A Sermon from The Mercy to All the Worlds
O community of Muslims, roll up your sleeves, for the matter is momentous. Prepare for an imminent journey. Garner provision now as the journey is long. Lighten your loads, for before you is an ascent most steep! Only those traveling lightly shall bear its climb.
O humanity, before the Hour comes, you will see wonders, vast tribulations, and difficult times. Darkness will prevail, and foulness will take the forefront. Those who enjoin right will be oppressed, and those who condemn vice will be suppressed.
Hence, strengthen your faith for that time, and cling to faith as you would clench on for dear life. Flee to righteous deeds, and force yourselves to perform them. Be patient during the difficult times, and you will eventually arrive to eternal bliss.
— Translated by Hamza Yusuf.
The victim must remember: there is a day when the divine redresser will right every wrong, heal every wound, fulfill every vow, and remove for all eternity the scars of this world that were unjustly inflicted by those who betrayed God’s protection.
The suffering of the world is spoken of in terms of wars, starvation, hatred, competition, and the struggle of the survival of the fittest. Yet all the suffering of the world originates in the human heart. Every crime committed, every act of oppression, every callous cruelty, and every injustice to the self or others emanates from the hearts of men. However, for every wrong wrought by the human heart, a thousand acts of mercy have issued forth: every mother’s love, every child’s forgiveness, every teacher’s care, and every father’s concern for the well-being of his progeny–all have their source in the core of the human being, the human heart. If we are to right the world, we must first rectify our hearts, and this is why every revelation has been granted to humanity in order to make firm our hearts. The most oft-recited prayer of the blessed Prophet, peace and prayers be upon him, was “O Revolver of the hearts, make firm my heart upon the straight way.” In no equivocal terms, the Qur’an states, “On the day of Judgement, when neither wealth nor children will avail, only one who brings forth a sound heart.” A sound Heart! The soundest of hearts was the heart of the Messenger of Allah, peace and prayers be upon him, who, through his purity and singularity of intention, transformed the world. His teaching remains, and the challenge is for each of us to take it and to transform our hearts with it, thereby, transforming the very world in which we now reside.
I envy the sand that met his feet
I’m jealous of honey he tasted sweet.
Hamza Yusuf - “The Critical Importance of Al-Ghazali in Our Times”
Loving the Prophet is the quickest way to Allah
“O You whose mighty kingdom never becomes less,
We hope to take asylum in divine largesse.”
He was the most beautiful of humanity and the most complete,
In outward form and ethical character.
You are mistaken if you likened him to the full moon
In splendor or deemed him like the ocean
In generosity, or said he was like the flowers
In fineness, or time in its determination.
Even if you inversed these statements,
It is still a mistake—in my opinion, utter nonsense.
Tell me, what has the full moon in relation to his cheek?
How can time compare to his loyalty?
How can the ocean compare to his hand’s liberality?
What comparison do flowers have to his gentle disposition?
No, I swear by the One who granted him every adornment
That there is no one similar to him in the entire universe.
And onlookers have never seen the likes of him.
How sweet he is, and how radiant his form.
No, I swear by the One who adorned him with every beauty
In meaning and image, and I make no exception,
He has names and attributes that have
Elevated him above all the rest of humanity
So tell me, O man above men in beauty
And beatitude most perfect, what then
Can those who praise hope to achieve with their tongues,
Even if they carried on for all time,
Especially after God’s praise of you in the Qur’an,
When you were described as being one who is of vast and magnanimous character?
May the benedictions and prayers of God be upon you,
And upon your family and companions, those celestial lights,
For as long as sinners seek refuge in the Ancient House,
And the remorseful seek refuge at your sublime porte,
Seeking forgiveness and success in whatever
Pleases you, most honorable of those who have smiled.
An excerpt from:
The Discerning Eyes’ Delights In Perusing the Chosen One’s Days and Nights.
By Shaykh ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Lamṭī.
Translated by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.
Sheikh Hamza Yusuf at 9/11 Unity Walk 2011.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and oral hygiene - Hamza Yusuf.
an excerpt from “Qurrat al-Absar - Lecture 6”
To You, God of the Throne, I raise my only plea,
To confess to You, my Lord, what others cannot see.
My Lord, by Your Presence, treat and remedy
My heart and the disease, O efface this misery.
I can’t enumerate the blessings You’ve bestowed—
Forbid, my God, my pardon from being withheld.
And if You don’t save me from this living hell,
What will become of me? Can anyone foretell?
O God, You are the Real, my port, my only grace—
My heart’s true love above this dark and deadly place.
You drink liquor to forget; I do dhikr to remember.
“I’m counting on love”
— Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.
This is just beautiful, masha’Allah.
An excerpt from Hamza Yusuf’s commentary on ‘Izz ibn Abdus-Salam’s Seventeen Benefits of Tribulation.
This.
