Transcription
Adam. Adam. Mom... Where are you? Mom... What happened to you? What happened to you? Mom! Mom! Mom! No, Mom! Mom! Where are you? Oh, God! Oh, God!
There are names of Allah like As-Samad that are meant to fill your emptiness. But then there are names that are made to deal with your restlessness. You've come to figure out that this world is full of a lot of noise. And then suddenly the hereafter doesn't feel that far away anymore. And in some ways, it's become closer to you than the things you used to cling to. You come to realize that you weren't created for a life without storms. But you were given what's needed to find stillness within them. The chaos of this world is meant to drive you to the source of peace. And meant to make you a source of peace. All while you long for the final destination of peace.
وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا مَا تَشْتَهِي تَشْتَهِي أَنْفُسُكُمْ وَلَكُمْ فِيهَا مَا تَدَّعُونَ. And there you will have whatever your soul desires and whatever you ask for. But that's Jannah, where everything is pure and perfect. Here, you need to find peace in His perfection while being an imperfect being, experiencing an imperfect world. The scholars say that peace comes from three things: from knowing Him in His perfection, from trusting His perfect plan, and from remembering His perfect reward waiting for you in the next life. But what you don't want to do is find yourself on the other side of that plan because you are the one spreading corruption or robbing someone else of their peace. Sometimes your first test is not necessarily to make the world pure, but to remain pure within it, even though you're never going to be perfect.
And that's where three names unfold inseparably: As-Subbuh, the utterly perfect beyond all imperfection; Al-Quddus, the entirely pure, who purifies what He wills; As-Salam, the one who is peace Himself and the source of any peace to be found within. When Allah announced the Khilafah of Adam, an imperfect being on earth, the angels said:
أَتَجْعَلُ فِيهَا مَنْ يُفْسِدُ فِيهَا وَيَسْفِكُ الدِّمَاءَ. "Ya Rabb, will You put on earth those who spread corruption and spill blood, which is the opposite of peace?"
وَنَحْنُ نُسَبِّحُ بِحَمْدِكَ وَنُقَدِّسُ لَكَ. "And we, on the other hand, glorify Your praises and sanctify You." Meaning, we don't just declare Your perfection, but our worship in accordance with that perfection is pure. The scholars explain that when they said: نُقَدِّسُ لَكَ, they meant, "We offer to You only the purest of deeds without any shirk or any insincerity."
Now look at the words. Tasbīḥ declares Him free of any imperfection. Taqdīs declares Him pure of all contamination. And it purifies Your own deeds for Him. So for the angels, Tasbīḥ and Taqdīs looks like this. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said that the heavens above you are creaking because there isn't a handspan except that there is an angel standing, bowing, or prostrating, glorifying Allah without a break. And when that angel who did nothing but worship Allah for his entire existence raises his head on the Day of Judgment, the only thing he will say is:
سُبْحَانَكَ مَا عَبَدْنَاكَ حَقَّ عِبَادَتِكَ. "How perfect are You? We did not worship You as much as You deserve to be worshiped."
That's the angels. But when you bow and prostrate like the angels in every Rukūʿ and Sujūd, what are you doing? You're echoing their words aspirationally:
سُبُّوحٌ قُدُّوسٌ رَبُّ الْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالرُّوحِ. "Perfect and pure is the Lord of the angels and the spirit."
And then at the end of Witr, when you pray that extra prayer beyond obligation, purely out of love and devotion, when no one else can see you and you've chosen your devotion over desire, you say:
سُبْحَانَ الْمَلِكِ الْقُدُّوسِ رَبِّ الْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالرُّوحِ.
The angels questioned the favor that Allah was bestowing upon humanity because of what they already did and didn't know what we would be capable of. And when we choose devotion like them, we join them in their worship of tasbīḥ and taqdīs, even though we have what they don't: shahwah, desire. Tasbīḥ and taqdīs are the acts that honor Subbūḥ, Quddūs. And think of them as clearing the way and then filling the void. Subbūḥ means no flaw can ever be ascribed to Him. Quddūs means no purity exists except from Him. So between them, you have the intense negation of anything unworthy of Him and the intense affirmation of every perfection that belongs to Him.
Sibāḥah means to swim. And it also shares the root word because the swimmer is on top of the water. So you're declaring Subbūḥ above all that is attributed to Him. And what did Yunus 'alayhi s-salam say when he was drowning at the very bottom of the ocean?
لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا أَنْتَ سُبْحَانَكَ إِنِّي كُنتُ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ. "There is no God but You. How perfect are You? I was amongst the wrongdoers."
And Allah says:
فَلَوْلَا أَنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُسَبِّحِينَ لَلَبِثَ فِي بَطْنِهِ إِلَى يَوْمِ يُبْعَثُونَ. "Had He not been amongst those who do Tasbih, then He would have stayed in the belly of that whale drowning until the Day of Judgment."
The angel raises his head in the heavens. SubhanAllah. Yunus 'alayhi s-salam in the bottom of the ocean. SubhanAllah. Both of them are declaring Allah is above it all. Think of the whole world as a deep ocean and Tasbih as the only way to breathe in it. So that's how you ascend.
But how do you purify yourself after you've stained yourself with sin? You come to Quddūs, the pure who makes pure, the holy who makes holy. Ibn al-Jawzi rahimahullah said Allah called the holy land of Palestine al-Arḍ al-Muqaddasah because it is al-Muṭahhirah. It purifies the one who goes to it from all sin. And Al-Quds is pure and blessed only by Al-Quddūs Himself. And just as Al-Quddūs sanctifies places, He can sanctify people too.
When Salman al-Fārisī radiallāhu ta'ālā'anhu was settled in Persia, his brother in Palestine, Abu Dardā' radiallāhu'anhu, sent him a letter and he said:
هَلُمَّ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ الْمُقَدَّسَةِ. "Come to the holy land and join me."
And Salman responds with a letter that says:
إِنَّ الْأَرْضَ لَا تُقَدِّسُ أَحَدًا وَإِنَّمَا يُقَدِّسُ الْإِنْسَانَ عَمَلُهُ. "The land itself does not make anyone holy. Rather, the only thing that makes a person holy are his deeds."
You could live in the holiest city on earth and still have a corrupted heart. You could be the neighbor of the Haram in Mecca and live your life in Haram and have no benefit from being where you are physically because of who you are spiritually. The place itself doesn't make you holy. The pursuit of the one who made that place holy does. And when Allah talks about the holy places in the Qur'an, it's always in the context of, are you worthy?
When Mūsā 'alayhi s-salām and his people are told:
اُدْخُلُوا الْأَرْضَ الْمُقَدَّسَةَ. "Enter the holy land."
And then Bani Isra'īl refuses to do so because of their spiritual poisons. Allah ends up banning an entire generation from it, finding them unworthy of that pure land. And then when Mūsā himself is about to approach, Al-Quddūs says to him:
إِنِّي أَنَا رَبُّكَ فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ إِنِّي أَنَا رَبُّكَ فَاخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ ۖ إِنَّكَ بِالْوَادِ الْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى. "Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals, for you are about to enter the sacred valley of Tuwa."
So when you approach Al-Quddūs, you have to come worthy and you have to come pure, physically and spiritually. Physically, you purify yourself by removing any impurity from your garment and then making wudū' and entering into a state of taharah so that you can pray and read Qur'an and do other acts of worship. But spiritually, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ālā says:
إِنَّمَا الْمُشْرِكُونَ نَجَسٌ. "That there is a defilement of shirk and other spiritual impurities that keep a person away from Allah."
And that's why the du'a for spiritual cleansing is this imagery of laundry:
اللَّهُمَّ اغْسِلْ خَطَايَايَ بِالْمَاءِ وَالثَّلْجِ وَالْبَرَدِ. "O Allah, wash away my sins with water, snow, and hail, just as You purify a white garment from stains."
You need a deep cleansing to be purified. And just as you wash the body for prayer, you wash the heart for presence. And that's why you have Ar-Rūḥ al-Quddūs, the Holy Spirit, being Jibrīl 'alayhi s-salam, who was purified by Allah and given a rank that no other angel holds. His entire being reflects the beauty and purity of Allah's plan. Jibrīl loves what Allah loves, and he's the first to find out what Allah loves. And then he does what Allah commands, and he's been given the greatest command of the angels by delivering the revelation without hesitation. And what do he and the angels descend with on the night of Laylat al-Qadr upon the believers when they're standing in their state of worship? Salām, salām, peace, peace. But who is that peace from? It's not from them. It's from the one who sent them.
هُوَ اللَّهُ الَّذِي لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ الْمَلِكُ الْقُدُّوسُ السَّلَامُ. As-Salām is the one who is peace, who gives peace. He gives peace to the believers, and He is unlimited in His supply because:
فَاقِدُ الشَّيْءِ لَا يُعْطِيهِ. "The one who doesn't have something can't give it."
And when we give each other salām, we're getting it from Him and then extending it to the capacity that we have. And when we say As-Salāmu 'alaykum to each other, we're not just saying, "Peace be upon you." We're saying, "No harm will come to you from me." And when we call upon As-Salām, we're asking for peace on the inside and all around us. And when you live with As-Salām, peace stops depending on circumstance because the calm within can sustain you.
Notice in your prayer, in your Rukūʿ and your sujūd, you say:
سُبُّوحٌ قُدُّوسٌ. "And where do you find more peace than those positions in your prayer?"
And then when you close the prayer:
السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ. السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ.
You're not just greeting angels. You're spreading the peace that you just received to everything right and left of you. And then you seal it all with:
اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ السَّلَامُ وَمِنْكَ السَّلَامُ تَبَارَكْتَ يَا ذَا الْجَلَالِ وَالْإِكْرَامِ. "O Allah, You are peace, and from You is peace. Blessed are You, O possessor of majesty and honor."
You return to the source of peace, and then you become a source of peace. And the Prophet ﷺ said:
أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ. "Spread peace among you."
Those who know as-Salam don't just rest in peace when they die. They reflect it while they're still alive. Because salām isn't just a greeting. It's the state that you carry back from your prayer mat into a restless world before you return to your eternal home.
وَاللَّهُ يَدْعُو إِلَىٰ دَارِ السَّلَامِ. "And all along, Allah is calling you to the home of peace." And after the believers greet each other with salām in this life, and then the angels come to you and greet you with salām at death, the ultimate calm is when you hear سلام from السلام Himself.
سَلَامٌ قَوْلًا مِّن رَّبٍّ رَّحِيمٍ. "Peace, a word to you from your loving, merciful Lord." He greets you with His own names. And it's not just angels saying it on His behalf anymore. It's Him saying it to you directly. And Jannah isn't just a place of reward. It's a reunion with all those whom you love, including Him. It's where every fracture in your soul is healed, every anxiety is erased, and every longing is fulfilled. But He's not just calling you to a place of peace. He's calling you to become peace, to carry it in yourself so that by the time you enter into Dar as-Salām, you won't be walking into peace for the very first time. You'll be returning to it, repeating what the angels who are now all around you have always said from the beginning:
سُبُوْحٌ قُدُّوسٌ رَبُّ الْمَلَائِكَةِ وَالرُّوحِ. "Perfect and pure is the Lord of the angels and the spirit."
But you're not an angel, and you happen to live in a world of demons and imperfect beings just like yourself. And the only way to survive this world is through the peace that you find in Him.
يَا سُبُّوحُ سُبْحَانَكَ. How perfect You are beyond everything I can imagine. When the world feels loud and heavy, remind me that You are untouched by its chaos. Let my glory and praise of You rise above the darkness, even if I drown myself in it, and pull me out of it by Your perfection, even after I dragged myself down.
يَا قُدُّوسُ. Purify me inside and out. Cleanse my worship of pride, my heart of resentment, my soul of anything that clouds its way back to You, and make me worthy of the nearness I seek to You.
يَا سَلَامُ. Send peace into every storm within my chest. Let Your calm settle where fear once lived. Your safety surround what the world cannot protect. Make me a source of peace for others until I meet You in the home of peace and get to hear from You Yourself.
سَلَامٌ وَلِلَّهِ الْأَسْمَاءُ الْحُسْنَى فَادْعُوهُ بِهَا.