A Guide for the New Muslim Part 6
Date:
Channel: Jamal Zarabozo
File Size: 42.96MB
AI Generated Summary ©
The importance of belief and faith in Islam is discussed, along with the importance of finding a complete person in order to achieve a BMW. The speaker emphasizes the need for acceptance of Islam and implementation of its message, as it is necessary to achieve faith. The speaker also discusses the confusion surrounding the definition of Islam and the need for people to confirm their faith in it. The importance of understanding the physical and spiritual attributes of the creator and the need for people to confirm their faith is emphasized.AI Generated Transcript ©
Having dinner, having dinner was not wassalam and, and Amina Mohammed, we should, either hymnal lo and behold, he can.
Now inshallah, and the remainder of the lecture that we'll have for the series,
what I plan on doing is presenting
a number of
essential topics related to Islam, including the beliefs,
and the pillars, the ritual pillars,
and the behavior of a Muslim, and so forth. So these are general topics that will try to relate as much as possible.
These general topics to specific circumstances and issues of Muslim conference, no Muslims in particular. However, at the same time, the general information is something also that, as we've mentioned, many times, this is the basis of your religion. So therefore, the better you understand these concepts, the earlier you are exposed to them, the sooner that you begin to live by them, then obviously, the better will be your faith. inshallah, in the long run, some of these topics, you might be able to find,
already available in English, a lot of information about some of them, so therefore, I'll try my best to try to go through some of them quickly, inshallah.
And we'll begin by discussing the articles of faith.
What it is that a Muslim is supposed to believe in.
And before doing that,
I need to speak a little bit about the Islamic concept of belief or faith, or what is known in Arabic as a man.
Many of the Islamic concepts do not translate directly into
one simple English word. There's so many times obviously,
when the ship comes no surprise, many times there are some different aspects to a term that is used in Arabic, from the term that is used in English or vice versa.
And so therefore, when you think of the question of belief,
you know, if you ask a person, do you believe in God?
Many people will say, Yes, I believe in God. And then if you ask the person, yes, but does that belief in God?
have any influence in your life? Does it affect your life? Does it affect your behavior, what you do, what you don't do, and so forth? Many times people will answer No, in general doesn't, you know, they do what they please, they believe in God, but it doesn't really have any effect in their lives.
And so now as but this is how they were, this is how they use the word in English to believe right? He says he believes in God.
And so now the question is, is this use of the word belief, and saying, This is belief in God Is this the same thing as what Islam speaks about and what the Quran speaks about as a man
from an Islamic perspective, belief for any man cannot be something
that a person claims in his heart or person knows, at a rational level, while at the same time it actually has no influence on his life and behavior.
In reality, if there is true, amen, in the heart,
where the person recognizes the truth, accepts the truth, has a willingness and desire to follow that truth. This is what a man is, as opposed to simply belief, as we call it in English, or faith, even
if the belief is truly in the heart, then that should be the driving force behind everything that the individual does.
And the more complete and the stronger that that belief that Eman is in the heart, then the greater the effect it will have on the individual to the point that it may dominate all of his life completely. And that is, maybe the goal we can say that the individual is trying to attain.
Or he knows that these realities that he believes in the tea he knows our true. These are the ones that are dominating and guiding his life and every aspect of his life.
Now as we we all recognize the fact that the process has told us that you know, human beings slip into commit errors and so forth.
So we know that this is going to occur sometimes but for the real believers for the strong believers, the one who has what we could call complete Eman. The slips will be relatively few
And in general, they'll not be major slips
is a man, that feeling in his heart should be able to keep himself away from doing those things which are considered the great sins, which are greatly displeasing to Allah subhanaw taala.
So the greater this Eman in the heart, the greater this feeling of belief and faith in the heart, the greater it influences the individual.
But if it has no effect on the individual whatsoever, then you cannot really claim that there's a man in the heart.
And if it has very little influence on the individual, then you cannot really claim that there's much emotion in the heart.
Because the belief system that is really controlling the heart, this is what controls the individual as a whole.
It can get to the point or should get to the point
that this believes in the these beliefs in the person's heart, completely molds the individual
and affects everything in his life and even how he perceives and how he looks at everything.
Even his love for something, and his hatred for something
is going to be determined by his beliefs about that thing.
Right? Does that make sense? I mean, if you if you believe in God,
and you have a strong belief in God, you have a man what we call a man.
And you know, for example, that Allah subhanho wa Taala has declared in the Quran, that he hates some action, that he hates him,
or that he loves some action.
Once you recognize that God loves that thing, then this is going to produce a love in your heart for that thing as well. Because in your heart, you believe that that thing must be a good thing.
If God loves it, it must be a good thing.
And it is deserving of love. If God loves it, then it is deserving of love. But if God says that he doesn't love it, then you know that that thing is not deserving of love. And so therefore this amen when it when it enters into your heart, properly and completely, then it molds the very way that you that you look at everything in this life.
And this is when a person begins to have the true the true Eman.
The complete image that this is the goal that we as Muslims should be should be seeking.
And in fact,
there's a difference between Islam and Eman and Muslim and
the one who has believed the one who has imagined he is referred to as
the one who submits himself he is a Muslim. And in some of the Hadith the process that I'm you can see that there is the prophet SAW Selim is sometimes distinguishing between someone who is a Muslim and someone who is a believer, someone who was a movement
because to deserve this title, this honorific title
of being a real believer of being a woman.
This means that this man in your heart, this faith in your heart is really influencing your life.
You've gone beyond the level of simply submitting to God.
But now you have all of the components of belief in God in your heart, and love for God and fear of God and hope and God and so forth. That That in itself affects your behavior.
Now you've moved up to a new level in which you are really deserving to be called a believer.
Most people when they embrace Islam, they are still at this level of Islam they are in fact for many of them, they are still at the beginning stages of submitting
you know, some people say the Shahada, they become Muslim and but they still have difficulty just in submitting to God.
Not to speak of having the complete Eman in the heart and really loving things for the sake of God and recognizing that love God loves this thing and so therefore it must be wonderful and I also love it in my heart and I also desired and I want to do it in my life and so
many many people when they convert to Islam, obviously and this is natural.
Many new Muslims they are far from that level when they become Muslim.
But as I said, this is natural inshallah we we all of us inshallah, hopefully are still growing in Islam, even even Muslims who have been Muslim for many, many years. inshallah they're still growing in Islam, they are still improving their Islam.
They are still improving their image, they are still increasing their image.
The point is that when we talk about belief and having the real and
Proper belief,
or what is known as Amen.
We are not talking about some kind of abstract recognition or theoretical recognition of what is true.
It just goes much beyond that many people can recognize that God exists and the creator exists, and they know that and they recognize that effect. But this is not a man.
This is not a man a man, it only becomes a man when
that recognition of that fact
enters into the person's heart and begins to dominate that person's heart. And he puts that recognition of that fact, above anything else.
And this, of course, as we said, leads to having the love for Allah, having fear of Allah having hope in Allah, having our, for Allah, and so forth.
And that is why the scholars throughout the history, they said that a man has certain components.
And I think this is something very important for new Muslims to recognize.
And especially because you'll hear sometimes a lot of people may be making claims about themselves and about Islam and so forth.
They say that the components of Eman include belief in the heart. In other words, that recognition that the thing is true, you know, that it is true profession by the tongue, as we said, making the Shahada making a proper a proper proclamation of the Shahada, and acting upon that belief in one's deeds.
It must infiltrate it must go from what is in the heart to actually influence the individual, and he behaves according to that belief.
Now, many times you'll meet people and they will say, Oh, you know, I don't pray and I don't fasten. I don't do this. And I don't do that, and this and this, but I have belief in my heart, I have a mind in my heart.
Again, from Islamic perspective, this is not true.
There is something wrong, there's something wrong, if that is really in the person's heart and it's not driving the person.
It's not really influencing the person and leading that person to do the good deeds, especially the obligatory and the most important obligatory deeds, that the individual is supposed to perform.
How is this person really claiming that he has or she has a man in their heart?
If it is really there, if it is really there, you will see the effect on the individual.
So the person can analyze himself and he can look at himself and see what kind of deeds is he performed.
And he can understand from that, what kind of health This is a man and
what kind of state of being and says imagine is it strong is a weak is a diseased
because this will be reflected actually in your actions.
And inshallah, as I said, as you grow and Eman as you grow any man also your deeds will improve as you get closer to Allah subhanho wa Taala. Through your increase in Eman
is even another level of the prophets I seldom referred to in a hadith
and that is the level of esa
where you've gone even beyond the state of of amen to a state where you're worshiping Allah subhanho wa Taala as if you are seeing Allah subhanho wa Taala right in front of you.
And although you do not see all this kind of data right in front of you know that Allah subhana wa data is seeing you.
This is yet another level of consciousness of Allah subhana wa Tada.
You can imagine that the individual who is walking he was living as if he sees Allah subhanaw taala right in front of them. This person is going to behave much differently from the from the Muslim who says he believes in Allah but doesn't even think about Allah and doesn't care whether he's obeying Allah spent with that or not.
So the goal, inshallah
The goal is to continually increase our Eman and continually improve our Islam our submission to Allah subhanho wa Taala our belief in Allah subhanho wa Taala
and we should never feel we should never become lackadaisical
and rest on our laurels and feel like okay, we've accomplished enough we've done enough. Our level of demand right now is enough.
We'll talk about later inshallah, those aspects, but that is a very dangerous position to be.
Another point about beliefs in Islam that I would like to mention.
And again, shows how a man what we call a man
And Islam is different from necessarily faith or belief and as we use it in English
and that is the word especially the word faith.
Here the word faith which imagine many times is translated into English is faith.
The word faith in English is many times accompanied by the concept of a leap of faith.
In other words, you get to a certain point
where what you believe in becomes just a blind obedience. In other words, you have no real proof for or you cannot really substantiate your belief on something, but you still believe in it.
And this, they even consider a praiseworthy thing, right? You've made that leap of faith, you've now gone and believed in something that you actually have no reason to believe it. I mean, you can't really demonstrate it, you can't even demonstrate it to your own mind, not to speak of demonstrating it to others.
If, for example, the mystery of the of the Trinity, right, almost any priest or preacher that you speak to, he'll tell you that
the Trinity is a mystery, and it's a matter of faith.
So in Islam, it is important to recognize that
a man or faith is also knowledge based.
It's also knowledge based in your heart.
In your heart, you recognize the truth, and you feel the truth, and you have this love for the truth. And you have this want to follow the truth. So you have that emotional level in your heart,
which might correspond to those people who have that leap of faith. But that emotional level in your heart has to be accompanied by an Islam and for a man, it is also accompanied by what is recognized in the mind to be the truth.
So both the heart and the mind are working together, recognizing what is the truth, and and then
having the drive to follow, what is the truth and what is the best.
Both of these have to work together.
So sometimes people can recognize the truth.
But they are lacking that part in their and the hearts that make them follow the truth.
As I said, the score has mentioned,
the score has mentioned that a man is not simply just recognizing the truth.
But it is also then taking the step to submit to Allah subhanho wa Taala and to implement that truth in your life.
We have actually many examples in the history
of people, for example, who recognize the truth, for example, the uncle of the promises, on the bottom,
you recognize the truth of the promises that he recognized that the prophet SAW Selim was a messenger of God, but he refused to submit to you refuse to accept
the religion of the promises.
So this recognition of our fact,
without being followed up by that desire to follow that fact, this is not a man.
This is not a man.
Similarly, a man is not simply you believe in something and you don't even know really what it is and, and and why you believe in it, and you're not, you do not recognize it as a truth that at a rational level.
Now, actually, both of them go together.
Allah subhanho wa Taala does not require us
to believe in something that goes against our nature, to believe in something that we cannot understand.
To believe in something that is illogical, irrational or something of that nature.
And in fact, Allah subhanaw taala repeatedly in the Quran tells human beings to reflect, to think about the creation to think about their own
souls and their own their own individual persons and what is around them.
And Allah subhanho wa Taala makes it very clear that if you do this,
if you do this sincerely,
and desiring to fall for the find the truth, you will come to the conclusion that there is none worthy of worship except Allah.
And if you do this as well, you will not only believe
in Allah subhanho wa Taala but you will also believe that this, that Allah subhanho wa Taala did not all create all of this without any purpose without any reason that Allah subhanho wa Taala is above and beyond doing something of that nature.
Well listen to what Dallas doesn't put on. For example.
One of the
Hello,
everyone,
very early in the creation of the heavens and the earth, and then the alternation of night and day. They are indeed signs for men of understanding.
Those who remember Allah, standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and think deeply about the creation of the heavens in the earth, saying, Our Lord, you have not created all this without purpose, Glory to you, Exalted view Above all, they associate with you as partners give us salvation, from the torment of the Fire.
The Quranic arguments is that it is not logically possible to come to any other conclusion when you really ponder and think about this creation.
You know, when a person thinks about God as as the as the creator,
then by definition, it is unbecoming of such a noble and great creator, that he's going to create all of this order that we see in this creation, all of this beauty, and yet have no purpose behind this creation.
This is just one example of the of the many kind of arguments that we find in the Quran and the proofs that we find in the Quran in which Allah subhana wa tada is speaking about the fact that what we believe in, or what we're supposed to believe in, actually, these are the things that are consistent with our nature, they are the things that we see and should understand, from the world around us.
And so therefore, we should be convinced of this truth.
Convinced, as I said, not just a leap of faith, we're believing something we don't have any knowledge about whether it could be true or not, we don't really understand anything about it.
Nor is it simply a matter of emotions. Some feeling in the heart, I want to believe in this person as God or this these people as God or whatever.
But we can recognize and see that this is a fact that this is the truth.
And this is a company then, and followed up then by the desire in the heart to follow the truth and to implement the truth.
Another example of this nature that we find the Quran has to do with the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala is going to recreate human beings that after they did and, and turn to dust in this life,
Allah subhana wa tada has the ability and will recreate them all the time with Donna, in numerous places in the Koran gives us logical arguments about why this is necessarily going to be the case. And then no one can actually argue that this is impossible, and there's no reason for it. And it doesn't make any sense no unreality. Allah subhanaw taala shows us over and over in the Quran, why indeed it is possible and why indeed it is going to happen, why it is necessary.
So again, the point is that our Eman is also knowledge based is not a leap of faith. And therefore, the more knowledge that you have
the greater you understand the Quran and what Allah subhana wa tada is telling us in the Quran,
there's no conflict, like we find another plant and other religions, like between between logic and religion or between science and religion, whatever, there's no conflict whatsoever. The more you learn, actually,
the more you learn the closer it should bring you to Allah subhanho wa Taala. And that is why in Islam, there's a great emphasis
on obtaining knowledge, every Muslim is required to seek knowledge.
This is the process that I'm told us that the seeking of knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim.
Now, obviously, the Prophet says lm is not going to tell us this if the seeking of knowledge is actually something that should harm our faith.
The reality is the seeking of knowledge should actually benefits are faith. Because our Eman is partly constructed out of
this rational aspect of recognizing the truth and this is the only possibility This is the logical conclusion that people can make from studying and reflecting.
Now, this doesn't mean obviously that there's some aspects of belief that, for example, is beyond our comprehension and beyond what we have experienced in life. So therefore, we don't know exactly how
It'll happen
exactly how things will happen how will God recreate people and so forth this this aspect is not important and we believe in it, but to know exactly how is it going to happen? This is not necessarily important, but rationally we can prove that yes this is possible. Also no without created all this the first time simply can easily recreate it the second time, but the recreation should be easier than the first question as Allah subhana wa tada alludes to in the Quran. So we might sometimes come to some aspect of belief in Islam,
that we don't know, we don't understand exactly how it's going to happen.
But the exact but exactly how it's going to happen is not important. As long as the list of what Allah has told us, this is going to happen. And we can rationally understand and see that this is possible from all this event with that there's not there's nothing that can that can possibly show that this is impossible that Allah subhanaw taala may do something of that nature. Now, given those two introductory points,
let me speak about what are known or sometimes referred to as the articles of faith.
There are certain aspects that a Muslim is required to believe in.
And these are found, for example, and Hadith of the Prophet SAW Selim.
A famous Hadith known as the hadith of gibreel, of the angel Gabriel.
The Angel Gabriel came to the prophet SAW said him and asked him some questions.
And one of the questions that he asked him is, what is amen?
What does Amen.
And the prophet SAW Selim told them it is to believe in Allah,
His angels, his books,
his messengers,
the last day, and to believe in the Divine Decree, both the good and the evil thereof.
So he mentioned six articles of faith, as they call it, belief in Allah, His angels,
his books, his messengers, the last day, and Divine Decree.
Obviously, for us to go into detail concerning each of these
articles of faith would take many, many lectures. So but as I said, Hamdulillah, there's this much available literature in English concerning all of these
aspects of belief. There's even some books
just about belief in the angels, just about belief in the books, belief in the message, and so forth. So Hamdulillah, a lot of that information is available.
There's a series
by a scholar named Amara Lashkar,
which covers belief in the angels belief in the books and so forth. And so therefore, I recommend Chatelet that you study these on your own as well, to get the necessary details? And Shall
we shall try to cover a couple of them here.
And even then, of course, we're not going to cover them in great detail. We'll begin with the belief in Allah. And what exactly does that entail?
In the Arabic language,
the term that is most often used for the concept of monotheism or the belief in one God is the word to hate.
It is not actually a term from the foreigner from the sooner but it is a term that developed over time to describe this belief.
And also in order for humans to understand all of the components better.
The scholar has also divided this belief into hate into different sub categories. In other words,
in order for someone's belief in Allah subhanho, wa Taala, to be proper, then there's certain requirements that this must be there's certain aspects that someone must believe in with respect to all this panel with that.
And and most scholars divided into three categories or three aspects, three components.
One is the belief and Allah subhana wa daluz. will be
and what is this what is meant by this basically, is that Allah subhanho wa Taala is the only Lord Allah subhanho wa Taala is the only creator for example, the only nourisher the only maintainer is the only Sustainer of this creation. So Allah subhanho wa Taala is the one who created it, who provided all of the resources that we have available to us and He is the
Only one who does this he is the only one who created us. He's the only one who created all of this existence. And so therefore he is the only Lord of this existence.
Now, many of the Muslim scholars point out that when you look at the history of mankind,
the majority of people mankind accepted this belief
that there is a creator.
Okay, they will finally get to a point that there is a creator. And in fact, Alyssa when Allah subhana wa tada speaks about it in the Quran, Allah subhana wa tada speaks about in such a way, that makes it very clear that actually there's really no other possible.
You know, there's really no other possible explanation for this creation, except for the fact that there is a being who created all of this and brought it into existence.
Even the Big Bang Theory and even evolution, for example, and Darwinian Darwinian theories,
even these theories don't explain Then where did the original matter come from?
If you believe in the Big Bang, okay, the Big Bang is a bang as an explosion of what some matter that already exists.
So where did this come from?
So Allah subhanho wa Taala, as they said, When Allah subhana wa tada speaks about in the Quran, Allah subhana wa, tada makes it clear that in reality,
there is no other possible explanation.
Except for the fact that this has been created.
This is part of the proper to hate or proper belief in all this,
that Allah is the only creator. And he's the only nurture and he's the only sustainer. All of this creation has been brought into existence by him.
And he is the one who provides for and for all of this creation.
And this goes back to what I said earlier, but if you ask many, many people here, for example, the United States, if you ask him, Do you believe in God?
And they say yes, many times, this is what they mean that they believe in this aspect. That is the creator.
This aspect by itself, this is only one component
of what it means to believe in a lot from an Islamic perspective.
This component by itself is not sufficient
to make someone and Muslim
and it's not sufficient to make someone's belief about Allah complete and correct.
And in fact, in reality,
this component should lead to the second component that the scholars speak about. And that is what they call to hate to hear.
Or the oneness of Allah subhanho wa Taala with respect to the fact that he is the only one worthy of worship
is the only ILA. He's the only god
he's the only one who has the right to be the most adored and worship
object in a person's heart.
And as I said, if you think about the first component of to hate, that he is the only creator nourishing sustainer and he is the one actually who who, who controls all of this creation.
Then you will come to the conclusion actually that no one is worthy of worship.
except Allah.
And by the way, that's exactly the shadow right? In line Noma.
You know, no human being no human being has any power or any ability unless Allah has given him that power, that ability.
Right, no human being can rise up against against against God,
and against God's laws and against what God has decreed for him. No one has that ability.
No human, no animal know nothing in this creation.
And so therefore,
obviously, none of those things are worthy of worship,
except the one was given,
who has in his hands, the control over everything, and that is all of us have had with that.
So the recognition of the fact that Allah subhanaw taala is the only creator creator nurture should lead one to the conclusion that therefore he is the only one worthy of being worshipped.
And again, as we said, it's not just a matter of recognition of the facts, but this has to be implemented. In other words, therefore, you're going to worship no one except Allah subhana wa.
And as we talked about before, this is the real purpose for which you
beings have been created.
And this is the real purpose for which the messengers have been sent.
The messengers were not sent simply to tell people, look, there's only one creator.
But you can find this expression in numerous places. No, hold on, I'll listen and with that it says, quoting the messengers.
All my people worship Allah as you have no other God besides Him.
So they were not just telling them, Look, there's only one creator, you have to believe in that creator know
these messengers.
And as I said, you can find this, this quote this expression in numerous places in the Quran, and the seven Soran. And in verse 5965 83, and 85, and in the 11, sore on verse 50, and 61, and 84, and the 23rd, SOTA, verses 23, and 32.
All of these messengers, they're telling their people worship Allah.
And this is the second component.
This is the second component of to hate
is the recognition and the application of this belief that there is none worthy of worship, other than all this.
So all of our acts of worship, all of our acts of worship are going to be dedicated only to Allah subhanaw taala. When we pray, we pray only to God.
When we make ritual prayers, or supplications, we pray only to that.
When we do any act of ritual acts of worship, like fasting and so forth, we do it only for the sake of God, our intention is only to please and to worship God.
And the worship of God from Islamic perspective. By the way, it doesn't just mean again, the ritual aspects, but all the actions that we perform, we're going to do them according to what Allah subhana wa has revealed. This is part of our submission to Allah subhana wa.
And include a component of this to hate the logo here.
of this component of trade.
Is this love for Allah subhana wa tada and then the fact that Allah subhana wa tada becomes the most important
and most adored and beloved thing in your heart. So there's love for Allah subhana wa tada combined with submission to Allah subhanho wa Taala This is the reality of worship. This is what this component is all about.
It is not just worship alone, we're having hatred for Alyssa pan with that. Nor is it necessarily having love for Alyssa Hannah with data while not submitting to.
Both of these have to go together for this component and this aspect of to hate to be fulfilled properly.
The last component of this to hate
is what the scholars speak about as they refer to it as to hate the listener with suffer.
And this is the recognizing the fact and affirming the fact
that Allah subhanho wa Taala is unique
with respect to his names and his attributes.
In other words, Allah subhana wa tada obviously has certain names and attributes and we believe in these names and attributes. First of all, we believe in them.
We believe in whatever Allah subhana wa tada has said about himself in the Quran or in the sooner the Prophet says if he described themselves as compassionate as merciful and so forth because obviously, no one knows Allah subhanaw taala except Allah
right.
And so therefore, this knowledge we have to base it on whatever Allah subhana wa tada has revealed about himself.
So we make some declaration about himself and Allah subhana wa Tada. This is part of the mercy of Allah subhanaw taala and the Quran has actually described himself
in such a manner that the hamdulillah we have a very good conception about Allah subhana wa tada we are not worshiping something that we don't recognize. We don't know we have no idea
what he is or anything about him but in reality, we're worshiping something that we know many of his names and attributes we know who it is that we're worshiping.
So we have to affirm these names and attributes whatever Allah subhana wa tada has said about himself in the Quran or in the Sunnah of the Prophet says,
we believe in whatever Allah Subhana Allah said,
and we don't try to distort what you said and sit and and give it some kind of meaning that is inconsistent with what the Arabic language has said and what
is consistent with the Quran and so forth.
And we also believe that these attributes are unique to us.
Human beings do not possess divine attributes.
When we say for example, that Allah has knowledge then obviously his knowledge is different from the kind of knowledge that human beings have.
So Allah is the only one who is divine no human being is divine in any way or has any share and the Divinity there's no son of God who is equal to God or whatever anything of that nature.
And similarly, Allah subhana wa tada does not have human attributes.
You know, the, the joke about the according to the Bible, God created man in his own image and man was quick to return the favor.
You know, those shortcomings that we humans have and so on. Allah subhana wa tada is free of any kind of imperfection and as above and beyond the kind of attributes that human beings have.
So these names and attributes that also happen with that I have they are unique to him.
And in fact, in the Quran, Allah subhana wa tada says,
there's nothing similar to him and he is the old hearing the old saying.
So Allah subhanho wa Taala. Here first is negating that there's anything even similar or close to being similar to Allah subhanaw taala. There's no one like Allah subhanaw taala. And yet, Allah subhana wa tada is confirming the TI is hearing. And he is seeing
what human beings here and they see but obviously are hearing and are seen as not like the hearing and the seeing, and well listen man with that.
There's some aspect, obviously, that the two can be compared, that's wireless bandwidth that is using the same words for them.
But in quality and in nature, they cannot be compared whatsoever. So there's nothing like him, but he is hearing and he is.
And actually if you if you have a proper understanding of the divine attributes,
and the names of Allah subhanho wa Taala
then this will also lead to the fact that you will then worship no one other than Allah subhanaw taala.
You know, once you recognize that Allah has these attributes, and obviously no human being nothing, nothing else, no one else, no other animal creature, whatever could have these attributes. Then once again, once you understand that fact, then
again, you will worship no one other than Allah subhanaw taala.
Because you will want once you recognize these attributes, you will want to worship Allah subhanho wa Taala. And once you recognize that he's the only one who has these attributes, you will want to worship no one but Allah spend with that. So these three components that the scholars have discussed, they're all obviously closely related to each other, they are not contradicting or conflicting in any way whatsoever. And and the three of them together, the three of them together comprise the correct and proper belief in Allah subhanaw taala. So when we talk about belief in Allah subhana wa Tada.
When we thought about belief in God from an Islamic perspective,
we're not just simply that, talking about that thing, as I said, you so when you believe in God, and he just says yes, no belief in God, true belief in God comprises both what we believe about God, and also what we believe about our necessary relationship to God
is comprised about what we believe about God about his nature, his attributes, his actions, you know, he's the only creator and so forth, and what we believe about our necessary relationship to God, that we are His servants, and we have no option and no logical option except to worship Him and worship Him alone.
And believe in God, again, from Islamic perspective, has to combine both of those two, if it is not, if we are lacking in either of those two, then we do not actually have the true belief and also no data that is required to us.
Let me speak a little bit also about the belief in the messengers.
And in particular, the belief in the promises element what that
what that comprises
a messenger, what we mean by messengers, anyone whom Allah subhanaw taala has chosen
to receive revelation from Him and who was commanded to pass that revelation on.
So Allah Subhana Allah, Allah is the one who chooses whom He wills to receive his message. It's not something that an individual earns that somehow
Why his own actions all of a sudden he can reach some kind of state where he is receiving the revelation from God but Allah subhanaw taala chooses whom He wills. And he knows, of course, obviously whom to choose.
And Allah subhanaw taala tells us in the Quran, why never do that.
And barely we have sent them on every nation, a messenger proclaiming worship Allah alone and avoid all false deities.
So let's run with that. It's telling us that actually all peoples, all peoples received the messenger
and the message of those messengers were all the same worship Allah and again, just like what we just spoke about, it's not just recognize that a lot of that is only one guy, recognize that there's a creator, no worship Allah, worship Allah and avoid all false deities.
So as a Muslim, as a Muslim, we are required to believe in all of these messengers, whom Allah subhana wa tada has,
we do not have any right.
We do not have any right to reject any messenger
that has come from Allah subhanaw taala.
Noah is considered to be the first messenger there was prophets before him, but Noah is considered the first messenger
and Allah subhanho wa Taala. This isn't fun, then
the people of Noah belied the messengers.
So here are lists of hundreds that is using the plural beleid. The messengers, even though no was the first messenger, because in reality, in essence, if you are if you reject one messenger,
you are actually rejecting all of the messengers.
And the problem Hamas has made it very clear
that those people who believed in the earlier messengers, those people who believed in Moses and Jesus and so forth, as we've already I think we already quoted this hadith. Those people who believe in the earlier messengers, they have no choice.
If they hear about the promises of them, they have no choice but to believe and accept the problems. So they cannot say okay, I'm going to accept the earlier messenger, but I'm not going to believe in the data messenger.
So the prophet SAW Selim said, A swore by the one in whose hand is a soul that no one from among his nation, the Jews and the Christians, and we spoke about the poor make meaning those people who have been sent to
no one who hears of me and then dies without believing in that which had been sent except that he will be one of the inhabitants of the hellfire.
And this is one of the aspects that distinguishes the true Muslims. The true people who submit to Allah subhanho wa Taala, from those people who call themselves Jews or Christians or whatever name they want to give themselves out other than truly submitting to others.
Because the ones who submit to Allah subhanho wa Taala They are the ones who accept any and all messengers whom Allah subhana wa has sent. Obviously, Allah subhanho wa Taala is not mentioned in the Quran, the names of all of these messengers that are sent to all the people.
So therefore our belief in them is at a general
level.
But at the same time, Allah subhana wa tada has mentioned specific messengers in the Quran.
And so therefore, obviously, we have to believe in those people whom Allah subhanho wa Taala, or the Prophet system has specifically mentioned that this is a messenger of God.
Thirdly, we must believe in what they proclaimed.
They have been chosen by Allah to proclaim the message and convey the message. And so therefore, we have to believe in them. And we also must submit to them and accept
and act in accordance with the laws that they have laid down all the sudden with dialysis.
We have sent no messenger but to be obeyed by Allah asleep.
When someone says the testimony of faith, of course,
when making that statement, we specifically speak about the problem of necessity.
Sharon is in a lot worse, I don't know Mohammedan Rasulullah we specifically say that we are testifying to the fact that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
So this second part of the Shahada, this has some very important implications. So I would
like to mention some of them just as quickly as I can here.
First of all, it means that Allah subhanho wa Taala has specifically chosen the problem homosassa him to be his mystery.
Again, it's not the profit earning this by some means or something like that, but actually, it is Allah subhanho wa Taala who chosen
and Allah subhanho wa Taala knows whom to give his message to Allah subhanho wa Taala says in the Quran, Allah
Allah knows best with whom to places missed. The fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala has chosen the problem houses based on what we understand about Allah subhana wa Tada. Obviously, this implies some characteristics about the promises of himself. Obviously, Allah subhanho wa Taala, based on His justice and his wisdom and his mercy is not going to choose for example, someone who is treacherous or someone who is a liar, someone who is insane or something to be his messenger. Similarly, Allah subhanho wa Taala is not going to choose someone, for example, who's going to take this message and just use it for his own advantage. nor is he going to choose someone who's going to hide or distort
and deceive the people with this message.
So the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala has chosen the Prophet specimen. And he makes it very clear that this is Alyssa Han without his choice.
Then, as I said, this is implying something about the messenger himself,
that he's going to be honest and convenient, and he's going to convey the message properly. He's not going to be deceiving the people, he's not going to be telling the people lies, and so on, nor is he going to try to use this for his own advantage. And so.
So there's some, just in the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala chose the promises and this implies some conclusions about the promises himself. Furthermore, when we make this testimony of faith,
we're also implying we are also accepting the fact that the promo system has been sent for all mankind until the day.
We believe in this because Allah subhanho wa Taala has made that very clear. Allah subhanaw taala says in the Quran,
say, talking to my mom was awesome, say to them, all mankind barely I am sent to you all as the Messenger of Allah.
And in fact, a hadith the process of them stated there's some differences between him and the earlier prophets, five characteristics in particular, he mentioned. And one of those characteristics is the fact that those earlier prophets were just sent to their own peoples while while the problem homosassa them has been sent to all of mankind. Now, since the box I sent him has been sent to all of mankind, as we alluded to before. This means that his teachings, his son, his way of life, his example, are valid
and obligatory upon all of mankind until the day of judgment.
Okay, we are not and will never be at a point in which his teachings and his way of life become irrelevant.
He has been sent for all mankind until the day of judgment.
And so therefore, that means he is the example
for all mankind to the day of judgment and his teachings. And his guidance applies to all of mankind, until the digit
Thirdly, also when we make the stick relation of faith, we are testifying to the fact
that we believe with certainty that the prophets I said him conveyed the message. he conveyed it correctly, conveyed all of it, and he conveyed it clearly. with Allah subhanho wa Taala says in the Quran, the messengers duty is only to convey the message in a clear way.
Then the prophet SAW Selim said about himself to come out and beta Lilo her Kanhaiya lay his ego and
the prophets I send him said, I left you on a bright clear path was night and day are like, in other words, there's no time in which there's darkness and you can see the night and David are like, very clear, no one strays from it after me except he is destroyed. So the process and him conveyed all of the religion.
He did not leave anything out.
You can read it clearly. It's not. It's not the religion of mysteries. No one can claim that you know, these are mysteries that aren't clear and we have to clarify them or some special * or master has to clarify them, or some * or master has some teachings of the religion that the problem is I said him did not convey and so forth know the promises and conveyed all of this message. And he conveyed it in a very clear fashion and if we stray from what
he conveyed if we strayed at all actually we are the ones who are therefore going to be going to destroy ourselves. So the private citizens conveyed it it is complete the religion of Allah subhanho wa Taala as we spoke about Allah subhana wa tada has completed it, we need to turn to Allah subhanho wa Taala his words in the Quran and we need to turn to the some of the promises to get this message.
And when we declare our belief in Mohammed as the Messenger of Allah, we also declaring our belief that he is the final prophet sent by God. Allah subhanaw taala says,
the father of any men among you, but he is the Messenger of Allah, and the last of the prophets.
And promises, himself also said that there'll be no prophet after.
So what this means is, if anyone claims to be a prophet after the promises,
then he is contradicting what Allah subhana wa tada has said, He's contradicting what the prime minister said and said, and his claim must be rejected.
If someone believes in such a person,
and claims to believe in such a prophet after the problem has sustained him, while at the same time claiming to believe in the promises, then actually, he's contradicting himself, his belief in the promises and could not possibly be correct.
Because there's no profit to come after the promises. And this is part of our belief, and part of what she had when we make the Shahada, that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.
And then, by the way, when we make the Shahada, we also have some obligations towards the problems as
included among them is the fact that we must love the provinces.
And if you if you really study the life of the policies and
and what he experienced for the sake of Allah, subhanaw taala, and the sacrifices the team made to convey this message,
and the efforts that he took to convey this message and his concern for us, as human beings, all of this will develop within yourself, a real love for the promises.
And in reality, actually, just the fact that Allah subhanho wa Taala has chosen the problem of house I sent him, this shows you that there's something special about the problem houses,
if Allah subhanho wa Taala loves him to that extent that also we must love him as well. And so therefore, in that verse I quoted earlier, also what dialysis
let's
say if your father's your sons, your brothers, your wives, your kindred, the wealth that you've gained, the commerce in which you fear, decline and the dwellings in which you delight, if any of these are dear to you, then Allah and His messenger and striving for the sake of Allah, then wait until Allah brings about the decision, which is trauma. And I'll let you guys not those people who are in this would be
secondly, also, we have to when we make this testimony of faith, we have to accept the process as the example of how to live our life. In other words, we are saying that the Prophet says Adam is the example
of how a person is supposed to live, if he wants to please Allah subhana wa.
And we quoted the verse I believe earlier, Allah subhana wa tada says,
indeed, in the Messenger of Allah, you have an excellent example to follow for him who hopes
in the meeting with a lot in the last day and remembers a lot much. It was very strange to, to say that I believe in the problem I'm setting them as the problem Hammad as a prophet as the Messenger of God.
And yet at the same time, he did not consider his way of life.
As the best way of life as the way of life that you're supposed to follow.
Indeed, Allah subhanho wa Taala makes it clear that part of his message, and part of his mission was to be this example for us. And so therefore, it is part of our testimony of faith. When we say, this is the messenger of God, that we are actually saying that therefore, if he's the messenger God, this means he is living the kind of life that we also should want to live. And all of its aspects.
Actually, the prophets of Salaam, himself, he described himself as being the most fearful
and the most conscious of Alyssa,
okay, care, I think, on this point, we will have to end here and I'm not going to go into the other articles of faith. As I said, hamdullah there's plenty of material available in English and those other articles of faith.
I think it's very important for all to study on your own, to realize what we believe in, and what what are supposed to be the ramifications of those beliefs in our lives, and not just what we believe in, but what does it mean for us.
As I said, it's not simply a facts. We believe in the angels we believe in the books and, and some kind of beliefs in them at some kind of abstract level, that's not what we're all about.
But those beliefs should be somehow internalized and have some effect upon. If you really believe in angels, for example, that they're recording your deeds that should have some effect upon you on the desert your performance Oh, so inshallah study, make sure to study the articles of faith. And as I said,
Don't just study them from the perspective of what is it that we're supposed to believe, but study them also from the perspective of what should this have? What kind of effect should this have shall upon our lives? If you do that, if you do that inshallah, you will be working towards becoming a complete believer, a complete Muslim and a complete believer in every sense.