Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #096 The Protection of La Ilaha Illa Allah Faith Entails Action
AI: Summary ©
The speakers discuss the importance of having a good deeds to avoid sin and negative consequences. They stress the need to have a good deeds to avoid negative consequences and the importance of faith in protecting and promoting good deeds. The danger of faith striving for actions that lead to darkness and erodes faith, but actions are required to avoid harm. The importance of faith in reaching heaven and gratitude is emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
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knowledge
was
one
of, you know, many lessons on on
striving and sacrifice. First time I saw Sheikh
Yahya,
he looked half dead. Poor guy. He just
come back from
he was come from Terem
from Mauritania
to,
Damascus,
and he'd suffered all kinds of sickness and
and he was like a twig.
But he persisted
and has now benefiting people
all around the world.
So we're looking at
40 hadiths on
the on the virtues of
and we reached hadith number
30.
So
relates in hadith related by that
whoever
says whoever says
before everything and
after everything.
Remains
and all things
perish. So this is the
This
is this zikr,
if you say this,
they will be granted
well-being
from worry and sorrow.
Right? Because all worry arises from
imagining
lasting reality
to the merely contingent
to created things.
Allah
comes before everything.
There's no god but god. There's none absolutely
sought but Allah.
Yeah. One of the meanings of of God
is
the
the one absolutely sought.
And after everything,
the the reality is there's no God but
God.
Remains and everything besides perishes. If you this
zikr, if you repeat it, will you'll be
protected, said the prophet,
from
both worry and sorrow.
Right? So this is
But the olema also state the same meaning
is true for
repeating
with the reflection
on its meanings.
Right?
They're none worthy of worship but
Allah.
There's none absolutely
sought but Allah.
Right?
You know, and all the the meanings of
You know, none there's none free of need
of any other whom all are in absolute
need of but Allah.
There's no creator but Allah. No giver but
Allah.
No with holder but Allah. No one who
benefits but Allah. No one who withholds benefit
but Allah.
Right.
None who's perfect but Allah.
Right? None who's absolutely beautiful but Allah. None
who's
possessed of in of excellence but Allah.
Right? The the the reflecting on the realities
of that and then every name.
You can say
reflecting on all the names of Allah or
for particular name.
Right?
And as one of the poet said,
If we
are sick, we heal ourselves with your remembrance.
And they say one of the ways of
healing oneself with their remembrance of
is to say
bringing to mind
the opposite name
or the opposing name to the difficulty one
is in. If you feel hardship,
remember
the names of generosity.
And basically, anytime you're down, think of the
the any of the names of beauty. There's
the names of beauty and there's the names
of majesty.
Right? Let's say if you're very elated,
make zikr of Allah remembering someone the names
of majesties.
Bring you back to a bit of spiritual
sanity.
Right? But if we're sick, we heal ourselves
with your remembrance. Right? And And this is
one of the things to and you make
say
and you remember those names.
Right?
They're not merciful but Allah.
You know he you you know he's your
lord and you know he's merciful.
So you remind yourself through remembrance
of that and it dispels
what you're feeling.
The messenger of Allah said,
whoever says
it'll save them on a day
in their in their lifetime,
regardless of what happened to them
before
that moment.
That
will protect you
someday in your life
regardless of what befalls you, before it saves
you.
Meaning, that if you're a person
you will be in the protection of Allah.
Right?
So you shouldn't fear if you're the of
the people
of doesn't matter what happens.
1 eternally you're safe anyways. Right? So you
shouldn't like, why would you fear? Right? So
someone
of even if you're drowning,
you're not really drowning. Right?
Because ultimately,
you're safe. But it offers protection in this
life as well.
It offers protection in this life as well
and it provides protection to the extent that
you embrace
its remembrance and to the extent that you
embrace its meaning.
Right?
Hadith number 32,
and Umkhane
one of the great female companions.
She relates
that
So confirming the meanings of what we've taken,
the messenger of Allah said,
no action
outstrips
Meaning, it's the best of actions.
No action
is ahead
of It's the best of acts.
Leaves no sin.
Because why? Because we know that in general,
good deeds wipe away bad deeds.
Good deeds wipe away bad
follow bad deeds with a good deed and
it will wipe it out.
Of course,
sins require repentance,
even general.
And the safer way of getting rid of
sins
is you repent from the sin and you
follow it with good deeds.
Because then
you have, Insha Allah, secured
yourself
from the harm.
But in general, good deeds wipe away bad
deeds. So if you look at it in
terms of the accounting,
you did 5 bad deeds,
6 good deeds.
The good deeds would preponderate and of course
Allah magnifies the good deeds
in accordance with the degree of sincerity. However,
repentance
is from good accounting,
good self accounting because you you miss out
on the potential of the good deed.
So
leaves no sin.
Right? It has it cleans away.
It
it it wipes away
the ill effects of sin. So it wipes
away sins themselves,
also wipes away the ill effects of the
sin.
And we've taken earlier that
everything has a polish and the polish of
the heart is the remembrance
of Allah.
Right? So it wipes away the ill effects
of the sin and it polishes the heart.
So
the message, of course, of these
Hadith is clear.
Make much remembrance of
Hadith number 33,
who was
the beloved of the messenger and the son
of the beloved of the messenger. Because he
was the son of
Say,
Nazeid bin Haritha.
Right? Say, Nazeid bin Haritha. And say, Nazeid
bin Haritha
used to be known as
Zade bin
Mohammed.
And he was adopt he was
had been a slave and he was adopted
by the prophet and he had been freed
by the prophet
and he grew up he was in the
prophetic household, though he's not
by family related to the prophet sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam, but he was very dear to
the messenger sallallahu
alaihi wa sallam. And he was of
the many
black companions
and many of those close to the prophet
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Right? And someone who's
they say someone who's racist,
right,
is
insulting
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. Right? Because
it is contrary to his teaching and many
of those closest to him were
black.
Right? And the prophet
his own
great grandmother
was black.
Who is that?
Right?
Right? And this is one of the important
aspects of there's many
of the
descendants of Saidan al Hassan and Saidan al
Hassan who married.
In
the,
like, any righteous black
women. Right? So a number of the imams
of Al Al Bayt are famous for, you
know, were well known that they were they
were dark in skin. Right? Because their mothers
were black and that's something that is a
very much a part of the legacy of
our religion. Right? So say,
this dearly beloved companion to the messenger who
was young.
Right? Dearly beloved to the messenger, sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam.
Right? Say Sayna Usama said that I stabbed
someone with a spear
And
I stabbed someone with a spear as he
was saying
for someone in battle.
It was in battle and they're fighting and
he stabbed him.
And some hadith mentioned that he stabbed him.
Here, it mentioned that it was with a
rum,
right, which is a spear. Right? A spear.
They differ exactly what's the length of spear,
like a shoulder length spear. Like they were
weren't really really long.
Right?
But,
he stabbed him because he thought he was
just saying it to save himself.
So the prophet said to him and he
kept repeating.
What will you say regarding La Illahil Allah
on the day of resurrection?
Right?
Of
course, then you see the sincerity of the
companions.
He made an error in judgment.
He didn't have to tell anybody. Oops.
I I made an error in judgment,
but he related it.
Right? It's a conversation between him and the
prophet, he related it. Why? One, because they're
commanded to relate it.
Right?
And number 2, their sincerity.
Hadith number 34.
So it's related to this chain of transmission
from
Abu Masjid that he said that we visited
with
a sick person.
Said to him,
He said to him,
So the man said it.
Right? Says say, north man said, by the
one in whose
grasp is my soul,
he has
cast aside his errors
and is what?
And destroyed them
completely.
So it destroyed them, mean wipe them away
completely.
So the the narrator,
Masha says, what are you saying?
Said,
so what are you saying? Because this is
a big claim to make.
That by the one in whose grasp is
my soul,
it has saying it has wiped away his
sin and cleaned his slate from all errors.
Said, or is it something that you heard
from the messenger of Allah
Allah said, rather, I have
heard it from the messenger of
So this hada when they heard it,
so he said, no, I heard it from
the messenger of Allah and he added
that we said, oh messenger of Allah,
So this is for the sick person.
So how would it be for the person
who's well?
But of course, you see the active concern
of the Sahaba. Right? You hear about the
good,
and someone
oh, great. They had a good ending. Right?
The believer should not have a passive you're
not a spectator
to good and evil,
to light and darkness.
Right?
You are someone who's seeking the good, you're
seeking the light, you're seeking virtue.
Right? So don't be a spectator.
Oh wow, he got saved.
Masha'allah.
Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Masha'allah. Allah is so generous.
But what about you? I'm fine the way
I am. That's his implicit message of spectator
Islam.
They said, okay.
That's for the sick person. What about the
ones who are not sick?
And maybe what about us? Can we get
this too?
You see their concern for the good and
their avidness for it.
Here For the sick purse for
the healthy person, it is more destroying of
their sins
and more destroying.
K? Because the sick person has a bit
of a case against them.
You live all your life down the last
breath, you say,
and it'll wipe your sins like,
but you're dealing with the most merciful.
Some people have an issue with it. The
condition is sincerity.
The condition is sincerity and genuineness.
Right? And genuineness.
There is no
right? And of course, sincerity cannot be found
with insincerity.
So you cannot say, well, I'll just do
whatever I want and I'll say
when I'm dying. Do you know when you'll
die? No. So that's that's a foolish plan.
Number 1. And that that and sincerity cannot
be found with insincerity. That's a losing argument.
Okay. Sincerity entails being true.
So you're sincere about saying then live accordingly
now. But Allah is generous,
right, and we saw the hadith on mercy
earlier and those who didn't catch it in
some of the early
one of the early,
sets of 4 the hadith who did on
the relate to the generosity of Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala and his mercy.
Right? So for the sick person,
is more destroying of sins.
This is why
making an aim
to recite,
frequently,
300 times a day. If you wanna make
a stretch goal a 1000 times a day,
is a goal that we should all commit
to
strive
towards. May Allah realize us in these.
And then we're going to
to finish the 40 hadiths on the virtues
of
in tomorrow's
session. We were averaging about 5 hadiths
per
session.
We're also reading
from Ayyaw al Walad by Imam al Ghazali.
And Imam al Ghazali is emphasizing
the importance of action, and it's the 2
are complementary. Because tells you about how vast
Allah
mercy is, right, and
how great
this meaning is.
And of course,
this is an important concept
to be clear about. In aqeedah, we do
believe and these hadith show us
that faith is depend that salvation
depends on faith.
Salvation depends depends on faith. Someone who believes
will be saved,
but we are
responsible human beings.
Right? We are morally responsible.
Our sins
are good our deeds, we are accountable for
our deeds.
We will rewarded by the generosity of Allah
for
our good deeds, and we are punishable
for our bad deeds.
Sins do not make one a disbeliever.
However,
sins can make one punishable
for the * fire.
Particularly if one does not repent.
Right. And if you want to know how
bad the * fire is,
think about putting your little finger
in a burning flame for 5 seconds
and keeping it there. Don't because it'll burn
away. But this fire is incomparably
lighter
than hellfire, which is thousands of times more
intense.
K. One of the names for it is
the
crusher.
K. Just just crushes whatever is placed in
it immediately.
But also,
as we saw from these hadith, while faith
alone is salvific,
good deeds
strengthen
faith itself.
Right? So good so your good deeds
protect,
preserve
and promote faith. There's 3 p's. Right? Protect,
preserve
and promote. They nurture
and perfect
faith.
Right?
And bad deeds
erode
faith. They weaken it and they
erode it.
And they cause
they cause darkness
so much so that that darkness can
occlude
or completely
remove
faith from the heart.
Right? So
it's important to be clear about that. Of
course, the some Christian missionaries and so on
give false advertising
for Christianity. It's false advertising because we don't
disagree with with them on the fundamental principle
here,
they say that as believers you have to
do all these things for God to accept
you. As for us, you just have to
accept Christ. So we also believe that faith
is salvific,
but we are also responsible.
Right? You're also responsible.
Right?
Well, one of the the the scholars asked
a Christian, they said, okay, saying actions are
of no consequence. So so if I believed
in Christ, I could kill you? I said
no.
So god wouldn't punish me? Of course. Okay.
Because if he wouldn't then do you do
you give me permission to it's like it's
absurd.
Any sane person would say, of course, you're
account you
you you you're held accountable
for actions.
Right?
So it's a bit of foul false advertising.
Now we we'll we look
briefly,
in our at
by Imam Ghazali,
which is a let a council to to
one of his students.
And he's saying that what what if someone
objects on this issue of faith and salvation?
That, well, faith alone is enough.
Right? So he mentions all these things that,
yes, faith is required, but you must act.
Right? Otherwise, your faith is
in danger
or you're losing out.
Says
And what would you say about this hadith
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam? That
Islam is built upon
5.
Bear witnessing that there's no god but god.
And that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.
Allah and establishing the prayer.
And giving zakat.
Ramadan and fasting Ramadan.
And to perform Hajj of the of
of the house, the Kaaba, for whoever is
able to pursue a path
to it, meaning who has the ability
to go on Hajj.
Says, well,
because faith
is an affirmation with the tongue
for you to be known to be a
believer
and a confirmation in the heart for you
to be a believer with your Lord.
But it also entails
acting
with your limbs.
Because otherwise, like a tree without its branches.
Right?
The the faith that is desirable
is described in Surat Ibrahim
by Allah.
The example of a good word.
Is like a good tree.
It's a tree.
That is what the believer strives to be.
Right?
Whose
roots
are firm. Right? It that
good word which is
that your your faith
is deeply rooted
in the soil of your heart.
Right? It's deeply rooted.
The seed of faith is
They say its roots
are the
are the qualities
of faith in the heart,
of hope and fear, of love and gratitude,
of awe
and humility,
of slavehood,
right,
etcetera.
And its branches are in the sky.
So if its branches are in the sky,
what is the shape of the tree?
It is upright,
and it gives fruit
at all times in all seasons by leave
of his lord.
It is ever fruitful.
Right? That is the faith that is sought.
If you fall short of actions,
it
may be that you're still a tree. A
tree without its branch is still a tree,
but it's stunted.
Right?
But but the danger
of not having the actions is that what
caused you to lose
the branches?
Something chopped them off because the the nature
of a tree is that it have branches.
So what chopped off the actions?
Something.
Something caused the branches
to go.
So I'll now use this beautiful example,
Said, what's the danger of not having actions?
Is that this the the the nature of
a seed
is that it gives forth
roots and then a trunk and then branches.
Faith,
likewise, the relationship between faith and actions. If
the faith is soundly planted,
there would be
branches
and would bear fruit.
So if your tree is not bearing fruit,
there could be 2 causes,
internal or external.
Internal, there's something deceasing the tree that caused
the branches to die out.
And if if it caused the branches to
die out but you don't deal with that,
what will it do next?
It'll take the roots
and then the seed and then the seed's
dead.
Or someone came from outside and started chopping
the branches, which is the external negative influences,
and they chopped off the the branches, what
will they take next?
The trunk and then they'll dig up the
tree.
Right? That's the nature
of harm. Right? And that's I thought that
was a profound metaphor.
So he says,
the proof
that actions are required
is more that can be in enumerated.
That and even if the servant reaches paradise
by the bounty of Allah and his generosity,
However, it is after they prepare themselves
with obedience and worship.
Referring to the Quranic
verse because the mercy of Allah is close
to those who do good. Allah has said,
you can enter my paradise if you believe.
Just it's there for you. But if you
don't act on that belief is that like
it's as if you didn't come to the
door.
Right?
So he continues this discussion and we'll look
at it next.
Oh, just finish this.
So someone said, but one could reach paradise
by faith alone.
So even if we said yes, then yes,
faith alone is salvific, which is what we
do believe.
But when would such a person reach?
And how many obstacles
that are truly
trying
will they face until they reach? Because Allah
has promised you paradise. He's not promised you
paradise
carte blanche.
And the first of the obstacles is for
your faith itself to remain.
Will your faith itself be safe from
being lost?
Or not being lost.
And even if one reaches, one will reach
as a criminal who's bankrupt.
You want to reach they they let you
in because
okay. You can come too or you you
want to enter honored.
And one of my one of
the Mashaikh,
Sheikh Mohammed Pailesh,
when he was young,
said one of his uncles had a dream
in which he saw the prophet sallallahu alaihi
sallam.
And
in the dream, the prophet came, knocked on
his door and said, Allah has sent me
to tell you
that you're of the people of paradise.
This very same night,
that righteous man's
brother had a dream
of the prophet came,
knocked on his door and said, Allah sent
me to tell you that your brother is
of the people of paradise.
Now the the man who had a dream
the dream about himself told no one but
his wife out of gratitude, but his wife
told everyone she could. Then guess what my
husband saw?
And that's how they discovered that his brother
had seen the same thing.
His brother actually hadn't told anybody.
Sheikh Mohammed Khayel, being from the family, heard
about it too. He was like, great. My
uncles are the people of paradise. So he
figured, look. My uncle was always praying at
night, always crying his prayer, all this stuff.
So now
he can relax.
But you notice he increased in his prayer.
He's like, why is he giving himself a
hard time? He's crying even more.
So he went to his
to his uncle and said,
like, the prophet
told you that you are the people of
heaven.
And we know
he said he just started study because he
wanted to impress his uncle. And we know
from the Hadith of Rasool Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam that whoever sees me in in
their in their
dream has seen the truth. Whoever sees me
has seen the truth because the shaitan cannot
take my form. This is one of the
many things Allah has honored the prophet by.
So his uncle looked at him and he
said, my son,
that's true.
But what if it's after millions of years
of punishment?
Right?
Our our iman,
as Imam Abu Ta'awi says in his creed,
is between
the excess between excessive hope and excessive
fear.
Excessive hope
causes one to be lax.
Excessive fear causes despair.
So we are between the extremes of
laxity
that everything's fine and despair
that everything's
messed up. K.
The straight path is the way of balance.
That, yes, faith is salvific and we're grateful,
but we are responsible
servants of Allah. And if we remain sufficiently
irresponsible, we may lose that gift that is
faith. Faith is not something that belongs to
you. It's a gift from Allah.
It requires gratitude.
If you are sufficiently
ungrateful,
you lose
the gift.
Al Hassan Al Basri said, Allah most high
says to his servants on the day of
resurrection,
enter paradise by my mercy
and divide it amongst yourself
by your actions.
So why would you lose out even in
that manner?
So this is his advice, act on what
you know.
Right? Act on what you know.
We ask Allah to make us of the
people
who
learn what is a benefit
and who strive to act upon it
with steadfastness
and with sincerity,
with a sense of urgency,
respect to where we are with our relationship
with Allah,
with gratitude
and striving to truly be of the grateful
servants
of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. Should I not
be of the truly grateful servants of Allah?
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