Belief in the Prophets & Messengers
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)
Belief in the Prophets & Messengers
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)
Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato. Brothers and sisters, today, we'll be looking at the moral character principles to be deduced from belief in the messengers of Allah.
And this is a continuation of what we started. Many July's ago,
looking at the moral principles behind the Pillars of Islam, and Eman are the pillars of faith.
Because, as we said,
these pillars of Islam and pillars of faith, were designed by our last one to Allah to fulfill or to help us to fulfill the goals of Islam.
And among the highest goals of Islam, as Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam said, in my book is to Little Timmy Mama, Karima o'clock, I was only sent to perfect for you, the highest of moral character traits.
So this is among the highest goals of Islam, that it bring out of us, we deduce from its teachings and apply in our lives, moral principles which would guide us throughout our lives in this world,
in our day to day life, with our families, with our neighbors, with our community, with the country in which we live,
how we deal with the environment around us, how we deal on the job,
how we do deal as directors of companies, street cleaners, whatever
position we might be in society, there is guidance in Islam, moral guidance in Islam, for each and every one of us.
And that is a part of the uniqueness and the beauty of Islam, that it addresses the needs of all members of society. It is not for a specific class, or caste, but it is for each and every individual.
So in the previous Juma we looked at the belief in the angels, and in the books. Prior to that we looked at belief in Allah, these are the first three pillars of faith.
Today we're looking at belief in the messengers of Allah.
And this is an extension of belief in the books.
It shares the same common concept that Allah revealed his word, his message to human beings, he did not create us, and leave us to find our own way.
He has provided guidance.
So each human being can find out if he seeks to find it. Each and every human being can find the way that the law has prescribed for him or for her in this life.
If it were not the case, if it were not the case that each person could find the way
and it was just a question of being born in Muslim families, then surely it would be unjust for a loss of 100 Allah to put people in paradise because they were born in Muslim families and put other people in * because they were not born in Muslim families when he is the one who determines whose family were born in.
Where would be the Justice
when a law is most just
so we know that it is not about the family that you're born in. A person may be born in a Muslim
family, and maybe on the lowest levels of the hellfire. And another person may be born in a non Muslim family and be among the highest levels and paradise.
So it is not about which family we were born in. It is about each and every human being, finding his way in this life. So Allah Subhana Allah and His wisdom, and His mercy and His grace
revealed books as we spoke about previously. And he sent along with those books, messengers, who would explain to the people how to apply the books. Because the books, why is one thing, it's important, it's critical. It's a document explaining how we are supposed to function in this life. However, that document without someone to demonstrate how to use the document
becomes like the scriptures of the others, of the Christians and the Jews were the explanation of how to apply
is not applied.
And each individual whether he is a rabbi, or he is a priest, or a minister, it is up to him to extract from, from the scriptures, how he thinks that should be applied.
So of course, as human beings, we all have minds, we all have imaginations, we can all come up with something. And that's why we have around us so many different religions. Though Allah as we said much earlier revealed only one religion.
The religion, which was revealed to Adam and Eve, was none other than Islam, have no doubt about
what was commanded of them was to obey Allah.
submit their wills to Allah, and that is Islam. submission of the human will to God.
So, believe in the messengers is believe that not only did Allah give us a blueprint,
he also sent human beings chose from among human beings, individuals of exemplary character, who would live that life which allow wanted us to live.
If there was no one to live the life, no example. Then we could say, having read the book, no, who could do this? Who could live like this?
We are human beings we commit errors How can we live that life?
Well, Allah brought profits to demonstrate Joe's profits from amongst us to demonstrate for us that this blueprint which he gave is applicable, it can be lived please close the door. Please close that door.
It is livable.
So the messengers were fundamentally the example for us as a law said laqad Canada comfy rasulillah he was sweating also tune hacer una there is in the Messenger of Allah for you the best example
his exemplary cat character demonstrates to us how to implement the Quran. This is not unique to Muhammad Sallallahu Sallam Prophet Isa represented the
example of how to implement the gospel. Indian Prophet Musa was the example of how to implement the Torah and profit diode is the board etc, etc. All of the prophets were examples, showing the people how to implement the book.
So basically, belief in the messengers involved involves believe that Allah has chosen people of exemplary character to show us how to live in accordance with his will.
That requires that we reject all of the false information that can be found in the various scriptures, which are attributed to the prophets all kinds of corruption.
All kinds of corruption. When we look in the Old Testament, which contains books attributed to the prophets, we find the prophets described as drunkards, committing *, adultery, patronizing, prostitutes and worshipping idols. All of these are apps attributed to the prophets, prophets. Sulayman, in particular, is described as worshipping idols in his old age.
For us to believe in the prophets, is to believe that these were lies about the prophets, because if profits were to demonstrate for us how to live that life which allow wanted, then surely they would not be examples of idolatry, examples of corruption, no. So we reject all of those
texts as slander and abuse of the prophets. And we hold the prophets in high esteem as a lie described them as being chosen to be above the rest of the world.
And, of course, that addresses this point addresses what is attributed to Prophet Isa,
which is that he was supposed to have been the Son of God,
to have been the third of a trinity to have invited people to worship Him that is far greater in evil than even attributing prostitution, you know, patronizing prostitutes, to the profits. That is
that you can't go any further than that.
To claim the prophet Elijah was God incarnate.
This is misguidance in its worst stage. So we have to, in believing in the messengers, we have to reject such stories as a law described in the Quran, that Prophet Isa will be asked, saying, this is and this is in the sort of Maya diverse 116 117 when Allah will say, Oh, Jesus, son of Mary, did you tell people to worship you and your mother as Gods besides a law, he would reply Glory be to You. It was not fitting for me to say that, what I had no right to say. I never said to them anything with what you commanded me to say worship Allah, my Lord, and your Lord.
Prophet Isa, even in the corrupted texts of the Gospels, called people to worship Allah, and he himself, worshiped Allah. However, after his time, people changed that message.
And they made him a god besides the law. So, belief in the messengers, all coming from Allah subhanaw taala also means belief that their message was one. And the essence of that message was to worship Allah alone. As a law states in the Quran, welaka das nafi Coolio, mutton Rasulullah, I've sent to every nation a messenger
enabled the law which enabled the vote called commanding people to worship the law. And to avoid the worship of false gods. This was the singular message of all of the prophets.
In terms of the Shetty out, the Sharia may have varied in terms of what people were instructed to do in different times different places, etc.
fundamental theory remains the same, but there were variations depending on the needs of the Society of the time. But the essential theological message, the essence of belief, was that a law is one uniquely won,
and that he alone deserves our worship.
And as a last month, Allah said he sent to every nation a messenger. So as problems as Alan said, that ally sent over 124,000 profits, we don't have a problem with that. Over 124,000 prophets were sent throughout the world. The vast majority of them we have no idea what their names were. Only 25 are mentioned in the Quran.
But we believe in all of them, sent to all nations of the world. And whatever good we see today, in various nations and their belief system, in their practice, etc. This is leftovers from the teachings of the earlier prophets who are sent to them.
Believe in the messengers
created
First and foremost in us,
a
questioning personality, that we are not a personality, we don't possess a personality, which blindly accepts whatever is handed to us.
Upset accepts what is handed to us from our culture,
from our families,
our society,
we question everything.
If it is not from Allah subhanho wa Taala, clearly a verse from the Quran, or it has not been explained by Prophet Mohammed wa sallam and instruction from him, then we question it.
We have to question Where did it come from? What is the basis for it?
Does it contradict Islamic teachings? Or does it not?
We don't blindly accept culture and tradition as the foundation of our Islam, which is what unfortunately today,
most Muslims are caught up in.
So much so that we can hardly distinguish between what is Islam, and what is our culture.
And for the outsider, non Muslims, in many parts of our world, Muslim world, they are confused. They think that under killing,
killing family members to protect the honor of the family is a part of Islamic teachings.
They think that giving dowry
to
the men
is a part of Muslim practice, like it was in Europe,
where the dollar is given to the men,
not the men giving dowry to the woman, which is actually Islamic teachings.
And they think that female genital mutilation is an Islamic teaching
found in different parts of the Muslim world today.
And so on and so forth.
A lot of cultural practices that have no basis in Islamic teachings are now associated with Islam and Muslims.
We can only read ourselves of that
by beginning to question
to ask
to put our foot down and to challenge the custom and the tradition
in order to find Islam, which was brought by prophet muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam
this first moral principle of questioning
and putting things on a scale to judge it right and wrong, and not just to do it simply because everybody else does it. You know, we call this peer pressure, everybody else around you is doing it. So you feel obliged to do it. We reject that.
What this calls us to ultimately
is to realize
that the math hub
that we should be following.
And most of us are either following Hanafi Chaffee, Maliki or humbly methods that the mazahub that we should be following in our minds
in our hearts, should be the math hub of Rasulullah sallallahu. It was
and we should have no doubt about this.
You shouldn't be sitting there thinking What is he saying?
He's saying we should be following a different method from Imam Shafi
or Imam Abu hanifa.
No.
You should be clear that the mother hub of Imam Abu hanifa was the mud hub of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam.
And that the mother hub of the mama Shafi was the mud hub of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam, just as the mud hub of Abu huraira,
who narrated the largest amount of traditions from Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam, Abu huraira, the leading companion to narrate the Sunnah to us his
mazahub was, was the Hanafi?
Was your shopping?
Was your humble or Maliki?
Of course, somebody negros Mata. Yeah, it was a Maliki. But this is ignorance.
That is ignorance. Mr. Malik didn't come along until 100 years after Abu huraira. So he could not have been a follower of Imam Malik.
He was a follower of the madhhab of Rasulullah sallallahu sallam.
And that's what unifies Muslims, that we understand that the great scholars, the Imams to whom we attribute Matt Hobbs,
who didn't follow these methods
that they followed a single method
and that in following their methods,
this was a way to help us to follow that same single method.
I'm not saying you cannot follow the Shafi Mahabharata humbly Martha, these are schools of Islamic law. Scholars over the generations have striven to apply the Sharia in our day to day lives. And they help to clarify for us how to apply the law in our lives. They were efforts human efforts,
which contain errors, because they were human beings.
The only infallible madhhab
was that of Rasulullah sallallahu wasallam.
And that should be clear in our hearts and our minds.
We take knowledge from the scholars we have to because the law said first Allah Allah decree and quantum law talamona those who know if you don't know
we shouldn't say Well no, no, I'm not gonna follow any mahabubnagar follow any scholar I just go to the Quran and the Sunnah all by myself and follow it. Well,
that is a mistake. Because if we ourselves do not have sufficient knowledge, to understand the sea of the Quran, and the sea of the sooner then we will misguide ourselves and misguide others. So, that's why Allah raised up in the oma people of knowledge, who would continue to guide the oma along the path which was left by Rasulullah sallallahu.
Secondly, in terms of our character,
we should develop
a moral character of devout obedience, that we are fundamentally obedient individuals obedient to Allah and His Messenger
sallallahu wasallam.
Following the Messenger of Allah should develop in us the sense of obedience, because he is the one who we should follow unquestioningly.
He is the only one.
And in following him, it trains us also in obeying the commandments of Allah. Because Allah smart Allah said, My UTI Rasool Allah, whoever obeys the messenger has obeyed Allah. So our obedience to Prophet Mohammed Al Salam is not because of anything special about himself in terms of his physical characteristics, etc. His mind is no, it is because of Revelation, as he was told by our last month out to say pull in NEMA and
say, I'm a human being like the rest of you. So in that regard is like everybody else, except that Allah revealed to him that our Lord is one Lord.
Revelation is what distinguishes the Prophet Muhammad,
because there are righteous people among us.
When we say he was like, the rest of us, it doesn't mean like the worst of us, means like, the rest of the best of us.
There are righteous people who didn't receive revelation. And Allah will give them special blessings in the life to come. He is from that group. That's who Allah chose when he chose messengers. He didn't choose them from the lowest the dregs of society. He chose them from
The best, the best in terms of spirit, not necessarily the wealthiest, or the most powerful, but the best in spirit.
So, belief in the messenger, and the messengers and commitment to follow them, because that's what belief in them means when we say, Why should I do an A Mohammedan Rasulullah. And I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, it means I've committed myself to following his way. That's a commitment. It's not just a statement of a fact. It's a statement of commitment. So that commitment should engender in us a commitment to follow the commandments of a law in all of their forms.
The third principle or moral characteristic, is that of gratitude.
About which we spoke when we talked about the books, because as we said, then, a last month, Allah, put in each and every individual a consciousness of good and evil.
He did not put us in this world without that consciousness. He didn't put us in this world evil.
But he put us in this world good, but good with a consciousness of both good and evil.
And technically speaking, that should be sufficient to guide us. However,
a loss of one to Allah and His mercy, and His grace, gave us books of revelations and messengers to show us how to apply them. So this is from him.
Not that we deserve it.
That not that it was necessary to give it to us. But it was from his grace. And it's very important for us to grasp because oftentimes,
Christians, for example, will say, Muslims don't believe in the grace. They believe in the law. There is no grace in Islam, no room for grace. But their idea of grace is that God just picks you
out of everybody else, and gives you guidance.
And he picks another one, and gives him guidance and others, he doesn't give guidance, for no logical reason.
He likes the way your beard grows.
He likes your mustache. So he gives you guidance. He likes your color. So it gives you guidance.
No,
we believe Allah is most wise, and he's most just,
he gives guidance to those who seek it, who strive, who have a good heart, we're striving in one way or another, maybe externally, the actions may appear to be bad, but inside themselves, they have a desire for good. And it is the environment which points them in an evil direction. So allow me pull that individual out of it, and guide him or her.
And his grace, is manifest in that fundamentally, as promised, as Adam said, no one would enter Paradise simply because of his or her deeds.
And when the Prophet sallallahu wasallam was asked, even you or messenger of Allah, even you won't enter Paradise without simply by your deeds, the good deeds that we've seen you do your life is a life of good, he said, even I,
if it were not for laws, Grace surrounding me,
even I would not enter Paradise. And that is the clear evidence of the grace of Allah. But his grace comes in
a logical, wise,
meaningful way, in that, as he said,
for every good deed we do, we get 10 times the reward. So in the last two hypno, say Otto righteous deeds can erase evil deeds. One righteous deed
is worth 10 times its value, whereas each evil deed is on the Capital One.
And this is the way that the Lord's grace erases sin.
And 10 is just the beginning number it increases as allows wills, depending on the deed that we do. So in this way, the grace of Allah is
They're
and
his sending books and messengers. This is from his grace, not that we deserved it. But because of his infinite mercy and beneficence, he has granted it to us
and profitable Muhammad Sallallahu wasallam in his life demonstrated for us a recognition of gratitude. We find him consistently calling people to be grateful, saying, for example, man Llambias, goodness, let me ask you the law, whoever does not thank people doesn't don't think a law.
Even though ultimately everything is coming from a law, we're still commanded to thank people.
And when he was up at night, praying till his ankles were swelling.
And his wife asked him,
or messenger of Allah, hasn't the law forgiven your sins, the previous and the sins to come? And he answered, shouldn't I be a faithful slave of Allah.
So gratitude
is an essential component of the believer. So the personality trait that we're speaking about about in the end here last personality trait is that of being a grateful individual, who can recognize goodness in his life and in the lives around him.
Who is able to turn to a last man to Allah, and thank him for whatever we have.
And don't feel cheated. Don't feel that things have come to us which we don't deserve. When we face difficulties, we're able to be patient because we are grateful.
If we were not grateful, then it's not possible to be patient.
And if we're not patient, it is not possible to be grateful.
The two
are inseparable.
So we asked laws blessings, peace and blessings and Prophet Muhammad sallahu wa sallam as the guide who showed us these characteristics, these moral principles that should be in our lives and we ask Allah to keep us conscious of the way, the straight path Serato mustard team which he has given us, we ask Allah to seek knowledge to understand that path and to apply it in our lives. We ask a law to remove from us all of the obstacles from obedience to His commands. We ask a law to make us grateful servants of his We ask Allah to be patient with the trials that we face in this life. We ask Allah to keep us on the straight path in faith, and that the last breath that we make in this life, the
one based on our faith, we die believing in the last month, Allah