Bilal Philips – Quranic Reflections #07

			Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh my brothers and sisters,
		

			this is another verse
		

			from the Quranic reflections series. And this verse is also from Surah Al Baqarah
		

			Wamena Nasimi Kulu Amen NAB Allah he will be leoville acid. Well my home be movement in among the
people, there are those who will say they believe in Allah and the Last Day, but they are not really
believers. This is verse eight.
		

			And this has points of reflection for everyone. The first point is that saying we believe in Allah
on the last day does not make us believers, unless we live according to belief in Allah the last
day.
		

			So it's not just about the words we say yes. When we make the declaration of faith, La ilaha
illallah, Muhammad Rasool Allah,
		

			there is no God worthy of worship, but Allah and that Muhammad sallahu wa Salam is the last
messenger of Allah,
		

			those words puts us in the door of Islam.
		

			But if we're not sincere
		

			about those words, we have not understood them.
		

			When the doors have opened, we have walked in, but we still haven't entered Islam.
		

			You know, people might be making this declaration of faith for a variety of reasons. Somebody works
in a company where the head of the company and the people in there are Muslims, and they want to
advance. So they are declaring their faith so that they can move up the ladder in the company.
		

			Somebody else wants to get married,
		

			the husband or the wife to be
		

			need to be Muslims, because their families are insisting don't marry a non Muslim. So the person is
ready to
		

			accept Islam
		

			for the purpose of marriage, but
		

			if you are Hindu,
		

			and they wanted to marry you, and your family took the same position,
		

			then you're ready to become a Hindu?
		

			This is the point.
		

			Where are we? What is this about? We're making this declaration of faith. But is it real?
		

			So unless we live according to belief in Allah and the Last Day, then our statements
		

			become meaningless.
		

			The second point of reflection is that we can put on a show for people and easily fooled them
because they can't read our minds, nor can they see what is in our hearts.
		

			But we can't fool Allah.
		

			That's the bottom line.
		

			We can fool others.
		

			But we can't fool Allah, Allah knows whether we are real or fake.
		

			So
		

			we need to stop for a minute.
		

			And question ourselves, what are we doing? Whether we're fasting in Ramadan,
		

			praying,
		

			making Hajj doing all these things? Is this
		

			cultural rituals that we're doing?
		

			Or do we really believe in what we're doing?
		

			We always need to question ourselves
		

			to make sure that we have the right intentions behind what we're doing.
		

			Because as the province I'll send them said in the mail I'm Albania, deeds are ultimately judged by
Allah, according to the intentions behind them.
		

			If we do them for the pleasure of Allah, we do them sincerely, properly, then, we are rewarded. But
if we do them for other than Allah, I we don't do them properly, though we could have
		

			then
		

			we will not be rewarded for them, because we can't fool Allah.
		

			The third point of reflection
		

			is that this state where
		

			on the outside, we're saying we're Muslims, but on the inside, we're in fact, diseased, our hearts
are corrupted.
		

			This is a serious state of heart disease, which Allah will cause to increase.
		

			Unless we wake up and correct ourselves.
		

			This is essential, we must correct ourselves.
		

			And that's why the province I send them had said, taqwa, a Taqwa the consciousness of Allah is right
here, pointing to his heart.
		

			The hearts have to be fixed.
		

			Our hearts have to be treated,
		

			treated as a law
		

			has advised us and guided us through His Messenger to treat them.
		

			If we fix our hearts,
		

			then
		

			everything else will be correct, will fall into place.
		

			Our lives will be beautiful lives in spite of whatever difficulties we find ourselves in, etc, etc.
But the beauty
		

			of Islam will beautify our minds, our hearts so that on the outside,
		

			though people may see us in
		

			difficulty in
		

			poverty or whatever,
		

			ultimate ultimately, Allah sees us as our hearts are. So we need to wake up
		

			and correct ourselves. fix our hearts.
		

			Barak illogical. Salam alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh