Abdullah Oduro – Invocations of God #16 Expiations From Allah
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The importance of actions in worship is discussed, emphasizing the need for sincerity and trust in worship. acceptance is a foundational principle based on actions and needs, and understanding actions in relation to oneself is crucial for reward intensity. Prayerers must act with caution and minimize effort, as actions cannot eliminate evil deeds. The importance of fasting and practicing is emphasized, and learning and practicing to strengthen one's connection with Allah is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
So Ibn Uqayim goes on to mention after
speaking about
making Allah
great, glorifying him and extolling him,
and remember this was talking about one of
the signs
of,
istiqaamatulqalb
which is
the first one being to love Allah more
than anything else and the second one is
being of Tawlim al Amr wal Nahi making
the order and the prohibitions of Islam great
in your life. But that will not happen
unless there's ta'lim al amr and nahi, unless
you make the one that is legislated the
orders and the prohibitions great in your life.
In other words, you're not going to find
the Halal and Haram. It's not going to
be something that you hold dearly
and and and and heavy in your heart
unless Allah is held dearly and heavy in
your heart because He is the one that
has legislated it. So,
he gave some signs of Tawhidim at Amr
Naha, he gave some signs of being those
that are that that hold the the the
the the orders of Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala,
in their heart with the example of the
salawat and the prayers and holding that in
high regard.
But then he goes on to talk about
another subject matter, which is
a subject subset of this particular subject matter.
And he says here,
after he says,
He said the salah that has no khushoor,
no
undivided attention
is like the body that has no soul
in it.
He says,
He said that verily there is nothing for
the prayer in the prayer of the individual
for the slave except that which they are
have their undivided attention and understand and are
fully aware of.
There's a Hadith where the Prophet SallAllahu Alaihi
Wasallam said, Verily, the servant will perform a
prayer and there is nothing that is written
for him. You need reward
except that, except a half of it or
a third of it or a fourth of
it until he reached a 5th of it,
or a 5th of it until he reached
a 10th of it. And this hadith is
adheem jidun as Ibn Uqayyim uses this hadith
to establish another
principle
or subject matter that is important in regards
to actions. He says Rahimu Allah.
This is very interesting and this is fiqh
of the religion
where Ibn Uqaym says
after this mention in this hadith, remember this
hadith because this hadith is the alslu. It
is the foundational,
principle or foundational,
hadith in this subject matter. He says, and
it is important that it is known
that all actions
take this particular method methodology.
Okay? He says,
So he says here, the variance and preference
of actions is solely dependent on the variance
of what is in the hearts from Iman
and Ikhlas and love and that which follows
it. So when we're talking about an action
being performed,
the variance here is the intensity
of acceptance. The level of acceptance
is dependent upon the level of sincerity.
He even says,
and that's beautiful here because a man can
be more general.
The belief,
the tasdikh,
the
full faith
in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and Ikhlas and Ikhlas is sincerity
to Allah and then he says walmahaba
and love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
right?
And and that which follows it from fear,
from reverence,
from trust in Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala depending
on what the action is, the intensity of
these feelings or these aspects of iman
is what will
entail or determine the intensity
of its reward, the intensity of its reward.
And then he goes on to say, Rahimullah,
Then he goes on to the other subject
matter
which
is expiations of sins, but I want to
talk about this particularly because when Ibn Uqaym
branches off
when talking about, remember, he was talking about
holding Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's orders great in
your life and then mentioning the prayer, But
he's saying, remember the prayer, you only get
the prayer from what you are attentive and
present in. As he mentioned earlier,
undivided attention in your heart is present
remembering and fiqh of the religion when bringing
this hadith, you don't know if it's a
half, a third, a fourth, a 5th, 6th,
7th, 8th, 9th, a 10th of your prayer
that was accepted. The other 9th was not.
You don't know.
What you can rely on and try your
best to do, not even rely on, try
your best is to have sincerity
and iman
and love and trust and honor and fear.
All of these are aspects of worship and
what will bring these aspects of worship to
life is when you think of the names
and attributes of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What
will bring this to life is when you
recognize the blessings
Musa Hadatul Mina he talked about earlier and
recognize your deficiencies.
In the prayer, you can think about that.
You say, Allahu Akbar. You think about
how Allah has given you the house that
you are in, how Allah has given you
your health, you recognize the Minna,
you are recognizing it And then you realize,
I couldn't have done this by myself. This
job, this office that I'm praying in right
now, I did I couldn't have attained this
by myself.
Right? The prayer that I'm praying right now
after taking my exam that I feel really
good about, that was from the Tawfiq of
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. What Allah has taken
away
from something that I value most,
He gave it to me and He can
take it away. I recognize the minna, the
blessings, and I recognize my deficiencies.
So recognizing those blessings increases my love of
Him, which when I think about it in
the prayer, my love increases in the prayer
in the prayer. So from that time that
you weren't thinking, probably not being accepted, Allah
knows best, but when you started to think
about what you have been given,
your love increases. Now,
the path of acceptance is getting more and
more intensified.
And, when you recognize your deficiencies, you recognize
how small you are in comparison to Allah,
how you're nothing without Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
how the choices that what He's put in
front of you is because He loves you.
You recognize that and that is from the
Ikhlas, the sincerity. Oh, Allah, I'm doing this
for you and I want your blessings. That's
what makes you more of a humble servant
and that's what intensifies
the in the prayer and in any action
of worship, even giving charity, even smiling at
your fellow brother to bring happiness into his
heart. That is what intensifies it,
and that's what makes it pure.
So with this beautiful hadith, it is a
foundational principle in regards to the acceptance of
an action. It's not black or white. It's
not black or white. There are some black
or white things when it comes to the
pillars of something and what is prohibited, which
we're going to talk about inshallahum
ta'ala.
Ibn Uqayim goes on to talk about the
mukafirat
after mentioning
that hadith
on the levels of acceptance. He says here,
He says in this particular action,
transitioning on to expiation, he said this particular
action,
complete action, this is what
will receive expiations
for it, complete expiations,
and the deficiencies will be based on what
we talked about earlier, the the level of
things that will prohibit
it from complete expiation.
And then in the middle of the game,
he says here
and with these two principles,
a lot of problems are solved.
Wawuma and they are.
And This is the first one which he
talked about which he says here, the variance
of
actions is contingent and dependent upon the variance
of the intensity
of
a man in the heart.
We talked about that and then he mentions
the second one which he's about to explain
and the second Qaida, second rule is
and the expiation of the action of the
evil action,
being dependent on the completeness
and the deficiency
of
that action.
And that action, which we talked about earlier,
when we say the action, know that when
it when when the prophet is saying any
action is accepted or so on and so
on.
This is the best thing, beloved to Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Ibn Uqeem gave us the foundations even when
you talk about action, what do you mean?
Yes, there's the action that you perform of
how to perform the prayer but the
but didn't make it as he mentioned. The
prayer with no khushur
is like the salah it the the prayer
with is like the body with no soul.
Now what is a?
The intensity of love, all these aspects of
iman. Love, fear, reverence, trust, all of these
aspects of iman, which we talked about before.
So now, he's saying,
this action that you're doing can possibly even
or it does
relinquish and eliminate evil deeds. You know, as
Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says in the chapter
of Hud verse 114, which is another foundational
principle
That verily the good deeds relinquish the evil
deeds. So, a good deed that you perform,
you receive reward for it, but how it
is manifest is up to Allah.
Maybe he will
erase that evil deed that you performed right
before you did that good action.
Maybe you did an evil action
and Allah put in front of you, stuck
for Allah. I need to get up and
pray. Or stuck for Allah. I need to
leave this conversation and leave this room.
And because you did that, he forgave you
for that previous sinful practice that you did
and you sought remorse for. You never know.
Right? And that's what is, SubhanAllah, beautiful
in regards to this, you relying on Allah
at all times because you never know. You
do your best. So So, Ibn Okaym goes
on to say here, what we have that
Allah The prophet Sallallahu Alaihi says here, what
we had that and with this, what we
just mentioned, these two particular characteristics or rules,
He said, it solves a problem for those
that may not have clear understanding
or or or or
pure understanding
of in this particular chapter of life or
of actions,
and he mentioned upon the Hadith of the
Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, verily the fasting on
the day of Arafa
expiates 2 years and the fasting on the
day of Ashura
expiates
1
year. And this hadith particularly is on Muslim,
number 1,172
62.
He says here,
Then the question may arise. The question may
arise. He says, if if this is someone's
regular practice to fast,
you know, to fast on the day of
Arafah every year and to fast the day
of Ashura
every year, how
does 3 years of expiation happen in 1
year? Because fasting on Yom A'rafha, the Prophet
SallAllahu Alaihi Wasallam said,
it
expiates the sins of the year before and
the sins of the year after so I'm
fine fasting Omarafa
1987
Insha'Allah if Allah wills it will relinquish the
sins of 1986
and the sins of 1988.
Now, fasting Yomah Ashurah
will relinquish the sins of 1987
possibly or any year because he says
But scholars generally mention that in
general. So,
how can it be fasting 3 years
2+1
in that year? He
said,
He says and and some some scholars answered
on this particular that whatever,
basically, you will receive high levels and be
given in a different type of way. Allah
Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala knows.
He
says,
and
he's
amazed.
He
said,
He said, firstly basically saying, firstly, think about
even doing the action.
Even doing the action. And this is important
when it comes to
the adab, the manners when when when when
asking questions
about particular fada'il or good deeds. It's okay
to ask and be inquisitive
and to ask how does this happen, but
the first thing is am I even doing
it?
Am I even doing it? And that is
what is important here.
Act.
Act. Act. Don't get too caught up in
analysis paralysis.
Ask the question and keep it moving. Even
if you really don't know the logic behind
it, you know that the hadith
and that the verse is authentic the verse
is diverse.
Right? Do the action first
and then ask the question.
So here,
he's saying,
if
they
were
to
come with these
expiratory
actions, all of them, that the sins would
be,
relinquished
All of them, relinquished insha'Allah.
He should always see himself as deficient.
So here, he says here, He says,
and these
relinquishment of actions have conditions.
He said that they,
are done with with,
the relinquishment
of anything that would prohibit the reward. So
so for example, I say, Allahu Akbar in
the prayer and then I start I get
on my phone. That is a prohibited act
which will relinquish the reward of the prayer
and nullify it even, right. You stay awake,
you don't have anything that would nullify
that action that you are doing. Okay.
So then he gave the 2 conditions,
the 2 preliminary
conditions that will cause an action
to serve as an expiratory,
instrument,
against the evil deeds.
He said, if the slave knew that he
came with all of the conditions
and all of the prohibitory
actions
were relinquished or not there.
The things that prohibit, the inaction being accepted,
this is when the expiation takes place.
This is when the expiation takes place.
So
then he gives the example. He remind he
he he gives the
and then he gives the example.
Right?
So then he says here, but as far
as the action
that is full of and comprised of
negligence
and,
even more than that, like negligence. You're praying
in the prayer and you're negligent
of what you're wearing. You're wearing something that
has a face on it, a picture on
it, or you're praying in a prayer you're
praying a prayer in a place that is
nudges or you don't even remember if you
made wudu or not. Right? All of these
things prohibit
the action from being accepted.
Right? Or you're not fulfilling the arkan.
You're you you come and you say Allahu
Akbar and then you don't care whether you
did 3 or 4. In your mind, did
I do 3 or 4? It doesn't matter.
I just want to get this over with.
These are it's not you're not attentive.
You're not taking it to high importance.
Right?
Then he says here,
and he lost the sincerity. He's thinking about
something totally different.
He's thinking about work or he's doing it
to impress somebody, right. You're praying the prayer
but you want to impress somebody,
right? That's riya. That could be riya.
So the ikhlas that is the soul of
the prayer,
then there's not going to be any
any type of, takfir because he did not
fulfill
the pillars,
the Wajibat, which is obligatory for him or
her nor did he have any of the
feelings from that, the feelings,
internally from the Iman that brings the life
to the prayer. Then he asks for
so how is this going to be any
form of expiation?
And this is important because when we look
at this, especially for those that are studying
Filk, sometimes it can be very dry. You
study the arkan. Okay. There are there's 14
arkan with the Hanabula and so on and
so forth. 18 with this method. Okay. Now,
right. Yeah. We have to have the clause
but you have to have these. No. Remember,
all of these are a means. Salah in
and of itself
is a means for you to strengthen your
connection with Allah.
It is not the goal. It is a
means that Allah has legislated
for us and those means we should hold
dearly and in high regard because Allah legislated
it. When you hold it in high regard
that is proof of you holding Allah in
high regard. And that's what Ibn UQaim is
articulating here. That's why this chain of thought
is so beautiful because it's all connected.
It's all connected and this is what gives
you fiqh of the religion.
This is the beauty of reading the books
of the earlier scholars
in all honors best.