going to understand the names of AlRahman AlRaheem, we have to understand the womb of the mother if we are to get any idea what these names really mean for us.

Dear Brothers and Sisters let’s talk about Allah’s name AlRaheem. AlRaheem actually means someone who has a quality even if it doesn’t come out or show, so Raheem means someone who’s always loving and caring, it doesn’t have the “Right Now” quality as AlRahman, but it has the “Always” quality. Now look at the mercy of Allah if Allah only said bismillah AlRahman if he only said AlRahman then the love of Allah would be extreme it would be right now but it wouldn’t be forever! if Allah said bismillah AlRaheem, then the love the love of Allah would be forever but no guarantee that it’s coming right now.

Allah wanted to have us understand that his love and his protection and his care is coming right now and will always be there, so he said AlRahman AlRaheem, he took care of our immediate by saying AlRahman and he took care of our future by saying AlRaheem, and scholars even argue why not even change the order why not say bismillah AlRaheem AlRahman, why not do it that way? That’s because Allah knows who he created {أل يعلم من خلق } we as human beings can’t think about our future until our immediate is taken care of, if you are hungry right now, you don’t care what you will eat next week! You just want to get food now then you think about the future meals. So, Allah’s name AlRahman, takes care of the now then comes AlRaheem to take care of the future showing us that his love and his care is now and will always be there.

The last thing that you and I should know, we say bismillah AlRahman AlRaheem in everything that we do, out of all of Allah’s names he chose these two names for everything we begin, before we eat or work or when we are about to get in the car or about to change clothes or about to do anything we say bismillah AlRahman AlRaheem. Why is that important? that’s important because we recognize something, everything Allah is allowing us to do is because He loves us and He cares for us.

It was narrated that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “Some prisoners were brought to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and there was a woman among the prisoners who was searching (for her child). When she found her child she embraced him and put him to her breast. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to us, ‘Do you think that this woman would throw her child in the fire?’ We said, ‘No, by Allah, not if she is able not to.’ The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said, ‘Allah is more Rahman and Raheem to His slaves than this woman is to her child.’”  (Agreed upon)

This is the love of Allah swt. May Allah give us Taufeeq to love Allah swt.

ُSo we ask Allah for forgiveness, He is the Most Forgiving, Most Merciful.

May Allah multiply the rewards of our Prayers, grant us forgiveness for our sins and freedom from the Fire, and allow us to drink from the Prophet’s (saw) fountain, Ameen.

BY IMAM SYED MAHBOOB RASOOL