Bilal Philips – The Best In Islam #17 – Faith (1 of 3)
AI: Summary ©
The importance of faith in Islam is discussed, including the need for complete faith and reciting the words "meditation" and "meditation with the holy eye" to achieve a greater peace and blessings upon the creator. The struggle against one's own beliefs and actions is emphasized, along with the importance of protecting society from evil actions and ending " warahmatullenses." The best deed in Islam is faith, which is the greatest physical action that can possibly be done.
AI: Summary ©
Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh I'd like to welcome you, their viewers to another in our series, the best in Islam. And in this series, as you know, we are looking at what the Quran and the Sunnah have defined as the best, the best with regards to different aspects of human life, human beings, human behavior,
etc.
And in this episode, we'll be looking
at faith, we have looked at in our previous episode, likes and dislikes.
And now we're moving on to faith. And what is the best in faith itself. The first Hadith we're looking at
is the statement of the Prophet
Narrated by Abu Zahra in which he quoted the prophets, Allah there was a lemma saying of the doula family, Iman Billa, what she had done feasibility law, the best deed is faith in Allah,
and jihad in the path of Allah. Faith in Islam
begins with a belief in the heart. But that belief needs to be expressed on the tongue. And then the limbs have to act on that belief, they have to act in accordance with that belief, all of that together, represents faith from the Islamic perspective. So it is not merely something which a person has in his heart or her heart, which could just be an idea, it could just be a thought, it's not really faith. Because
knowledge often is confused with faith, one may have a knowledge of something,
but you may not have faith in that thing. You may have knowledge about
some aspect of life or
the height of a mountain, the depth of the sea.
But do you have faith in that? Well, it depends on the source of that knowledge. If the knowledge comes from somebody who you trust very well, etc, then you may believe it. But if it doesn't, it comes from, you know, questionable sources, then though you have that knowledge, you don't necessarily have faith in it. So
faith from the Islamic perspective, though it begins in the heart, it doesn't remain there, it is only there, then there is a possibility, a good possibility, that it is merely knowledge and awareness, as opposed to face to face 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 Allah, as Allah is not doing Allah, as we suppose him to be. Because again, here we have other issues. Some people look at Allah as being a part of His creation. So they worship Allah through His creation. That's not acceptable. worshiping
idols, or human 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 Allah, by doing certain rites and rituals. But when the time comes to actually seek help in prayer. We call on others besides Allah. We go to the grave of people who we think are saints close to God, and we call on them, ask them
To help us
all we ask them to ask Allah. If we ask them to ask Allah, 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 law 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
others, intermediaries, ministers, heads of protocol, whatever, you go through them and eventually you get to the
President said, Okay, Allah is like that.
You want to get through a lot, you You dirty with sins, etc. You can't just turn to him and say, well, Allah helped me because you too dirty with sins, God is not going to hear your prayer. So you need to call on somebody who's closer to Allah, call it a prophet, call on the St. Gallen, Angel, etc.
This is false, because the Lord has told us to call directly on him. So the only SDG bloco 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
also in terms of
justice, Allah's 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 have 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.
This is wrong faith. So the best deed is to have that complete faith in Allah, the correct faith in Allah, 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 call Allah ilaha illa. The Halal Jana, whoever says, There is no one, no thing worthy of worship.
besides Allah will enter Paradise, that is the guarantee of the Prophet, God's peace and blessings be upon him.
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, to worship God.
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
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 of faith in Allah. The second best
or along with is that of jihad, in Allah's path. And in our times, of course, jihad in the last path is a controversial concept. The term jihadist is used to describe those who commit acts of terrorism, murder, slaughter, blowing up people, and places.
All of this has been lumped under the heading of jihad, 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
in Islam. We'll be looking at that after the break. I'd like to thank you for being with us so far, in this segment of our episode, from the best in Islam
We will see you shortly after the break. So Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh
Alhamdulillah you now have the opportunity to avail yourself
of this treasure. We call it to Corsi,
this great Islamic treasure which Prophet Muhammad SAW Salam
called the greatest verse in the Quran, based on revelation from Allah subhanaw taala.
He told us this. Why? Because he wanted us to give special attention to AYATUL kursi.
He told us that every night before we go to bed, we should recite it.
It will protect us from satanic forces in our lives,
even during the day after our daily prayers, reciting it would also benefit us
in this life, as well as the next.
So it's very important for us to know the meaning of this verse because the power of AI to corsi is not in the sounds. The Arabic recitation the parroting of the words. The power of AI to corsi lies in the depths of meaning
that Allah has shared with us.
It lies in understanding that meaning, and living our lives, intending to live our lives in accordance with its meanings.
This is how it makes a difference. Otherwise, if it is just parroting, then know that it will not benefit us at all.
It will be useless.
Ritual,
a practice a cultural habit, but for it to become a part of a Muslims life.
To have meaning and have impact and change that individual. We do need to understand what is Allah saying? In this, the greatest verse of the final revelation of Allah to humankind is to corsi.
This course, is a very critical and important course
in the life of a Muslim
to help him and her understand this critical element of the religion.
Very simple act with huge implications.
May Allah bless you to benefit from the elucidation, the tafsir the commentary and discussion on this verse, the 2/55 verse of Su Al Baqarah, known as AYATUL kursi.
Baraka, Luffy, Coombs, said, I want a Goomba Rahmatullahi, we're going to get
Welcome back from the break,
and welcome back to our look at the best deed with regards to faith.
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 is 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
fighting in the way of Allah Ji Jihad feasability LA. 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. Otherwise, they will be, you know, labeled a jihadist. And the 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 going and fighting. In fact, the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, had to express 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
in the heart, to win that struggle against the evil side,
in the heart, that is the ultimate jihad. Because Jihad really means to struggle
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 Will people don't talk about, you know, jihad in theft,
or jihad in murder. You know, 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, we'll 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.
Sometimes the struggle is just within ourselves, putting aside the bad thoughts, a bad thought comes to us, we can either dwell on it,
reflect on it,
then the thought becomes a plan, a bad plan, we can either try to stop that plan, reject it, or the plan becomes an action. And again, we can try to stop that action, or go with the action and commit a crime committed something which is displeasing to God. So all the way along Jihad
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
created in our minds, born in our brains without us 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.
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 these thoughts 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
at risk
for the sake of God, and being for the sake of God, meaning that what we're doing is something approved by God by Allah and His 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, FISA be the law. But if what we're doing, we're saying it is presumed to be the law. But in fact, it is not in keeping with Islamic teachings, it's going against the very teachings that we're claiming to follow. It's doing what has been prohibited by the teachings, then this is not true jihad. It becomes terrorism.
When it involves weaponry, bombs, etc. We may call it jihad. But simply calling a jihad doesn't make a jihad, if it is truly for the sake of Allah, in accordance with the way that it has been prescribed by Allah and His Messenger, then we have real jihad, and all societies
under the martyrs, this is not something new. This is not something unique to Islam, that martyrs are only honored in Islam. No, all societies, they build monuments to, they build
huge structures over the graves of they put their faces on stamps, they carve them into the mountains,
people honor the martyr, one who has given what is most precious to human beings giving it up, sacrificed it for the cause. Sacrificing for the cause, being, obviously a righteous cause, a cause which involves protecting the society, millions of lives
1000s of lives for the sake of, in our case, for the sake of God, in their case, for the sake of the country, for the sake of the ruler,
whatever.
Like the camera katzie. Violets when Japan was fighting the world and fretting, America in particular, 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 their willingness to sacrifice their lives, for the Emperor, and for Japan. And this occurs in all wars, in all societies. This is 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. It's not recommended.
No, it is a major sin, a major sin so great, that one who kills himself. One who kills himself or herself,
ends up in *. As a result of it, they end up in *, the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him and said that whoever killed himself by stabbing himself throwing self off a mountain or whatever, will find themselves in *, perpetually doing the same thing and killing himself over and over and over again. Of course, if he has faith,
eventually, after paying the price, the punishment for having taken his own life or her own life, then they will be removed from *. But still, we don't even want to think about being in health. 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
military sphere of the battlefield, I will now use this against civilians and supermarkets, in schools and airports. These
other 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 towards a drug I'd taken
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.
And Islam similarly, those who give up their lives, put their lives on the line, to fight for the cause which God has
prescribed.
Such
are considered
among the greatest of faith. They're apt among the best of deeds. With that, dear 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 Allah. With that, we'll close now and hope to see you in the coming episode. Salaam alaykum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh