Kamil Ahmad – Taqwa- Its Meaning and Benefits
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Inna alhamda lillah, nahmaduhu wa nastaeenuhu wa nastaghfiruh,
wa na'udhu billahi min shururi anfusina wa
min sayyi'ati a'malina, man yahdihi allahu falaa
mudhilla lah, wa man yudhlilhu falaa hadiya lah,
wa ashahadu an la ilaha illa allahu wahdahu
la sharika lah, wa ashahadu anna muhammadan abduhu
wa rasuluh, sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa
ashabihi wa man tabi'ahum bi ihsanin ila
yawmiddeen.
Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu, attaqoo allaha haqqa tuqatihi,
wala tamootunna illa wa antum muslimoon.
Ya ayyuha an-naasu, attaqoo rabbakum allathee khalaqakum
min nafsin wahidah, wa khalaqa minha zawjaha, wa
battha minhuma rijalan kathiran wa nisa'a, wa
attaqoo allaha allathee tasa'aloon bihi wa al
-arhaam, inna allaha kaana alaykum raqeeba.
Ya ayyuha allatheena aamanu, attaqoo allaha wa qooloo
qawlin sadeeda, yuslih lakum a'malakum, wa yaghfir lakum
dhunubakum, wa min yu'ti'illaha wa rasulahu faqad
fawzan azeema.
Amma baAAd.
In every single khutbah we start by praising
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
By mentioning the oneness of Allah and that
He alone deserves to be worshipped.
and by testifying that Muhammad ﷺ is the
messenger of Allah.
And then after that we mentioned these ayat
that you just heard right now.
These ayat from the Qur'an, we repeat
them in every khutbah following the sunnah of
the Prophet ﷺ.
So what do these ayat tell us?
And what's the connection between them?
In the first of these ayat from surah
Ali Imran, Allah ﷻ commands us, O you
who believe, have the taqwa of Allah and
do not die.
Have the taqwa of Allah that He deserves
and do not die except as Muslims.
In the second ayah from surah An-Nisa,
Allah ﷻ addresses all of mankind.
O people, O mankind, have the taqwa of
your Lord, the One who created you from
one soul, and from Him His spouse, His
wife, and from them too many men and
women dispersed in the land.
And then Allah ﷻ repeats the command, وَاتَّقُوا
اللَّهُ and have the taqwa of Allah.
الَّذِي تَسَأَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامُ The One whom you
appeal to for one another and honor family
ties.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا For indeed Allah
is well aware of what you do.
And then the third ayah from surah Al
-Ahzab, Allah ﷻ commands us, O you who
believe, have the taqwa of Allah, and say
only that which is right.
If you do so, Allah will make your
deeds good, and He will forgive you your
sins.
And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, he
indeed has won a true victory.
And so the Prophet ﷺ would do this
in practically every single khutbah, whether it is
these ayahs or other similar ayahs that mention
the taqwa of Allah ﷻ.
Why would he do this?
Because the whole point of the khutbah is
to remind the people, is to wake up
the people, to remind them of being beautiful
to Allah, to remind them of the fact
that we're eventually headed to Allah, who will
bring us to account for what we have
done.
And so there's no better way of doing
that.
There's nothing better to remind the people with,
to admonish them with, other than reminding them
to have the taqwa of Allah ﷻ.
So the question is, what is taqwa?
And why is it so important?
The word taqwa comes from ittaqah or wiqayah,
which means prevention.
It means to prevent harm from reaching you,
or to prevent something that you dislike from
happening.
And so Umar ibn al-Khattab r.a,
he once asked Ubay ibn Ka'b r
.a about taqwa.
And in another narration, it is a man
who came to Abu Hurairah r.a, who
asked him, what is taqwa?
So he said, Ubay ibn Ka'b, he
said, have you ever gone down a path
that was filled with thorns?
So Umar r.a, he said, yes.
So Ubay asked him, and what did he
do?
He said, I would pick up my garments,
and I would walk down that path very
carefully, cautiously.
And so Ubay ibn Ka'b r.a,
he said, that is a taqwa.
That is the very essence of a taqwa.
To basically take a shield or a barrier
and place it between you and the wrath
of Allah, and the punishment of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala, which is by doing that
which Allah has commanded, and staying away from
that which Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has
forbidden.
Doing that which Allah has commanded in order
to attain the pleasure of Allah, and staying
away from that which Allah has forbidden, out
of fear of His punishment.
And so when you do this, what does
it result in?
It results in a consciousness of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
It results in a consciousness of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala in the heart.
And that's why many people translate a taqwa
to be the consciousness of Allah.
And so where is this consciousness?
It is in the heart.
Which is why the Prophet ﷺ, he said,
التقوى هاهنا.
And he pointed to his heart three times.
A taqwa is here.
This is where it stems from.
This is where it begins.
And so as long as the taqwa of
Allah is alive and present in the heart,
then the rest of your actions are gonna
fall in suit.
The rest of your actions, and your words,
and your stances, and everything in your life
is gonna follow what is in the heart
because the heart is the command center.
As the Prophet ﷺ said, that there is
a piece of flesh, there is an organ
in the body.
If it is upright, if it is rectified,
then the rest of the limbs will be
rectified.
And if it is corrupt, if it is
evil, then the rest of the body will
be likewise.
And then he said, أَلَا وَهِيَ الْقَلْبِ Indeed,
it is the heart.
And so when the taqwa of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is there, when it is
present, then when you go out, you're not
gonna look except at that which is pleasing
to Allah.
When the taqwa of Allah is there in
the heart, you're only gonna listen to that
which is permissible for you to listen to.
When the taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is there in the heart, you're only
gonna dress in the way that Allah has
commanded you to dress.
When the taqwa of Allah is present there
in your heart, you're only gonna say what
is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and not that which Allah has forbidden.
When the taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is present in the heart, you're gonna
make sure you don't have any relationship with
anyone, except that it is within the guidelines
of Islam.
When the taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is there present in the heart, you're
gonna make sure that your income is from
halal sources and not from haram sources.
When the taqwa of Allah is there in
your heart, you're gonna make sure that you
don't enter into any transaction no matter how
small or big it is, except that it
is free from riba and other haram types
of transactions.
When the taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala is there alive in the heart, you're
gonna make sure that you do not slack
off with the obligations that Allah has made
mandatory upon you, starting with the five pillars,
your salah, fasting, zakah, and so on and
so forth.
And so it is for this reason that
our Prophet ﷺ that he would remind the
people in his khutbahs, whether it was the
Friday khutbah, whether it was the Eid khutbah,
or whether it was any reminder that he
would give to the people, he would start
it by reminding them of the taqwa of
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And in doing so, he was following the
prophets and the messengers before him.
As Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, وَلَقَدْ
وَصَّيْنَا الَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ وَإِيَّاكُمْ
أَنِتَّقُوا اللَّهُ We advised, Allah says, we advise
those before you from among the people of
the scripture and also you to have the
taqwa of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
And so this is because as long as
the taqwa of Allah is present in the
hearts, then our lives will become rectified.
Everything in our lives will become rectified as
individuals and as societies and communities.
We won't have all the problems that we
have.
One of the main reasons why we have
the problems we do, whether it be in
our personal lives or as a community and
as a society and as an ummah is
because the taqwa of Allah is absent.
It is because the taqwa of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala is absent.
And as we said, that is a consciousness
of Allah that stems from the heart.
And so as long as everyone is conscious
of Allah, they will fear Allah.
They won't make a single move.
They won't perform a single action.
They won't say a single word that is
displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because
they fear the punishment of Allah and they
have placed between themselves and that punishment a
shield, a barrier.
بارك الله لي ولكم في القرآن العظيم ونفعني
وإياكم بما فيه من الآيات والذكر الحكيم أقول
ما تسمعون وأستغفر الله لي ولكم ولسائر المسلمين
من كل ذنب وخطيئة فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور
الرحيم الحمد لله على إحسانه والشكر له على
توفيقه وامتنانه وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله
وحده لا شريك له تعظيمًا لشأنه وأشهد أن
محمدًا عبده ورسوله الداعي إلى رضوانه صلى الله
عليه وعلى آله وإخوانه وخلانه ومن سار على
نهجه واقتفى أثره إلى يوم الدين أما بعد
فاتقوا الله عباد الله حق التقوى وراقبوه في
السر والنجوة يا أيها الذين آمنوا اتقوا الله
وَلْتَنظُّ النَّفْسُ مَّا قَدَّمَتْ لِغَدٍ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهِ إِنَّ
اللَّهَ خَبِيرٌ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ الله سبحانه وتعالى commands
us here O you who believe have the
taqwa of Allah and let each and every
single soul examine, ask what has he sent
for his tomorrow for his akhirah and then
Allah repeats the command and have the taqwa
of Allah fear Allah for indeed he is
well aware of what you do my dear
brothers and sisters in our lives in our
lives there are many things that we do
to make sure that we are safe and
secure from any harm from any danger we
take all of these safety protocols and measures
that we are told to take and we
should without a doubt in order to keep
ourselves safe to keep ourselves safe in this
dunya ourselves, our families our businesses our wealth
and so when we're on the road we
follow these traffic laws that are put in
place to keep ourselves safe when we're at
the workplace we have to follow certain safety
protocols no matter what kind of work you
work at when we're in the air likewise
we have to follow certain safety measures when
we're swimming we have to follow the safety
guidelines and as we all experienced just a
few years back when there's a pandemic in
order to keep ourselves safe from contagious viruses
there are certain safety protocols that we all
have to take and we do and we
take them seriously but then why is it
that when there is a danger ahead of
us and this danger is not something that
is presumed to occur but rather it is
a danger that is inevitable it is a
danger that is coming and that is the
danger of the akhira and the punishment of
Allah why is it that we don't take
any safety measures to make sure we are
protected from that danger and so the very
protection that we have been taught to take
is by having the taqwa of Allah as
we explained and so the reason why many
of us slack off in having the taqwa
of Allah is because of the heedless lives
that we live we are living lives of
heedlessness of ghaflah and this is for various
reasons but the main reason for that is
our nafs and it being tempted and attracted
to the dunya and satisfying its base human
desires on top of that you have shaitan
our enemy constantly distracting us leading us to
live a life of heedlessness and so it's
not a matter of iman we all believe
we all believe in the words of Allah
we all believe in the promise of Allah
his promise of jannah for those who are
obedient to him we all believe in the
threat that Allah has given us of his
punishment for those who are disobedient to him
it's not a matter of knowledge nor is
it a matter of belief but it is
a matter of consciousness it's a matter of
consciousness are we gonna pay attention and wake
ourselves up from this heedless life that we're
living or not and so for this reason
although although the benefit of taqwa having the
taqwa of Allah is that it will shield
you from the punishment of Allah in the
akhirah because of how important it is Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala has mentioned countless of
other benefits of having taqwa as a gift
for those who have the taqwa of Allah
yes it will protect you from the ultimate
punishment of Allah but besides that Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala has mentioned numerous countless benefits
of having his taqwa in our hearts and
so for example Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
says ان تتقوا الله يجعل لكم فرقانه if
you have the taqwa of Allah Allah will
give you a criterion you'll live your life
being able to easily distinguish between right and
wrong between the truth and falsehood واتقوا الله
ويعلمكم الله have the taqwa of Allah and
Allah will teach you if you want knowledge
have the taqwa of Allah فأما من أعطى
واتقى وصدق بالحسن فسن يسيره لليسر whoever has
the taqwa of Allah and then he gives
he's generous and he believes in the promise
of Allah then we will make his affairs
easy for him ومن يتق الله يجعل له
من أمره يسرى whoever has the taqwa of
Allah Allah will make his affairs easy for
him ومن يتق الله يجعل له مخرجه ويرزقه
من حيث لا يحتسب whoever has the taqwa
of Allah he will make a way out
for him from difficulties and he will provide
for him from places he least expected ولو
أن أهل القرى آمنوا واتقوا لفتحنا عليهم بركات
من السماء والأرض if the people of the
dwellings the townships those nations that Allah destroyed
Allah says if they had believed and if
they had the taqwa of Allah we would
have sent down provision for them from the
skies and from the earth and so these
are only some of the benefits that are
related to the dunya related to your life
on earth and so if you find yourself
in so many problems then perhaps the reason
is because the taqwa of Allah is missing
in your life and so these are only
some of the benefits related to the dunya
how about the akhirah Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala says وَمَن يَتَّقِ اللَّهَ يُكَفِّرْ عَنْهُ سَيِّئَاتِهِ
وَيُعْظِمْ لَهُ أَجْرَىٰ whoever has the taqwa of
Allah Allah expiates all of his sins and
he magnifies he increases his reward إِنَّمَا يَتَقَبَّلُ
اللَّهُ مِنَ الْمُتَّقِينَ Allah only accepts meaning good
deeds from the people of a taqwa يَوْمَ
نَحْشُرُ الْمُتَّقِينَ إِلَىٰ الرَّحْمَٰنِ وَفْدَىٰ يَوْمَ نَحْشُرُ
الْمُتَّقِينَ إِلَىٰ الرَّحْمَٰنِ وَفْدَىٰ on the day that
the people of taqwa will be gathered to
Allah they will be brought to Allah in
delegations honored whereas the disbelievers they are disgraced
on that day thrown in the hellfire الْأَخِلَّاءُ
يَوْمَئِذٍ بَعْضُهُمْ لِبَعْضٍ عَدُوا إِلَّا الْمُتَّقِينَ Allah says
the best of friends in the dunya on
that day they will be worst enemies except
for the people of a taqwa ثُمَّ نُنَجِّ
الَّذِينَ التَّقَوُّ وَنَذَرُوا الظَّالِمِينَ فِيهَا جِثِيَّا on the
day of judgment all of us will be
made to pass over the hellfire many will
end up in the hellfire Allah says here
on the day that we will save the
people of a taqwa and then we will
leave the wrongdoers there in the hellfire وَسَارِعُوا
إِلَىٰ مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ and
race compete with one another for the forgiveness
of your Lord and a Jannah that is
as vast, as wide as the heavens and
the earth who is this Jannah for?
اُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ it has been prepared Allah does
not say for the Muslims Allah does not
say for those who do good deeds Allah
does not even say for the believers but
He says for the Muttaqun for the people
of a taqwa تِلْكَ الْجَنَّةِ الَّتِى نُورِثُ مِنْ
عِبَادِنَا مَنْ كَانَ تَقِيَّ that is Jannah which
we have caused the people of taqwa to
inherit and so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
He sums it up for us in one
sentence let us reflect over this word over
these few words that Allah says وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ
لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُفْلِحُونَ and have
the taqwa of Allah so that perhaps you
succeed so that perhaps you are from among
those who are successful successful in this life
successful in this life and more so successful
in the Akhirah and so each and every
single one of us needs to do a
reality check and ask ourselves where do we
stand from the taqwa of Allah where is
the taqwa of Allah in our lives where
is it in our hearts if we truly
want all of these aforementioned benefits we ask
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us
from the people of taqwa this is what
I want to say