Today we ask whose Islam you have been living, and we meet the One (SWT) who loved you before you could love anything.
Islamic Studies · Worship class · 60 to 75 minutes · every student needs paper and a pen
Write one honest sentence on your own paper. Nobody will read it, not me and not the person sitting next to you.
When you finish, I will name the answers people usually write. Watch how many of them fit yours.
Someone else decided this for you. There is a word for doing the actions of Islam while someone else steers: autopilot.
This is not an accusation. Every Muslim you know started exactly here, receiving the deen from people who loved them. Inheriting is how the deen travels. It only becomes a problem if it never becomes yours.
Some of you chose this deen yourselves, or you are the one keeping it alive at home. Your question is different: not "is it mine?" but "how do I keep it strong?" This class answers both.
A picture, not a text: your Islam right now is a house your parents built for you. The walls went up before you could walk. The prayer, the fasting, the shahada you were taught: all of it was a gift.
But there is a difference between living in a house and owning it. An owner knows why every wall is where it is. An owner maintains it by choice. An owner stays when the storm comes.
At some point the deed has to transfer to your name. That transfer is what this class is for.
Think of someone you love: your mother, or your best friend. Do you need to be forced to text them, or to sit with them? Love makes actions happen on their own.
Here is the question this whole class stands on, and it is not whether you are supposed to love Allah (SWT). The honest question is: do you actually love Him (SWT)?
If the honest answer is "I'm not sure," you are exactly who this class was built for. Stay with me for the next four slides.
فَسَوْفَ يَأْتِي اللَّهُ بِقَوْمٍ يُحِبُّهُمْ وَيُحِبُّونَهُ
"Allah (SWT) will bring a people He loves and who love Him."
Look at the order of the words. His (SWT) love is named before theirs. You learned love from people who loved you first. He loved you before any of them did.
Some prisoners were brought to the Messenger of Allah (SWT) (pbuh), and among them was a woman searching for someone. When she found her child, she pulled him close and nursed him. The Prophet (pbuh) said: "Do you think this woman would throw her child into a fire?" We said: no, never, while she is able to stop it. He said: "Allah (SWT) is more merciful to His slaves than this mother is to her child."
Take the most love you have ever received from anyone. His (SWT) mercy toward you is greater than that.
List everything you were given that you never asked for and never paid for: your eyes, your mind, the people who raised you, this morning's breath, being taught this deen at all. Start writing.
"And He (SWT) gave you from all you asked of Him. And if you should count the favors of Allah (SWT), you could not number them. Indeed, mankind is unjust and ungrateful."
فَأَقِمْ وَجْهَكَ لِلدِّينِ حَنِيفًا ۚ فِطْرَتَ اللَّهِ الَّتِي فَطَرَ النَّاسَ عَلَيْهَا ۚ لَا تَبْدِيلَ لِخَلْقِ اللَّهِ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
"So direct your face toward the religion, inclining to truth: the fitrah of Allah (SWT) upon which He created all people. There is no changing the creation of Allah. That is the upright religion, but most people do not know."
The pull toward Him (SWT) that shows up in your hardest moments is factory-installed. Autopilot did not erase it; routine only covered it.
Ibn al-Qayyim drew this picture: the heart traveling to Allah (SWT) is like a bird. Love is its head. Fear and hope are its two wings.
It steers. It decides where the bird flies. That is why this class started here and not at rules.
This is not monster-fear. It is the awe of Al-Adheem, and the fear of letting down the One (SWT) who loved you first. It keeps the flight serious.
His (SWT) mercy is greater than your worst day. It keeps you flying after you fail.
A bird with no head is dead. A bird with one wing circles and falls. You need all three, and love leads.
Your group performs the same everyday scene twice. Version A shows autopilot, with the engine off. Version B is the exact same scene, owned, with the engine on. The audience should be able to say what changed.
A school morning: the alarm, getting ready, and Fajr is in there somewhere.
A weeknight at home: homework, dinner, Maghrib, and the phone.
Friday: jummah with the family in the middle of a busy day.
A Ramadan evening: iftar ends, and taraweeh is a choice.
The answer to question 3 is the whole lesson: they know who it's for, and they love Him (SWT). That is the engine.
When you love someone, you want to talk to them. You give to what they love. You sacrifice for them. You want to be near them. Salah, sadaqah, fasting, dua: worship is love, doing what love does.
The promise: in twelve weeks, you will pray two rakat understanding every single word you say to Allah (SWT), in English. Nothing you say in salah will be a mystery sound. Hold me to it.
Get back into your skit groups. There are three questions, and everyone answers at least one out loud.
There are no graded answers in here. Talking about Him (SWT) in your own words is the point.
This page is yours. Keep it somewhere you will see it. And if you are ever willing to share your line 3 question with me, bring it any Saturday: I build these lessons around your questions.
Make one dua that nobody told you to make, in any language, just between you and Him (SWT). That is what it feels like when the engine turns on.