Faith – Part 01

Bilal Philips

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Channel: Bilal Philips

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Oh,

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see,

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then though you have that knowledge, you don't necessarily have faith in it. So

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faith from Islamic perspective, though it begins in the heart, it doesn't remain there is only there, then there is a possibility, a good possibility that it is merely knowledge and awareness, as opposed to faith, faith which counts faith which God will reward us for faith, on the basis of which one would enter Paradise, eventually, by the permission of Allah. So that faith which is expressed in actions, and in our deeds, should be in a law, as a law is not in a law, as we suppose him to be. Because again, here we have other issues. Some people look at a law as being a part of his creation. So they worship a law through his creation. That's not acceptable, worshipping idols, or human

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beings or animals. It's not acceptable. That is not true faith, this false faith, also worshiping Allah, in terms of who he is in relationship to who answers our prayers. Because we can think we're worshiping a law by doing certain rites and rituals. But when the time comes to actually seek help in prayer, we call on others besides the law, we go to the grave of people who think we're saints goes to God, and we call on them, ask them to help us.

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All we ask them to ask Allah, if we ask them to ask a law, then what we're doing actually, is putting intermediaries between ourselves and Allah. And that is not true faith in Allah, that is false faith. Because the rationale, which is used involves making a lot like his creation, conceiving of him as being like us. If you want to see the president, you can't go directly to the President. You have to go through

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others, intermediaries, ministers, heads of protocol, whatever, you go through them, and eventually you get to the

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President. But I said, Okay, allies like that.

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You want to get to a law, you You dirty with sins, etc. You can't just turn to him and say, Well, I helped me because you're too dirty with since God is not going to hear your prayer. Do you need to call on somebody who's closer to Allah, calling the Prophet call on the saint, call an angel, etc.

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This is false, because the law has told us to call directly on him, oh, the only as to

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call on me, and I will answer you. So when Allah has already said that we don't need to go anywhere else, to go anywhere else is not true faith in Allah. And

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also in terms of

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justice, laws, attributes, forgiveness, of mercy, all of these attributes, important attributes in the realm of faith, because if we don't believe ALLAH is forgiving, we'll forgive anything we do. If we turn to Him sincerely, then it's possible that a person can lose faith. You've done so many sins, and you want to correct yourself, but you don't believe there's any way that you can. So you give up.

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This is wrong faith. So the best deed is to have that complete faith in Allah the correct faith.

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In a law, because that ultimately, is the key to success in this world, and the next. And that is why the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him and said, Man, caller La ilaha illAllah, the Hillel, Jana, whoever says, There is no one, no thing worthy of worship,

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besides a law will enter Paradise, that is the guarantee of the Prophet, God's peace and blessings be upon him.

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So, it is the key action of the tongue action of the body. It is the most important element of our lives, it is referred to as the very purpose of our creation, worship God,

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based on that belief, is the purpose for which we are created, or the purpose by which we would enter Paradise, it is the means

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it is a goal that has behind it a greater goal, and that is of achieving paradise in the life to come. So Allah has, through His Messenger, define this as the best deed, faith in Allah. The second best,

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or along with is that of jihad in the last path, and in our times, of course, jihad in the last path is a controversial concept. The term jihadist is used to describe those

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who commit acts of terrorism, murder, slaughter, blowing up people, and places.

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All of this has been lumped under the heading of jihad. But we really need to look more deeply into Jihad before we can really understand what is meant by jihad in the last path being the best deed

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in Islam. We'll be looking at that, after the break, like thank you for being with us so far, in this segment of our episode, from the best in Islam. And we will see you shortly after the break.

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Welcome back from the break.

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And welcome back to our look at the best deed with regards to faith.

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And we said in the very beginning of this episode, that the best deed is faith in Allah. faith in Allah is the best deed. There's nothing greater than it from the internal perspective. It is the greatest spiritual action that we can possibly do. Now, the greatest physical action, external expression of faith is that of

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fighting in the way of a law, Jihad feasability law. And we began the subject of jihad after discussing at length, the subject of faith and what faith means and how it should occur. We discussed the fact briefly that this term Jihad has been abused in our times, it is used so negatively, that Muslims often fear using that term.

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Otherwise, they will be you know, labeled A jihadist. And a jihadist is a bad name, a bad word. So as a jihadist when the media says that, it means that you have been designated as a terrorist, but in fact, jihadist which is a you know, an anglicized version of Mujahid is a beautiful term from the Islamic perspective. And when we progress in our look at the best, we're going to come to elements related to this, which we will better understand that that time that jihad is not restricted to

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Going and fighting. In fact, the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, had expressed that the greatest jihad is the struggle against one's own self, one's own desires. This is the greatest struggle, because this is where it all begins and ends

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in the heart, to win that struggle against the evil side,

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in the heart, that is the ultimate jihad. Because Jihad really means to struggle

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to strive, it could be in good, it could be an evil, though mostly when it is used in the Islamic context, it means good striving for good, you know, people don't talk about, you know, a jihad in theft,

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or jihad in murder. No, when people use the term jihad, it's understood, it's Jihad for the sake of Allah, it is striving, struggling for the sake of Allah. And there are many verses in the Quran, which elaborate on this and statements of the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, to clarify this, now that struggle against the evil side, to overcome our weaknesses, and to obey God, because ultimately, that's what we're talking about. The struggle to obey God, that struggle may manifest itself in many different ways. And on many different levels.

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Sometimes the struggle is just within ourselves. Putting aside a bad thought, a bad thought comes to us, we can either dwell on it,

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reflect on it,

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then the thought becomes a plan,

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a bad plan, we can either try to stop that plan, rejected, or the plan becomes an action. And again, we can try to stop that action, or go with the action and commit a crime commit something which is displeasing to God. So all the way along Jihad

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takes place, jihad, which stops that evil from the time that it is a thought is the greatest, because thoughts are something that are coming at us all the time. They seem to be

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created in our minds, born in our brains without even trying to bring them about, they come from anywhere and everywhere. So to be able to overcome them. This is the big challenge. Not easy at all.

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But if we're able to catch evil from that stage, then our lives will be so much better. Because once it becomes an action, trying to stop that action, after all the thought and planning and much more difficult, much, much more difficult, because there's so much behind it. But if we're able to catch it in the very beginning, then it is much, much easier. So this is where the Jihad begins. But ultimately, the ultimate level of that struggle is to lay one's life in our hands, to put that life

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at risk

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for the sake of God, and being for the sake of God, meaning that what we're doing is something approved by God by a lion is messenger, they have approved it, they have given the Okay, they have said this is a good thing. Then we can say this is Jihad feasibility law. But if what we're doing, we're saying it is pre submitted law, but in fact, it is not in keeping with Islamic teachings. It's going against the very teachings that we are claiming to follow. It's doing what has been prohibited by the teachings. Then this is not true jihad. It becomes terrorism,

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whether it involves weaponry, bombs, etc. We may call it jihad, but simply calling a jihadist make a jihad. If it is truly for the sake of a law in accordance with the way that it has been prescribed by a lot of His Messenger, then we have real Jihad and all societies

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Under the martyrs, this is not something new. This is not something unique to Islam, that martyrs are only honored in Islam know, all societies they build monuments to, they build

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huge structures over the graves of they put their faces on stamps, they carve them into the mountains,

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people honor the martyr, one who has given what is most precious, two human beings given it up, sacrificed it for the cause. Sacrifice it for the cause, being obviously a righteous cause, a cause which involves protecting the society, millions of lives

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1000s of lives for the sake of in our case, for the sake of God, and their case for the sake of the country, for the sake of the ruler,

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whatever.

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Like the kamikaze pilots, when Japan was fighting the world, and fronting American particular,

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each one of those suicide pilots who flew his plane into the American aircraft carriers, and battleships, etc. They were honored, the whole society raised up, motivated at their willingness to sacrifice their lives, for the Emperor, and for Japan. And this occurs in all wars, in all societies. So it's not something new. It's not something unique to Islam, that you can point the fingers at all. Islam is calling people to kill themselves. No. In fact, suicide in Islam is forbidden. It's considered a major sin, to kill oneself, not just not good. Not recommended. No, it is a major sin, a major sin so great, that one who kills himself. One who kills himself or herself,

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ends up in hell. As a result of it, they end up in hell, the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him said that whoever killed themselves by stabbing himself through shofar, mountain or whatever, will find himself in hell perpetually doing the same thing, killing himself over and over and over again. Of course, if he has faith,

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eventually, after paying the price, the punishment for having taken his own life or her own life, then they will be removed from hell. But still, we don't even want to think about being in hell. So the idea of suicide in Islam is, is forbidden. However, when one is engaged in war on the battlefield, we have what are known as suicide missions, where the general the head, the commander will instruct members of the Army or Air Force whatever, to conduct some actions, which would put their lives at risk actions, which will probably cause them to lose their lives, they call them suicide missions. Those are praised in the military sphere. However, once we take it out of the

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military sphere of the battlefield, we now use this against civilians and supermarkets, in schools, and airports and these kind of things. Now you have an evil. Now you have an evil, something which Islam does not sanction. Where innocent lives people are not engaged in any kind of fight awards are taken.

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And Islam is against it. If we strip away the external negative elements, and we end up with the concept of fighting in the way of God, the Crusaders, who all of Europe honored they were soldiers who went fought gave up their lives, for their faith, their honor, till this day,

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and Islam similarly, those who give up their lives, put their lives on the line. Fight for the cause which God has

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prescribed.

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Such

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are considered

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Among the greatest of faith, their act among the best of deeds. With that their viewers, we would like to close our Episode Episode which has focused on the best deed being faith in the law and jihad in the path of a law. And with that, we'll close now and hope to see you in the coming episode. Salaam Alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. See,

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