Is Islam an easy religion

Now we do want to stay in order stuff 01 minute here with our qawwali one I will be live in Cerulean fusina Amin sia Jamar Lina Yahoo for mo de la for me you to do for that Haji Rama Baba and I'll be the one who call Allah rasool Allah He sallallahu alayhi wa sallam in the deen a usual way you share the dino Mahajan Illa Allah who personally do work or who appeal was starting to be the one what he will know how it will show him in the dojo. And while

this is narrated in the psyche of Mr. Bahari, on through the great companion, Abba Herrera, Raja Wahoo, that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, in the Dena, use of this religion is easy. Whether you shared the dino or hardened Illa Allah, nobody makes this religion difficult upon themselves, except that it will overpower them for so they do. So. Follow the law, walk on the go and try your best or absolu and be optimistic about receiving a reward from your Lord was the inner being of God what you were all here to shame the Luigia and seek Allah's help in the mornings and the afternoons and a portion of the night.

Whenever we hear of Hadith like this, or similarly, the verses in the Quran Surah Baqarah, chapter number two, verse 185, where Allah Subhana Allah says, you read the law become more useful whether you need to become an officer Allah wants is for you, he does not want difficulty for you. A common question we get for many people is that these statements like your religion is easy, Allah, what's easy for you does not match the experience of the religion, that for many people, their experience of Islam is that it's difficult. It's hard, it's extreme. It's a it's a burden to follow. So when they hear this hadith says that the religion is easy, they are unsure of how to understand these

Hadith and apply them. So what I want to do today, Inshallah, in the first football, is to address this doubt, right that the Quran and the Hadith stated the religion is easy, but for many people, they experience the opposite. And I'll give about five different ways in which we can deal with that doubt, inshallah. And in the second football, I want to give a brief explanation of this hadith that we can apply on a practical level to our daily lives. So when people say that their religion does not feel easy to them, that this religion seems difficult. There are so many laws, so many things are haram, so many things are compulsory, it feels very difficult. How do we answer that? How do we

respond to that? And maybe some of us might have the question in our minds ourselves. So Inshallah, let's explore five ways in which we deal with this. The first way to deal with it is where is the problem coming from? You see, the problem may not be with the law. The problem may be with our expectation of religion. We live in an age of liberalism, Age of individualism, where it's all about myself, it's all about what I want, where people are following their desires without any limits. And so when you look around, and you see people who just do what they want, when they want, engaging with all of their desires, doing everything that is haram. And from your perspective, it looks like

they are enjoying life, it looks like they are free, it looks like they have everything they want in this world. And when you compare that to following a set of laws, when you compare that to staying away from the Haram, when you compare that to praying five times a day, then from that perspective, it looks hard. It looks difficult, it feels like life is more harder for us than it is for others, that people out there, whatever religion they may claim to follow, if they claim to follow no religion at all, their life just seems to be to do whatever they want.

And we think that they are happier, we think that they are more free, we think that they have a better life and we feel that our religion is restricting us. So the problem is not with the religion. The problem is what we are comparing it to we are comparing it to a lifestyle in which there are no rules. And we think that this lifestyle is life. We think this lifestyle looks fun. We think that this lifestyle, you know is what humans should should be aiming for. And because of this, we have these nutrients of bawdiness Muslims who are trying to return to religion in a way that appeals to that lifestyle. What we don't realize is how destructive this lifestyle really is. If you

look at the countries which have adopted this methodology of living, where you do what you want, and you just follow your knifes, you will find that those countries have the highest depression rate in the history of this world. They have the highest suicide rates in the history of this world. Why? If this lifestyle makes people

happy there. Why are people from this lifestyle more depressed and more suicidal? On the other hand, people who follow Islam, people who practice Islam, for people who live by the law of Islam, they have inner peace, they have purpose they have meaning. They have a way to get through life without going through these extremes of wanting to kill themselves. Why? If one lifestyle makes people happy, and the other one like makes life difficult? Why is the one that you think is making life happy? Why is that causing depression? And the one that you think make life difficult? Why is that bringing in a piece, because we have the wrong perspective.

Islam is a religion that's meant to civilize us, it's meant to make us the best versions of ourselves. And when we move away from that, and we choose to be animalistic in our lifestyles, that we want to be like the animals know many of these evils that people follow these days is over the animal spirits, which naturally, you want to be like an animal you want to live like an animal is that really why Allah gave us consciousness and brains and intellect, so we can bring ourselves back down to the level of animals, though, we are supposed to be civilized beings, and the laws of Islam, the morals of Islam, they civilize us to the best of both worlds, we become the best of creation

when we follow these laws. So the first problem for those who find the religion difficult is that you're looking at it from the wrong perspective, you are comparing Islam to not following any religion at all. And then you think that that brings happiness, but it does not. Now, if you had to compare Islam, to what other religions had as the laws at that time, when it was revealed, or to what people's perception of piety and religion is, you will find Islam is a very practical and simple religion. A lot of human beings feel that to be religious, to be pious to be practicing. You have to give up this world you have to go live in a cave somewhere in the mountains to worship God

all day. And this type of lifestyle is actually prohibited in Islam. This is a form of extremism that Islam shuns. Islam teaches us a very practical lifestyle, a lifestyle when you get married, when you have children, where you work, where you provide for society, where you serve your community, when you give charity, when you're involved with the people. It's a very practical lifestyle.

So the first

response to those who say that Islam is difficult, is that you are comparing it to liberalism, and the comparison is wrong. The second response

is that many of us who say Islam is difficult is because we don't want to follow any rules. The irony of this is that when rules come from human beings, we are very quick to follow. Right? If your boss has rules for the workplace, you don't think twice about following those rules. If your school has rules, you don't think twice about following those rules. You obey the law because you know, it's important to follow the rules from a person in position and authority. Why don't we give Allah the same authority? Why don't we give Allah's laws the same authority, then when a person tells you that in this place, you can't smoke? We listen to them, we respect them. Boy, Allah tells us, don't

do this, don't do that. We always like to have difficulty. You see, we're not giving Allah the level of authority he deserves. If we accept Allah subhanho wa Taala is the one who controls the universe, He is the God of creation, He is the one who is most wise most just and therefore all of these laws come from a position of wisdom and justice, then we should obey that law with even more zeal than we obey the laws that human beings set up.

So that is the second perspective, our perspective towards Allah as the law maker that we give Allah the respect he deserves, as the law medical. Number three, is that we need to understand based upon that Allah is Most wise Allah is Most just, therefore, every single law that Allah has revealed, is the most just of laws and the most wisest of laws, even if we do not understand how, this is the key point. You may not understand for every single law. Why is it the best

but you have to accept Allah is Most wise Allah is Most just not for most of the laws, we can explain it you can see why it is for our own benefit that we should abstain from alcohol, right, we can see why it is our own benefit to fast we can see why these four are better for to give charity, but sometimes you might not understand it. Why is it for our own benefit? You know, for example, to stay away from, from from Xena, some young people can understand this, you can understand what's wrong with it. Maybe as you get older and wiser and you lived your life and you see you those who live a sinner lifestyle and how it ruins them and those who live a pure chaste lifestyle and how it

benefits them. Then you begin to understand the wisdom. It may be you're too young to understand the wisdom. It may be you don't have enough life experience to understand the wisdom. It may be the science has yet to discover the Wisdom, what we believe whatever Allah has revealed, it was the minute and therefore we trust Allah wisdom and we follow His law even when we do not understand

One of the fitness in our time is that people only want to follow a law if they understand it. And if they don't understand it, they reject it.

This is a this is a problem of putting your ego and your knowledge on a pedestal, where you are saying that if as well as I don't understand it can't be true.

Not taking into account the fact that our knowledge is limited, our wisdom is limited. There are things we don't know there are things we don't understand. Allah knows everything Allah is Most twice. So trust, Allah has wisdom and the standard, every single law that Allah has revealed in the Quran, in the Sunnah is there for our own benefit. It is for the benefit of humanity. And we see this in the laws. You know, when you think about the laws, they really save us from ourselves. They help us to grow into the best version of ourselves, you know, even the simplest of goals like lowering your gaze. What a better world it would be. If people lower the case, know how much more

safer women would feel in society, men over decades. Think about these laws. They know the prohibition of Xena, and all these other kinds of deviancy that people are involved in today. How much more stable were families before it's in our culture became the norm. When Xena culture became the norm family got thrown out the window, divorce rates skyrocketed. People today don't even know what a family is anymore. People don't want to get married. People don't want to have children. People don't want to responsibility. When you see all of this happening. You understand the wisdom of Allah prohibiting Zina and making marriage sooner and in some cases compulsory, according

to the laws have wisdom. The fourth response is that sometimes you finding the religion difficult, and this is the only response I'm giving them maybe a bit controversial, that sometimes you are finding the religion difficult because your understanding of the religion is wrong. You see, it's very much possible that we may have misunderstood something, or we may have a wrong understanding of a fifth issue. Right. And sometimes when you are younger, when you are a zealot, when you want to start practicing Islam, you go to that phase where you adopted the harshest position on every issue. So if you have three Allamah talking about the issue, one thing it's allowed one thing, it's makuu

one thing is haram, you could have the Haram opinion because you want to feel more pious than everybody else. That when you do that for 100 different issues. Suddenly you have 100 Things haram upon you that the majority of Muslims don't see us.

So the problem isn't with the religion being difficult, it's that you made it difficult on yourself. So if you finding sometimes in a religion is like overburdening to you and it's too difficult for you take a step back and reanalyze your understanding of the religion. You go and study with Allah ma study the books and see for yourself Is my understanding correct? No, like for example, some people you know, define every small thing haram if someone can be sitting in a masjid in a shirt and pants is always haram you must record them. Why? Study the books of study the Quran? So you find it's not there? Are you just making it difficult for people upon yourself for no reason? And then

we'll come to that in the Hadith. When you make the religion to be called upon yourself. You find it overburdening. You find it too much. Sometimes, it's sometimes you know, we make the religion difficult in ourselves and we think the religion is difficult, but the religion is not difficult when you actually study the Quran and Sunnah the actual Halal and Haram as revealed by Allah subhanho wa taala, you will find it is very practical. And many times, half of the things that we may think is haram because either we don't like it or because our forefathers told us It's haram or because you read in a book. It's horrible because some extremely spiritual, Newtonian is haram. You

know, when you actually study the Quran and Sunnah and the bellhops. It's not. It's just one person's opinion, to seek knowledge to clarify your opinions on these issues. And the final response to those who say that the religion is difficult. And let's go over the four responses one more time before we give the final response. Number one, the problem is with our perception that we are comparing following laws to not following any laws. And that's a problem. Everybody needs laws. We need laws to be the best version of ourselves. Number two, we are not giving Allah the authority he deserves. That we are willing to follow laws set down by people, but we don't want to follow the

laws of Allah subhanho wa taala. Number three, he said whatever Allah has revealed, it's for our own benefit. And when you understand that and you accept that, then you will be more willing to follow His rules. Number four, is sometimes we miss understandable, and we make it more difficult on ourselves than it really gets. And when that happens, we need to take a step back and we study our religion. And finally, finally, Allah knows best. Allah knows best what is meant by the word Aedes. You see, the words have different definitions for different people. When the prophets Allah, Allah himself said that this religion is easy, what Allah and is missing.

Your mean by easy could be very different from what you mean by ease. When we think of ease, we think of do what you want. But that's not what Allah shahada means when he says you read a lot become unusual Allah intense ease for you. That's not what Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam meant when he said that the use of the religion is easy. The meaning of the word is to us is different from the meaning to Allah subhanho wa Taala we need to step away from our understanding of these words and go back to what does Allah mean what does Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mean? And to do that we go to the books of Tafseer, the bookshop of commentarial bodies and we find

the scholars explain what it is and inshallah we will discuss that with the sacred codebook what is meant by this hadith what is is and what what does it mean by the religion is easy to behind the Robin is that the fool salam ala mousseline was

a hamdu Lillahi wa Salatu was Salam wa rahmatullah wa vada. Mabon for inner circle, Hadith wikitable. Now have you had you had the Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, for sure only one desire to have a Kulu

Kulu but didn't Allah Allah, Allah.

So this hadith that we're discussing, it's found in Satyagraha, in the second section, which is called the chapter of faith of Imam. So it's a battle of faith, a matter of Imam. What this hadith mentions is something we are supposed to believe in. It's part of our EMR as Muslims under the sub chapter, right, the sub chapter so this is chapter two, sub chapter number 29. The sub chapter is called Babu in the Drina yourself the chapter of the religion Big Easy. So in our Johari named this chapter, in his Rahim, the chapter of the religion being easy, and in this chapter, he included only two Hadith. One Hadith narrated in full which is the one we are going to discuss and one mentioned,

by the way, indeed, chapter heading now just a small point of no joke, when Imam Al Bukhari mentions a hadith in the chapter heading, but he doesn't mention it in full in the main text, it's because he did not consider that hadith as authentic as the ones he mentioned in the main body, but he considers them authentic enough to be mentioned, and also relevant to the topic. Right? So we're not discussing that, but he's the one mentioned in the chapter heading. But it's also an important Hadith which which basically, the prophets have always said that the most beloved part of this religion to Allah is the easiest, the most beloved part of this religion to Allah is the easiest,

that is an authentic hadith found in other books of Hadith. He magoha dimensions is by the way, his chapter just revolves around what it is, and that's discussing here. So again, Mr. Bukhari has a chapter called The religion is easy. And in this chapter, he has one Hadith, and that hadith is from Abu Huraira radula one who the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said in the deen a user to religion is definitely easy when they you shot the dino a hadith Illa Allah Babu nobody makes it difficult on themselves accepted to overpower them, but said they do work on people were optional. So follow the law and try your best and be hopeful for reward from your Lord. What's the new bill of

liberty? We're all happy we're shaving Adalja xe Allah is assistance in the mornings and the afternoons and a portion of the Nikah. Let's break down the studies and explain it. But by But firstly, what does Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mean when he tells us the religion is easy, this is a point about either a point of Eman that our religion is easy. And the scholars have broken it down into four things. There are four ways that this religion is easy, not compared to follow it nothing compared to following other religions are ones made up perceptions of religion. For ways that is religion is easy. Number one, it benefits. Any law of Islam you follow will benefit

you. You stay away from alcohol that's for your own benefit. You stay away from Zina. That's for your own benefit. You pray five times a day, that's for your own benefit. You fast the month of Ramadan, just for your own benefit to religion is easy in the sense that everything you do that, in obedience to Allah makes life easier for you. Any act of obedience to Allah will make life easier for you. And that is the first part. The second way in which the religion is easy is that it is very practical. It's very practical. Allah subhanaw taala does not tell us to pray 50 times a day. He's not told us to fast the entire year. He didn't tell us to pray 100 all night long. He didn't tell us

don't ever get mad in order to go and live like a monk in the mountains. It's a very practical religion. You get married, you have children, you go to work you pray. Most one hour a day. If you pray more, you're sooner. Right most one hour of the day goes in actual worship. Very practical. You give charity compulsory once a year. If you can afford it, you go for Hajj once in a lifetime, if you can afford it. Very, very practical laws. Number three to religion is easy in the sense that not only are the laws practical, but they're flexible. They're flexible. You can't stand and pray You said

temporary you can't sit and pray you lie down and pray you can't make Who do you make diamo you traveling you can combine your Salah you can shorten your Salah, very flexible and practical laws. Number four, the religion pushes moderation. It pushes us towards moderation. It prohibits all forms of extremism. And we'll come to this in the next part is where the profits was upsetting. Nobody makes the religion difficult on themselves, except that to overpower them. What does this mean? When you make Islam that you will be able to follow your own understanding?

When you make Islam difficult, you won't be able to live up to the standards that you are setting for yourself. So for example, we have the Hadith with three young men. They wanted to be more pious. So one said, I'm going to pray the 100 every night for the rest of my life, I'm never going to sleep at night. One of them say I'm going too fast every day for the rest of my life. And one of them said, I'm never getting married, right? He's going to remain celibate for the rest of his life. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam got angry, he said, This is not my student. This is not my sooner I sleep and I wake up, I forgot something I don't pass other days, and I have wives. Right?

So Rasulullah saw some teaches us the path of moderation. The part of what it is when you make this really difficult on yourself, you will not be able to live up to it, you will not be able to follow it you will experience what we call today, religious burnout. We have these cases where someone's young, they start practicing Islam, they make Islam so, so difficult on themselves, that you know, they don't do anything fine. They don't want to do any volume, want to get married, they don't want to live a normal life just want to worship all day, all night. Sometimes within three or four years. They stop practicing Islam altogether. And sometimes those will be even leave the religion. Why?

Because they push themselves too hard. They set a goal, they were unrealistic, they follow the version of the religion. That's not That's not what Allah wanted from us. And when you do that, you end up pushing yourself away from Islam and pushing other people away from Islam as well. So in this hadith, the prophets of Allah, Islam is warning us against extremism. When it you know, believes we did our understanding of the law we did in our personal practice, we must not be extreme, we must be moderate. And that's where the next part of the honeys comes in. So the rest of the bodies are four steps for things to do to practice this religion properly. And the first one is, was said Do Now the

word suddenly do it's difficult to explain? Even hajus Kalani Rahim Allah explains it as to be moderate in your practice of the religion, to be moderate in your practice of the religion, meaning gradually grow closer to Allah. Don't go to extremes, Don't make things difficult on yourself, that he links it back to the previous part of the Hadith. He prophesied himself, whoever makes things difficult on himself that he will not be able to follow it. So be moderate in your practice of the religion be more than being moderate mean? It means for example, okay, you want to start fasting extra, every Monday and Thursday. Not every day, every Monday does it that's module, you want to

start praying more start praying your sooner so we can afford to add up to 100. This is moderate. Don't go too extreme low, make things difficult on yourself. The next advice of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam is work on evil. callable year means and there's different explanations given by different scholars, but the one found in the books of hadith is to try your best. Quality means try your best. Try your best to be Allah subhana wa try your best to pray five times a day to lower your gaze, yield to do whatever Allah asked you to do. You're not going to be perfect. No one's going to be perfect. But if you try your best, your LBC if you try your best for the rest, you try your best

Allah forgives the rest. That's the third advice. What advice do you give yourself good news. What good news. Again, 100 explain today says give yourself good news that Allah is going to accept my efforts. Be optimistic that Allah going to accept your efforts. So what is the Hadith telling us number one, be bothered in your practice of Islam. Don't go too extreme. Don't make it too difficult on yourself and your family. When you build such a high expectations for yourself and your family. Nobody can live up to be moderate. Try your best. Try your best to obey Allah understanding you're going to slip up, you're going to make mistakes, things are going to go wrong, but you're going to

keep trying your best. And number three, motivate yourself to keep trying your best by reminding yourself of Allah's reward, reminding yourself in India he brings in another Hadith to explain this, what is the Hadith that when you do a good deed Allah gives you 10 times the reward or more. When you commit a sin ologies gives you one cent and he wipes it out if you if you repent and you and you do good deeds. So we use this to motivate yourself to okay, I'm trying my best to be a good Muslim I slipped up I'm going to try again. Insha Allah can accept my efforts, Allah is going to reward ALLAH forgive my sins, and you use as a motivation to keep trying your best. Now the final part of the

Hadith there are many different opinions. What it means to keep it simple. I'm just going to stick to the opinion that I found in the book

Heidi's to be strongest, where the prophesy some said seek Allah's assistance in the mornings, afternoons a portion of the night. What does this mean? Well, the explanation I found that made the most sense is to pray Salah five times a day, that it is one act of worship, to commit yourself to there's going to save you from Jahannam is going to make life easy for you that's going to protect you from extremism that's going to keep you balanced and grounded. It's praying five times a day. How did they get this understanding what studying might seek assistance in the Quran, Allah says was trying to be somebody was salah, seek assistance to sober and Scala so they link it to Scala. And

then they look at the next part of the seek assistance in the morning, the afternoon and a portion of the evening. The morning is Fudger the afternoon is over and after a portion of the of the evening is Margaret and Alicia, and even 100. So the scholars say that this hadith means Be firm on your Salah to the Hadith causes a moderation but on one thing it causes us to be firm for the rest of our life. And that is your five daily Salah because this is what protects you this is what keeps you grounded. This is what keeps you away from Cofer. This is what keeps you away from from losing your mind if you are consistent one your Salah. And so we end with the advice of Rasulullah

centimetres, Hadith and call upon all of us to follow this hadith and to live by this at ease to not be extreme in your practice or understanding of the religion. Understand that this religion is easier when you make it difficult on yourself. You will not be able to live up to it. So follow the balance of understanding of this religion. Try your best. Give yourself motivation and optimism that Allah will accept your actions and be consistent on your five dailies ALLAH SubhanA robic is at the almighty phone was salam. mousseline. We're coming to you live from Aleppo.