Bilal Philips – The Best In Islam #19 – Faith (3 of 3)

			Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh I'd like to welcome you again dear viewers, to another in
our series, the best in Islam, in which we're looking at what Islam considers to be the best in all
spheres of human life. In this episode, we'll be looking at the best aspects of faith. And this is a
continuation from a previous two episodes in which we looked at the best of faith. In this episode,
we'll be looking at a hadith Narrated by Abu Huraira in which the Prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him as saying Al Eman who bid on WhatsApp Varun of Gulu Ha, how Lulu ilaha
illallah wa ad na ha imata to love me and it body while HYAH Oh, sure, a baton mineral Eman faith
		

			has over 70 branches, the best of which is the declaration that there is no God worthy of worship,
but Allah, and the simplest of which is removal of a bone from the road. And modesty is a branch of
faith. This hadith
		

			clarifies for us that faith has many aspects. The Prophet SAW Salem had mentioned over 70. However,
if we note that what is included in this is the lowest and simplest act of faith, removing a bone
that is a broken bone that you might step on and hurt yourself with removing that harm and hurt from
the path. This has included. Faith is being defined by the prophet may God's peace and blessings be
upon him as actions. These are not just concepts These are acts, particular acts, the declaration
that there is no God worthy of worship by the law is an act. It is an act of the tongue, picking up
the bone, or broken glass or whatever, from the road, which might hurt people is a physical act of
		

			the limbs. So this is confirming what we spoke about earlier, when we said that faith in Islam from
the Islamic perspective is not merely a concept, a belief in the heart, which might be confused with
knowledge. This is not faith.
		

			Faith has to be translated into some form of action. From the action of the heart, it should become
an action of the tongue or an action of the limbs. This is true faith. So here Prophet Muhammad
sallahu wa sallam, he declared that the highest level of faith was that of declaration that there is
no God worthy of worship, but Allah.
		

			That is the highest level. And that is consistent with what we said from the Prophet Salatu was
Salam with regards to
		

			faith, when he said that the best deed is faith in Allah. That faith in Allah is expressed in the
term, La ilaha illallah there is no God worthy of worship, but Allah. So that declaration of faith,
that's what brings us into Islam. That is how a person becomes a Muslim. Oftentimes people will ask,
okay, what do we have to do to become a Muslim? Are there certain rites or rituals that we have to
go through, getting dunked in the water, water being poured over your head or what? And Islam there
are no specific rites and rituals for accepting Islam. It's only to make that declaration. That's
all that declaration is made publicly. Meaning to other people it's not just kept within once
		

			Self unless one fears harm, like the Joshi,
		

			the ruler of Habesha, whose declaration of faith
		

			would have caused his people to rebel against him, and maybe even kill him. So he kept it
		

			away from the people
		

			while defending and protecting the Muslims, who had migrated there from Mecca,
		

			he kept his own conversion to faith to himself. So much so that when the time came when he died,
there was no one to bury him.
		

			No Muslim there to bury him.
		

			Or if they were, they didn't know. And it couldn't be done in a public way.
		

			So Prophet Muhammad, may God's peace and blessings be upon him, after being informed by Allah
		

			that the ruler of Abyssinia had died, he called the Companions together there in Medina, and had
them do Salah to janazah, or the absent prayer for him, knowing that none would have been done for
him there in Ethiopia.
		

			So, here was a case where the declaration of faith was kept silent, private, it was not declared
openly. So there are times when this could be the case. But otherwise, as a norm, a person is
required to make that declaration open to let people know that he or she is a Muslim, they shouldn't
say Okay, I accept Islam in my heart, and then they just carry on why? Because then society will not
know that they're Muslim. So if something happens, they would know that, okay, this person needs to
be buried as a Muslim, they were Muslim.
		

			Also, if they see a Muslim, going somewhere, which is not good, they will try to stop that person
and say, Well, you know, you're awesome. Maybe you shouldn't be doing this shouldn't be going there.
		

			They could be a part of helping that person overcome the witnesses, their sins. Also, for the person
who is a Muslim, who has declared it and people know that he or she is a Muslim, they can more
easily ask others for help. When time arises, where they need help, they're in a better position to,
to be able to do that. So it is to their advantage.
		

			And this declaration of faith is also
		

			a declaration of transparency. They're transparent. They're not hiding anything from people, what is
in their hearts, they share. If you believe Islam is good, then of course, you shouldn't even keep
it to yourself, you should try to share it with others. So all of these things come into play when
we talk about the declaration of faith. But of course, first and foremost, it must be sincere. For
it to be the highest act. It can't be a declaration of faith because a man wanted to marry a muslim
girl. And it's known Muslim women are not allowed to marry non Muslim men. So the man tells
		

			the woman I'm ready, you know, I will accept Islam, no problem. No, I want to marry you. I want you
to be my wife. So I'll accept Islam. But don't expect me to pray. Or fast or do any of those things.
I'm doing it because I want to marry you. For her to marry him on that basis is wrong Islamically
because he has not become a Muslim.
		

			He's only saying some words, which externally Okay, in the courts, they're gonna say yes, he's a
Muslim, he declared his face and they'll record it as Muslim, but he's not, you know, as a woman, as
the family who he is ready told that he's not doing it to become a Muslim rarely, is only going
through the formality so that he can marry, then this is not a true declaration of faith.
		

			This is not allowed in Islam, that marriage is not a marriage in the sight of God inside of God, the
act of fornication. It's not marriage. So the declaration of faith has to be sincere. It has to be
out of being convinced, believing that truly, no God is worthy of worship, but the one true God,
whether you call him Allah, or in Aramaic Allah
		

			or in Korean
		

			Turn on him, or whatever language you use to refer to that one, true God who is one alone, creator
Sustainer of the universe,
		

			who has no beginning and has no end, who is in control of everything. That one God
		

			is the God of Islam, and the God of human beings, the true God. So that's what is the highest level
of faith to declare that, to recognize that, to believe that. And we're going to take a pause now,
		

			as
		

			we have reached the middle point of our episode, and we'll see you after the break. So that was a
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			Welcome back from the break,
		

			we were looking at
		

			the branches of faith.
		

			And we talked about in the first segment of our episode, the declaration of faith, being the best of
the branches, then, the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him, went to the other end of
the spectrum. And said that the simplest of branches is that of removing some harmful objects from
the path that people walk on. Whatever it may be. And this narration he mentioned, a bone broken
bone obviously, are something that you can trip over, hurt yourself. Some other narrations he
mentioned, sometimes when he spoke, it mentioned this hadith, or the statement, he used other or
harm, it refers to anything that would be dangerous to people removing it from the path that is the
		

			lowest level because that's something so simple. It seems to be nothing. What is the value?
		

			Most people will just walk by, they see something on the ground, they avoid it and they carry on,
they wouldn't think to go okay, remove it, to get out of the way, cleared from the bath. Because
what's the value of that? Well, it has value, it is a part of faith. And that is the
comprehensiveness of faith in Islam, that it even governs the removal of objects from the past that
people walk. That's how much Islam cares for human welfare. And its principles are universal. So
that we don't need to say, well, we're now in the
		

			21st 22nd century, times have changed 1400 years have passed. Slam is not really that relevant. Now
we have to change our understanding of no is harming the place where you walk, roads might have
changed.
		

			Our
		

			shoes may have changed. However,
		

			the idea of objects being in the way when people walk will always be an issue. It could be outside
of your home, could be at the workplace, could be in the park could be anywhere. The idea of that
people would drop things, and somebody else could be harmed by that thing
		

			will remain. It's a universal principle.
		

			And even if we say we reach that point in technology where you know you have cleaning robots that go
and clean up every time anything drops anywhere so on so it just immediately cleans it up. So we say
we have perfectly clean place
		

			While the robot still has to pick it up, you've dropped it before the robot could pick it up,
somebody could still step on hurt themselves. So if you catch it before you remove it. So the idea
of removing harm from people's way, whether it is literally a broken glass or bone or something on
the road,
		

			or whether it is a larger object, which could hurt people by falling on the road, etc, etc.
		

			The point is that the principle here is that nothing is too small, to be outside of faith. The faith
encompasses everything, every aspect of our lives, there is nothing in our life, which is not
governed by faith. That's the bottom line. Faith encompasses all, when whatever we do, whatever we
say, whatever we think, whatever we play, when all of that is done, in accordance with the teachings
of Islam, with the guidance that is there,
		

			then it is all a part of faith.
		

			And that's how Islam perceives faith as belief, and action, in accordance with that belief. And no
action is too small. So as to be considered not a part of faith. The key that we mentioned earlier,
previous episode, the key is that we are consistent
		

			in doing whatever little that we do those small actions as long as we do it consistently, regularly.
Whenever we see that, in the path, we do it, not just one occasion, when something has happened, and
we're looking to try to do some good because, you know, we're suffering, relative is suffering,
whatever we know, doing good, you know, helps to alleviate suffering. So we say, Okay, let me go
find something good to do. Okay, here's some things in the road, I'll clear it. Soon as the person
gets better, okay, enough, you don't do it anymore. That is not a real good deed. The real good
deed, is the consistent good deed is one that you do because you know it's good. And because you
		

			know, it's good, you should be doing it. So you strive to do it continually. And that's the one
which Allah loves the most, the consistent good deed, even though it is small, removing that harm
from the road. But we do it wherever we are, wherever we go, whenever the opportunity presents
itself, because it is a good deed ultimately, which is added to our scale of good deeds. And though
we might consider it something small, Allah may make it something very big. So we don't focus on
small big, we only go for the big deeds leave out the small deeds No, because being consistent with
the big ones much more difficult than being consistent with the small ones. And being consistent
		

			with the small ones trains us to be able to be consistent with the big ones. So this is
		

			a complete system.
		

			That system of faith, as we said, includes all aspects of life. Nothing is too insignificant, too
small, too irrelevant, to be considered a part of faith. And that's why when people mentioned for
example, we spoke about clothing, what's best in clothing, etc. Where the Prophet may God's peace
and blessings be upon him that said, for example, for men wearing garments, that their garments
should not be below their ankles.
		

			This is a principle of dress in Islam, if you're wearing pants, or you're wearing a gown, so like
what I'm wearing, it should not hang below the ankle. Some people say this is not important in our
we should be talking about the big issues of you know, Jihad and this and always save others. If you
can't deal with the little things, then know that when the big things come, you won't be able to
deal with them. Because it's all a part of the faith. It's all a plan.
		

			Part of the system of faith in Islam, which governs everything, it's not limited only to one area,
the big areas, because the big areas, when you break it down has little areas which make them big.
You combine them together, they become something big, big is consists of a variety of other smaller
things. So we should never consider any deed, too insignificant, too small to concern ourselves
with.
		

			And that is what the prophet may God's peace and blessings be upon him is telling us when he speaks
about removing harm from the way as being the lowest level of faith, the smallest, most simple. And
then he closed off the Hadith saying that modesty is a part of the faith, modesty and higher is a
part of faith. An important part when he said it's a part it means it's an important part of modesty
in all of its forms. Whether it is modesty physically, that one is modest in the way one dresses,
not exposing oneself.
		

			You dress modestly. You're modest in the way that you speak. You don't speak about things which
don't concern you don't get involved in people's business, etc. You're a modest person, you speak,
and try to speak good when you speak. Try to avoid just chatter and talk for the sake of talk or
your mind is in how you spend your money. You don't squander it. You use it wisely. Or you're modest
in any aspect of life. Modesty is good. It is a part of faith. And the Prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him was very modest. That's how he was described, a modest person. So modesty is a
part of faith.
		

			And we should be conscious of it, and not be negligent of it. And not discourage people who are
modest, to be more brazen, more outspoken, etc, etc. No. Modesty is the right way. Islam encourages
modesty. But it doesn't mean that you're so modest that when wrong takes place, you don't open your
mouth. No, that's where you've gone now to an extreme and negative extreme.
		

			Modesty should drive you to not allow that evil to take place. You feel shy before Allah that such a
thing would take place and you said nothing. So modesty is a part of faith. With that, the viewers
we're going to close out our session now. Our session, which focused on the branches of faith, what
was best? That was the declaration that there is nothing worthy of worship, but Allah and we hope to
see you in our coming episodes, where we continue to look at the best in Islam. I bid you farewell.
Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi wabarakatuh