Belief in the Books
Sheik Bilal continues to discuss the moral foundation of Six Pillars of Faith & on the continuity on the Belief on Books.
Jumu’ah Khutbah @ Masjid Bin Zaid (FANAR)
Bilal Philips – Belief In The Books
AI: Summary ©
The belief in God and moral characteristics of Islam are the cornerstones of religion, and global globalization affects people's lives. The speakers emphasize the importance of belief in Islam, gratitude, and being patient in difficult situations. They also mention the importance of gratitude and thankfulness in personal and professional life, as it is essential for happiness and blessings.
AI: Transcript ©
Brothers and sisters
today
continuing with a topic we began many years ago
looking at the moral foundations behind the Pillars of Islam and Eman.
We have already covered the Pillars of Islam.
And
a few weeks ago, we began to cover the pillars of email.
We looked at the pillar of belief in Allah,
and the moral characteristics, which it should engender in our lives.
And we looked at belief in the angels, something we don't think about too often. But something which needs to be thought about,
because of the fact that the last month Allah made it, the second pillar of faith.
This week, we will be looking at the belief in the books,
believe in the books of Revelation, which are law revealed to humankind.
Belief in the books
begins with a basic concept,
a concept which is very important in our times, because of the fact that so many people, especially
in the sources of globalization, so many people there
who nominally consider themselves to be Christians and others.
Who nominally say I believe in God,
but who practically deny religion?
who say yes, I believe in God.
But I don't believe in organized religion.
So what do I do? I pick and choose from what I like what I've read what I've heard, and I make up my own religion, you know, based on what I feel is appropriate, what I feel makes sense etc. And I live my life accordingly.
And that is seen as being okay.
Everybody finds his or her own way.
However, that concept, as attractive as it might seem,
actually, is a an affront to Allah.
It is an affront to God.
It is in fact,
saying that God was not wise.
He didn't reveal to his creatures
the way of life that he wanted from them, Islam.
Religion, he didn't reveal it.
Religion is made up by people.
And that concept, as I said,
attacks a very basic principle of belief in God.
That he is all wise. He is a hockey,
accidental hockey mean.
He describes himself
as Why is in so many different ways in the Koran.
And he stresses the importance of wisdom.
And all human beings recognize the importance of wisdom.
We pride ourselves in being wise. We look down at those who are not wise.
So if we consider that a law created this world
and then did not inform people
What he required of them,
we would have to say, that wasn't a very wise God.
Because in our day to day lives, we can see the results, confusion, chaos.
If information is not given, concerning purpose,
the way if it's not made clear,
as an owner of a factory,
one puts an advertisement in the newspaper for workers for the factory.
And then when the workers come, we don't tell the workers what they're supposed to do in the factory. So what do we think is going to happen to that factory, workers are just going to go in and find their spot and, you know, get in line and do what they're supposed to do? Know, they will go to the canteen, drink tea and chat
till somebody comes in, tell them, hey, do you should be behind that machine and you should be doing this. And you should be doing that and come in at this time and leave at that time. And
a factory owner who would do that we say it's foolish,
is foolish.
Similarly, if we didn't tell children what they're supposed to do at school, we just sent them we just one day they reach a certain age, we just dropped them off at school.
And each child has to figure out for himself what he has to do at school. What do you think I think he's gonna just go marching into the classroom sit down and wait for the teacher, or is he going to go to the playground, to the play yard, swing on the swings and slide on the slides and enjoy?
We would have to say, that parent, that school system wasn't very wise.
Wisdom requires that
people are given information
with regards to what they should do, under the different circumstances that they find themselves in that is wisdom.
Other than that,
is a lack of wisdom, foolishness. So when one says that God created this world and left it to run on its own,
that's what that person is actually saying.
He's saying, God wasn't very wise.
So that belief, and as I said, it's important to understand that that belief is a popular and common belief. Now, today, the average Christian because of what he has seen and heard about Christianity, the Catholic priests, you know, The Da Vinci Code, and all this other foolishness that is out there, they've seen enough things they read enough, they know that Christianity is fabricated by human beings, clear. They are the Bible, they have changing from year to year, decade to decade, new version, latest version, new international standard, and all these other different versions. Any thinking person has to say, Hey, this is people making this religion.
So his or her conclusion is all religion is like that.
Of course, when they look at Buddhism, or look at Hinduism, and what's happening there,
it's clear.
So they judge our religion in that way.
And they don't consider looking at Islam thinking that it's no different from the others, based on what information comes to them in the media or whatever.
So this is the common belief today,
in the countries where the massive people claim to believe in God, that is the common belief. And we find that belief actually occurred even amongst some Muslims, Muslims who have been exposed to Western education in one way or form, having studied in America, UK, Europe, etc, being bombarded by the ideas, these kinds of ideas, raising doubts in their own minds about Islam.
But
that is part of the consequence of global globalization.
What people always talk about globalization, globalization, of what?
globalization have a civilization that has lost its roots that has lost its foundation.
Its moorings it is just
at sea adrift, no rudder
To guide it, because once one cuts off the foundation of Revelation,
when a society says, We are secular, that's basically what you're saying secular democratic society says, we are cutting off our roots to Revelation.
We can decide for ourselves, what is best for ourselves. Once a civilization takes that route, then they go astray. That is the natural consequence. And we see it, we live it today.
From the Islamic perspective, a law from the time that he created Adam
and Eve,
he gave them the way of life that they were to live their religion. And we believe that religion was the religion of Islam.
Nobody can argue that the religion could possibly have been Christianity, or Judaism, or Buddhism, or any of the other isms, nobody could really argue that point because none of these founders were around at the time of Adam.
But the very fact that the law commanded Adam,
not to eat from the tree to eat from all of the other trees, but not to eat from that particular tree, what was required of Adam was submission,
submission to the will of Allah.
And that is the definition of Islam.
So, Allah
sent books of revelation for human beings,
from his mercy,
because
he already placed in every human being an awareness and a consciousness of himself, as I explained in the seventh chapter of the Quran, that when he took from Adam, all of his descendants, at the time of the creation of Adam, on the spiritual plane, he took out all descendants all human beings would ever exist in this world.
As spirits were all created, before we came into this world.
And he asked all of this massive spirits, spirits that would be in human beings over the generations, he asked them Alice to be Rob McComb, Am I not your Lord? And all of the spirits bore witness balharshah hidden.
Indeed, we bear witness.
And the law said that he did that. So that no one would say, later on. We didn't know anything about this. We didn't know anything about belief in God.
We could blame our grandparents and our parents, it's their fault. It's not our fault, why we don't believe.
So this consciousness of God is placed in every human beings soul
when he comes into this world, and that's why Prophet Mohammed Solomon said, Could Lumo Ludin, you lead to lol fitrah. Every child is born in a natural state of belief in Allah.
That's how all children are born. Or we say every child is born Muslim,
submitting to Allah.
That is the natural state, but it is his parents who divert him to Judaism, to Christianity, to Zoroastrianism, etc.
But have you been left on his own?
He would have worshipped a law alone
naturally.
So every human being has that core of faith.
And technically speaking, that should have been sufficient to guide him or her in this life. However, from the grace of Allah,
where He bestows on us blessings, which we don't particularly have a right to. This is the grace of Allah. He has given us what we haven't earned.
He gives us
Books of Revelation,
which would outline for people, the way of life, Islam, and how it should be implemented in their lives.
So belief in a law,
belief in his books,
requires that we believe that the law revealed scriptures to the various nations of the world.
His word, his message came to us in revealed texts. Some of them are mentioned in the Quran. And of course, we have to believe in those that are mentioned in the Quran.
The Psalms, the Gospels, the Torah,
what was given to Prophet Abraham,
books given to Prophet Abraham. Also, Prophet Mohammed Salah mentioned books given to Prophet Adam,
messages were given as revelation, and we believe in all of them.
However,
we at the same time recognize that those books of revelation have not remained in their original form. These books of revelation
have not remained in their original condition.
These books reveal to the prophets
contained the basic message of Islam,
which is
to worship Allah alone,
and not to worship others besides or along with him.
worship of Allah alone.
Part of belief in the books
is belief that the final book, The Quran,
is the only book
which has remained in its original form.
And this belief is not one.
Based on prejudice, we as Muslims want to say our book is the original one.
Pure the Word of God. But that's what the Christians say. That's what the Jews say. That's what others say. What makes what we say any different from what they say, well,
scientific, academic research establishes without a shadow of a doubt that the Torah
the Gospels
have been changed.
They are not original scriptures.
Whereas
the Quran
put under the same
meticulous study
where manuscripts were gathered from all over the Muslim world,
from the museums of Europe, and America.
And compared
after all of this comparison,
it was concluded that the Quran has not changed.
It is the same Koran
that Muhammad may God's peace and blessings be upon him,
taught his followers
about whether it was revealed or not. That's another issue.
We believe it was revealed. But
Western scientific research in this matter establishes that the Quran has remained for 1400 years unchanged. So part of our belief in the books is belief that the Quran has not changed. It is the only book of Revelation that has remained pure, untouched without any additions or deletions from the time of its revelation. Until today. What then,
is the character the moral
principle that we
Should extract from belief in the revealed books.
First and foremost,
the most primary
moral principle is that of gratitude, that of gratitude that we be thankful to Allah,
thankful to Allah, for
the books of Revelation, because as we said, it is from the grace of Allah. It is not what we deserved.
But from his mercy and His grace, he gave us books of Revelation.
So, first and foremost, we should be thankful to Allah. And you find this concept of thankfulness stressed throughout the teachings of Islam.
The very fact you have
the opening chapter of the Quran, which we recite at least 17 times a day,
begins with what al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen.
All thanks. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds
that whenever we turn to a law,
we should turn to Him, beginning with gratitude for what he has given us. Always let that be first.
being thankful, because when we lose sight of that, then we become
on grateful, we become desirous of things that really we shouldn't be focusing on, we start to blame others, we start to blame a law we start to
it leads to a very
weak character, who, in himself or herself,
cannot recognize the good in their lives.
The good which exists in our lives, we cannot appreciate.
So all we can see, is negative, bad, evil. Why? So you even find people saying, Well, why did God even create me in the first place?
reality
is that thankfulness gratitude is a fundamental
characteristic which each and every believer must have as a basic primary characteristic of their own individual.
character.
Its primary.
Its balance is patience.
We have gratitude
and patience.
These scholars of the past used to refer to as the two wings
of the faith,
making faith like a bird which has two wings.
If you lose one of the wings, then you can fly.
Gratitude and patience and Prophet Mohammed wa salam summed it up
in a hadith narrated by suhaib in Sudan,
in which he said, the affair of the believer is amazing. The whole of his life is beneficial. And that is only in the case of the believer.
When good time comes to him, he is thankful and it is good for him. Allah rewards him for it. And when bad times before him, he is patient, and it's also good for him. Allah rewards him for it.
This is the win win situation that is spoken off.
Both times because our lives is either between
success or failure.
Good or bad.
What we want and what we don't want, that is the nature of our lives. So what's required of us when what we desire comes, gratitude, thankfulness to Allah not becoming so overwhelmed with
Happiness, that we forget the law and we abused the gifts which he has given us.
And at the same time when trials come when difficulty comes, we are patient
knowing that whatever trials we face
what a law has prescribed for us and for our faith
and the prophets I send them gave us guidance in this regard to help us to develop this quality saying, Look to those less fortunate than you
and not to those
above you. It is our nature to look to those above us so on so has a good this he has a good that has a nice car is a nice home, he has a nice days, he has a nice that we look to Him. And when you look to Him, what did you what happens, then what you have, isn't so nice anymore.
Looking to those above you so the problem is our solemn said, Don't look to those above you.
Look to those less fortunate than you. Because no matter how bad your situation is, there is a world less fortunate than you.
And you will be thankful that when you look to those less fortunate, then you will be thankful hamdulillah
Prophet Muhammad wa sallam also said,
Man, lamb, yes, goodness, let me ask you the law. Whoever doesn't thank people, doesn't thank Allah.
So Alhamdulillah thanks to Allah. When we say that, then we don't thank people, then
the ranking of a law becomes meaningless.
A law doesn't accept it.
Because what a law gives us comes through people.
Though we recognize that it ultimately comes from a law, it's still a law has destined that it comes through people. So therefore, we should thank those people through whom it came. Not because
Allah needs for us to thank them, but because they need to be thanked to encourage them to do more good. Because when you do something good for people, and they don't thank you. What do you think that's a thankless person?
ungrateful. I don't think I'll do anything more for that person.
we as human beings don't have the ability to keep on doing good. When people don't show good in return. Don't show thanks. Don't show appreciation. This is our nature.
A lot. Allah subhanaw taala. He's the one who does good, even though we don't appreciate even though we even deny his existence, he still does good. That is Allah. Human beings are not that way. So Allah made thanking people, an obligation.
And
at the same time,
this thanks, giving thanks to a law
is the distinction
between paradise and *.
It is the distinction between paradise and *. People often ask
what about so and so?
They didn't believe in God. But they were good people.
They were good people. They lived good lives. They did good things. What about these people? Do they deserve to be in * forever?
Simply because of that small issue. They didn't believe in God.
I believe
* forever. But in life, they did so many good things.
We say to them.
What about a child
who is raised by his or her mother?
She does everything for that child sacrifices
giving birth to
staying awake at night, suffering
all for that child.
And then
A child grows up,
rejects his mother
doesn't want to have anything to do with her. But he is kind to his neighbors kind to everybody else he does for them. He helps them he's always there for them. But his mother, yet does Martha Martin anything to do with?
What do we say about such a child?
We say that that child is truly ungrateful, the value of his kindness to others. When he is not kind to the most primary source of goodness in his life, we say, it's misled, it's misguided. He's a straight.
And a law is much more kind than that mother.
So,
in the same way, the good that those do, who don't believe in Allah who have rejected a lie, et cetera, a lion is mercy reward them for it in this life, but there is nothing for them in the life to come.
And this is the guidance which Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam pointed us to
gratitude in our lives. We ask Allah to make us among those who are grateful,
who are conscious of the blessings of Allah in our lives.
That we ask Peace and blessings from Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
in gratitude for the efforts that he made to bring this way of life to us in our generation.
We ask Allah to make gratitude real in our lives, in our practical lives, not only on our lips,
but that we show true gratitude to him by sharing what we have with those around us.
We ask Allah to make our faith real.
We ask a law to allow us to live this world on that true faith. I mean,