The faith
4th Advice
[…]And what of these traditions from the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم : “Islam is built on 5 pillars: testifying there is no deity but Allah, establishing the prayer, paying the zakah, fasting in Ramadan and performing hajj of the sacred house for those able to do so.” Iman (faith) is confession with the tongue and belief with the heart and performance of the pillar of Islam.
This life (dunya) is a farm land of the after life (al akhera), we must plant the seeds now in order to get the reward in the future.
Faith (iman) is:what the heart believes with certainty in term of testimony of faith Of Allah.
The tongue pronounces what the heart holds for certain and the limbs translate this belief into actions;
We have:
a) The certainty of the heart
b) The saying of the tongue
c) The actions of the limbs
The meaning of faith is what a believer does according to the creed which is in his heart.
What is inside the heart will be translated into actions.
Link between the heart the tongue and the actions:
Everyday the limbs address the tongue and say: ”O tongue, have fear in Allah with us, if you behave in a proper way (say good) we will also behave in a proper way, however if you say wrong things it can lead us to do wrong”
When we say the testimony of faith for example, this saying is a divine light from Allah sobhanAllah wa ta’ala.
The one who says it benefits from its light (noor), as well as the one who hears it and this noor reflects back into the heart.
The first person to benefit is the utterer of la ilaha illAllah, the noor of la ilaha illAllah goes to the ears, then the heart and increases the faith in the heart and then is translated into actions by the limbs and it is the beginning of the spiritual ascension to Allah Sobhanawata’ala.
Persons with the highest faith are the ones who remember Allah the most.
In a hadith, our prophet peace and blessings be upon him talks about the ones who are ahead everybody else in religion and says that they are the ones who are engaged in more dhikr (remembrance of Allah).
The good deeds are numerous and we may sometimes find difficult to compete on every field, charity, fasting, reading qur’an, helping people, waking up at night for praying (tahajud) ect..
To compete with the bests in term of good deeds we must associate our good deeds with a lot of remembrance of Allah.
In a hadith qudsi Allah says that each time we remember Him, He remembers us, so this is this relation with Allah Sobhanawata’ala that will cut the journey, put us forward and give us closeness to Him.
It is very difficult for the devil (ashaytan) to get the heart of the one who remembers Allah abundantly and put into it arrogance or showing off because with the remembrance of Allah the devil is burnt.
When a person increases his dhikr, Allah increases the remembrance of this person among the angels, in the world of the unseen, then as the person increases his dhikr it drives him and he becomes all dhikr, he is always remembering Allah, so even if he enters his home it is in dhikr, and the devil doesn’t even dare to approach him.
The people of barzakh, the deads, regret each single moment they didn’t remember Allah, they whish they could come back to this world to make more dhikr.
There are countless proofs on the necessity of actions; this is despite the fact that the servant shall attain Paradise by the grace and favor of Allah the Exalted, for such is after the slave’s readiness to obey and worship Him. Verily the mercy of Allah is very close to the doers of good.
We enter Paradise only by the Mercy of Allah (not because of our good actions).
However the level we will have in Paradise will be according to our actions.
Knowledge must be followed by actions and our knowledge is a proof against us until we put it into actions.
If we go to a gathering of knowledge with the intention to put into actions what we will learn, 4 things will be manifest upon us:
1) Allah will grant us the true understanding of the knowledge (the same understanding as the prophet peace and blessings be upon him.) To know if we got the same understanding than the prophet (pbuh) we must look from who we took the knowledge, our sheikh must have taken his knowledge from an unbroken chain back to the prophet (pbuh).
2) Allah gives him the ability to put that knowledge into action.
3) He benefits personally of that knowledge and we can see the light of that knowledge on him because he is putting it into action.
4) He benefits other with that knowledge.
And if we don’t have the intention of putting the knowledge into action then we get nothing.
It may be said that the slave may reach that status through faith alone. We say ‘yes’, but when will he be able to reach it? How many obstacles is the ravine of iman and who is secure [enough to guarantee] that he will not lose his iman? And if a man loses his iman, he will be bankrupt and be dismayed in the Hereafter. Hasan Al-Basri said: “Allah will say to His slaves on the day of Judgment: ‘allow my slaves to enter Paradise by my mercy and divide it amongst them according to their deeds.’”
Imam al Ghazali warns us:
Beware that the state of the heart changes.
If we don’t appreciate the value of iman (faith) that Allah has given us then we fear that Allah may take it away.
[Like we would remove a precious jewel from the hands of a child that doesn’t appreciate its value and may play with it and through it away.]
The reasons for the faith to diminish and be taken away from a person are:
1) Feeling safe from the advice of Allah. (being indifferent, not caring of the advices given in the qur’an by Allah, sobhanawata’ala, if something is forbidden or detested the person doesn’t really care.)
2) To mix with people engaged in the major sins, by mixing with them he takes from their characteristics.( this 2nd point is actually a cause of the 1rst point)
The true believer is the one for who a small sin appears like a mountain to him while for the hypocrite the big sin appears like a fly to him.
3) Inventing innovations in religion and the reason for that is that the person takes his knowledge from everywhere but not from a sheikh that has sanad mutassel which is an unbroken chain going back to the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He takes his knowledge from people of falsehood which affects his aqida, his creed.
4) Belittling the beloved to Allah, His prophets ,the companions (sahiba), the person from the prophet’s family, His angels, the awlya (the ones close to Allah). In a hadith Qudsi Allah says (the meaning of it is:) “whoever hurt my awlya I will declare war upon them”. In this case we are sure to lose the war…and those people die with a terrible ending.
Note: Allah hides, covers His awlya from His mercy because he wants us to benefit from everybody and doesn’t want us to belittle anybody, we must see everybody as a potential wali and respect every person.
Similarly Allah didn’t reveal to us which night was the night of the Destiny during the month of Ramadan (layla al Qadr) because if people knew for sure its date they would concentrate all their efforts on this night and belittle the others nights.
“Consider each person as being Al Kheder and behave each night as if it was laylat al qadr” [Al kheder is a wali met by Musa (pbuh) whose story is mentioned in surat al kahf]
Hasan Al-Basri said: “Allah will say to His slaves on the day of Judgment: ‘allow my slaves to enter Paradise by my mercy and divide it amongst them according to their deeds.’”
Hasan al basri says that in the end all of our actions are from Allah and He is The One who enables us to perform good deeds and He is The One who accepts them or not, He can reject all of them if He wants.
But Allah is The most Merciful of the Merciful, may He make us taste the sweetness of being close to Him. Ameen
و صلى الله على سيدنا و حبيبنا محمد و على اله و صحبه و سلم و الحمد لله رب العالمين
[…]And what of these traditions from the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه و سلم : “Islam is built on 5 pillars: testifying there is no deity but Allah, establishing the prayer, paying the zakah, fasting in Ramadan and performing hajj of the sacred house for those able to do so.” Iman (faith) is confession with the tongue and belief with the heart and performance of the pillar of Islam.
This life (dunya) is a farm land of the after life (al akhera), we must plant the seeds now in order to get the reward in the future.
Faith (iman) is:what the heart believes with certainty in term of testimony of faith Of Allah.
The tongue pronounces what the heart holds for certain and the limbs translate this belief into actions;
We have:
a) The certainty of the heart
b) The saying of the tongue
c) The actions of the limbs
The meaning of faith is what a believer does according to the creed which is in his heart.
What is inside the heart will be translated into actions.
Link between the heart the tongue and the actions:
Everyday the limbs address the tongue and say: ”O tongue, have fear in Allah with us, if you behave in a proper way (say good) we will also behave in a proper way, however if you say wrong things it can lead us to do wrong”
When we say the testimony of faith for example, this saying is a divine light from Allah sobhanAllah wa ta’ala.
The one who says it benefits from its light (noor), as well as the one who hears it and this noor reflects back into the heart.
The first person to benefit is the utterer of la ilaha illAllah, the noor of la ilaha illAllah goes to the ears, then the heart and increases the faith in the heart and then is translated into actions by the limbs and it is the beginning of the spiritual ascension to Allah Sobhanawata’ala.
Persons with the highest faith are the ones who remember Allah the most.
In a hadith, our prophet peace and blessings be upon him talks about the ones who are ahead everybody else in religion and says that they are the ones who are engaged in more dhikr (remembrance of Allah).
The good deeds are numerous and we may sometimes find difficult to compete on every field, charity, fasting, reading qur’an, helping people, waking up at night for praying (tahajud) ect..
To compete with the bests in term of good deeds we must associate our good deeds with a lot of remembrance of Allah.
In a hadith qudsi Allah says that each time we remember Him, He remembers us, so this is this relation with Allah Sobhanawata’ala that will cut the journey, put us forward and give us closeness to Him.
It is very difficult for the devil (ashaytan) to get the heart of the one who remembers Allah abundantly and put into it arrogance or showing off because with the remembrance of Allah the devil is burnt.
When a person increases his dhikr, Allah increases the remembrance of this person among the angels, in the world of the unseen, then as the person increases his dhikr it drives him and he becomes all dhikr, he is always remembering Allah, so even if he enters his home it is in dhikr, and the devil doesn’t even dare to approach him.
The people of barzakh, the deads, regret each single moment they didn’t remember Allah, they whish they could come back to this world to make more dhikr.
There are countless proofs on the necessity of actions; this is despite the fact that the servant shall attain Paradise by the grace and favor of Allah the Exalted, for such is after the slave’s readiness to obey and worship Him. Verily the mercy of Allah is very close to the doers of good.
We enter Paradise only by the Mercy of Allah (not because of our good actions).
However the level we will have in Paradise will be according to our actions.
Knowledge must be followed by actions and our knowledge is a proof against us until we put it into actions.
If we go to a gathering of knowledge with the intention to put into actions what we will learn, 4 things will be manifest upon us:
1) Allah will grant us the true understanding of the knowledge (the same understanding as the prophet peace and blessings be upon him.) To know if we got the same understanding than the prophet (pbuh) we must look from who we took the knowledge, our sheikh must have taken his knowledge from an unbroken chain back to the prophet (pbuh).
2) Allah gives him the ability to put that knowledge into action.
3) He benefits personally of that knowledge and we can see the light of that knowledge on him because he is putting it into action.
4) He benefits other with that knowledge.
And if we don’t have the intention of putting the knowledge into action then we get nothing.
It may be said that the slave may reach that status through faith alone. We say ‘yes’, but when will he be able to reach it? How many obstacles is the ravine of iman and who is secure [enough to guarantee] that he will not lose his iman? And if a man loses his iman, he will be bankrupt and be dismayed in the Hereafter. Hasan Al-Basri said: “Allah will say to His slaves on the day of Judgment: ‘allow my slaves to enter Paradise by my mercy and divide it amongst them according to their deeds.’”
Imam al Ghazali warns us:
Beware that the state of the heart changes.
If we don’t appreciate the value of iman (faith) that Allah has given us then we fear that Allah may take it away.
[Like we would remove a precious jewel from the hands of a child that doesn’t appreciate its value and may play with it and through it away.]
The reasons for the faith to diminish and be taken away from a person are:
1) Feeling safe from the advice of Allah. (being indifferent, not caring of the advices given in the qur’an by Allah, sobhanawata’ala, if something is forbidden or detested the person doesn’t really care.)
2) To mix with people engaged in the major sins, by mixing with them he takes from their characteristics.( this 2nd point is actually a cause of the 1rst point)
The true believer is the one for who a small sin appears like a mountain to him while for the hypocrite the big sin appears like a fly to him.
3) Inventing innovations in religion and the reason for that is that the person takes his knowledge from everywhere but not from a sheikh that has sanad mutassel which is an unbroken chain going back to the prophet Muhammad (pbuh). He takes his knowledge from people of falsehood which affects his aqida, his creed.
4) Belittling the beloved to Allah, His prophets ,the companions (sahiba), the person from the prophet’s family, His angels, the awlya (the ones close to Allah). In a hadith Qudsi Allah says (the meaning of it is:) “whoever hurt my awlya I will declare war upon them”. In this case we are sure to lose the war…and those people die with a terrible ending.
Note: Allah hides, covers His awlya from His mercy because he wants us to benefit from everybody and doesn’t want us to belittle anybody, we must see everybody as a potential wali and respect every person.
Similarly Allah didn’t reveal to us which night was the night of the Destiny during the month of Ramadan (layla al Qadr) because if people knew for sure its date they would concentrate all their efforts on this night and belittle the others nights.
“Consider each person as being Al Kheder and behave each night as if it was laylat al qadr” [Al kheder is a wali met by Musa (pbuh) whose story is mentioned in surat al kahf]
Hasan Al-Basri said: “Allah will say to His slaves on the day of Judgment: ‘allow my slaves to enter Paradise by my mercy and divide it amongst them according to their deeds.’”
Hasan al basri says that in the end all of our actions are from Allah and He is The One who enables us to perform good deeds and He is The One who accepts them or not, He can reject all of them if He wants.
But Allah is The most Merciful of the Merciful, may He make us taste the sweetness of being close to Him. Ameen
و صلى الله على سيدنا و حبيبنا محمد و على اله و صحبه و سلم و الحمد لله رب العالمين