Nadim Ali – The Weight Of Faith
AI: Summary ©
The importance of faith in Islam is discussed, including the use of hesitation and deeds to increase faith and strengthen one's own faith. It is emphasized that learning and understanding one's actions and actions is crucial for achieving faith. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of avoiding sh Channel and not just living as a religion, as it is a way of life. The importance of good deeds and working towards good deeds is also emphasized.
AI: Summary ©
And
Indeed, our praise belongs to Allah, the most
high. We thank him and we seek his
aid and we seek his forgiveness.
And we seek refuge
with him from the evil of ourselves and
from our bad actions.
Whoever Allah guides them, there's no one who
can mislead him and whoever Allah causes to
go astray, then there's no one to guide
him.
I bear witness that there is no deity
except Allah who is unique and without partners.
And I bear witness that Muhammad is his
worshiper and his messenger and may the peace
and blessings of Allah be upon him and
his family and his companions and those who
follow them with good intentions until the day
of judgment.
All you who believe, fear Allah as he
should be feared and don't die except as
Muslims. Again, all you who believe, fear Allah
careful of your duty to your Rabb who
created you from a single soul and from
it created its mate. And from the 2
of them, he spread forth many men and
women.
Be careful of your duty to Allah, whom
you demand your mutual rights, and be careful
of your duty to the wounds that bore
you. Indeed,
Allah is our rakib over you.
All you who believe, fear Allah, and always
speak the truth. He will cause your deeds
to be beneficial, and he will forgive you.
And speak the truth. He will cause your
deeds to be beneficial and he will forgive
for you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah
and his messenger, then he has truly achieved
a tremendous accomplishment for indeed
the best speech is the book of Allah,
and the best guidance is the guidance of
Muhammad and
the most evil of all affairs,
a newly invented matters which has no precedence
in Islam, and indeed all innovations are astray,
and each astray is in the hellfire. Oh,
Allah, save us from it. Oh Allah, accept
our du'a.
Allah disdains not to use the similitude
of things lowest
as well as highest.
Those who believe
know that this is the truth from their
Lord. But those who reject faith say,
what means allowed by this similitude?
By it, he causes many to stray and
many he leads to the right path. But
he causes not to stray, except
to the right path.
But he causes not to stray except those
who forsake the path.
And we look at this
ayat from.
We see that Allah is telling us he
doesn't mind
using similitudes.
You know, it's a it's a way that
we have to be able to comprehend
your things that's beyond our level of comprehension.
When we look at the Quran, the Quran
is full of similitudes. And even in the
Hadith, when you see how the prophet, peace
be upon him, when the Meccans tried to
pull him back into their lifestyle and
and and and and and continue to practice.
Sure. What did he say? You can place
the sun in in in one hand and
the moon in the other, and I will
never abandon this way. Because once again, he
started spreading the message of Tauhid,
you know, he understood that
or overstood
that that's the that was the message of
all the prophets that came before him.
And so we have to look at, you
know, how Allah uses the similitude, and it's
also it's also a measure of of who
we are and and the measure of our
faith.
You know, similitudes
are used to translate
the reality so that we can understand.
You know, I always tell
when I'm up here, I talk about this
being the middle womb, this being the middle
womb when we were in our mother's stomachs.
That was our world.
That's all we knew. We bouncing around all
that.
But when we came out into this world,
you know, again, we started all over again.
And so this being the middle physical womb,
true life begins when we leave this phase
of life and that's how we have to
understand that there's something waiting for us. Like
I say, we didn't know what was waiting
for us until, you know, we were basically
9 months in.
And so if Allah give you 90 years
in,
what are you gonna do with that 90
years?
What is the weight of your faith?
We have to look at that. You know,
again, when Allah gives us these similitudes, it's
designed
again to increase our iman, increase our faith.
And again,
one understanding of what faith is,
it's
more again just a belief or conviction.
It is said that it's a comprehensive
term
that not only encompasses
our thoughts and emotions,
but our actions and behaviors. It's not about
just what you say you are, it's about
what you do. It's about who you are
and what you what you show.
The prophet
said that faith
is to believe in Allah, his angels, his
books, his messengers, the day of judgment, and
the divine decree of both good and evil.
And that's from Sahih Muslim. And so we
have to look at what is the weight
of our faith starting again with the verses
that Allah.
It talks about Allah says in the Quran,
indeed,
the believers
have attained success.
They are those who humble
in the who are humble in their prayers,
who are humble in their prayers and not
just
praying to be seen of of men,
and who avoid vain talk, and
who are active in deeds of charity,
and who abstain from *,
except
in lawful wedlock,
who protect their chastity except from their spouses
or those whom their right hands possess.
For then, they are free from blame. But
whoever seeks to go beyond that, such are
the transgressors
who are
faithful to their trust and to their covenants,
who guard their prayers,
who are sincere in their love for the
believers,
for them awaits a great reward.
Again, this is from the Quran.
And
we look at that, you know, it's just
like when you're going for a job, what
do they give you? You see, what what
what do I need to do at this
job? What do you, you know, what do
they give you? They give you a job
description.
And so when we look at this particular
ayah,
Allah has given the job description for the
believers and we have to say, okay, how
much do we weigh based on that job
description?
What are we doing
in regards
to how are we improving our deen? Because,
again, as we get closer and closer and
closer to the grave,
you know, we we should be of those
who are trying to learn as much Quran.
And not only just learn the Quran,
because again,
you know, a parrot can
basically
recite it,
but you want to basically
internalize the Quran.
Like, you look at the companions of the
prophets.
You know, peace be upon him. What
you know, they wouldn't move forward until when
they learned an ayat. You know, they would
they they would put it in practice, and
then they would learn another ayat. And so
we have to be you know, we can't
measure them. They were, again, true supermen.
So we can't really measure ourselves, but they
are yardstick.
So we can be, you know, half a
foot, you know, based on what they showed.
Try to learn as much iron as possible.
We should not just be comfortable
with the ayats that we learned when we
first came to the Deen.
And if Allah gives you breath in your
body,
then you have time to do that.
You know, if you have 52 weeks in
a year, if you learn a ayah the
week, that's 52 ayahs.
That's, you know, some sores.
You know, and so some sores are less
than that. And so we have to basically
get on it because we're going to be
tried and tested.
And so
if these people put you in isolation today,
how much Quran would you be able to
to to carry him with you?
Because believe you me, what what what did
he say? But if you're not on the
the if you're not at the table, you're
on the menu.
You know? And so we have to be
of those who
instill ourselves with this faith so that if
we get a test, like the test of
the people of Gaza, like the test of
the people in Sudan, like the test who
of the people who are struggling and and
fighting in wars all over the planet.
We look at our Rohingya brothers and sisters.
We look at the Uighur brothers and sisters
in China.
You know,
so the same mentality can exist because this
right what they call the right wing wave
is is basically
just sort of flooding the whole world for
many instances.
And so a part of that is that
they have this this hatred of Islam.
And so
we have to get prepared for any type
of opposition,
spiritual opposition, because, again, you can have spiritual
warfare. It doesn't mean you have to engage
in militaristic warfare
or militarism,
but people will attack you spiritually.
And that would that can that can drain
you. That can drain you. So it's important
for us not to be half stepping with
this dean.
Again, that's the job description. Again, how close
are we to this job description?
Again, from these verses, we can see again
that faith again is not just about the
belief, but again is about how
we basically
move, how we behave in our daily lives.
The weight of our faith, again, is reflected
in our humility or lack of humility.
Our avoidance of vain talk,
our generosity,
our protection of, chastity.
You know, we don't wanna follow the the
whims and the trends in this society regarding
relationships.
We can't do that. We have a set
of rules that we have to follow and
that's that's the whole thing is that, you
know,
even though this country is not, an Islamic
country, doesn't have Sharia in place, you know,
we basically follow the the the rules and
the laws of the Quran.
You know, they can't, you know, basically legislate
us to force us to to eat pork.
You know, we choose not to eat pork.
We choose to try to eat halal as
much as possible.
You know, we choose not to engage in
intoxicants because they're all around us. We choose
not to gamble even though it's legal based
on their their laws.
And so and that's the the, again, part
of how you get to the level of
being a believer.
You know, Allah, again, utilizes that, the concept
of weight to emphasize the heaviness
in this deen. And again, it's put in
language that we can understand,
you know, earthly language,
The perception of the war the rewards of
the hereafter,
again, cannot be perceived by these these these
human faculties.
You know, law says,
and every time I read this and hear
this, you know, it scares me.
Had we sent down this Quran upon a
mountain, you would have certainly seen it humbled
and torn apart in all of Allah.
So we set forth
such comparisons for people
so they may reflect.
And we look at it's from from.
We look at that because the Quran was
offered to lots of creation,
the
it would have been humbled.
And so when we have
this Quran,
a book that can smash a mountain, imagine
that, just one book.
The similitude,
just one book smashes the mountain. That's that's
the beauty of it.
Allah gave it to mankind, and we have
to ask ourselves, what are we doing with
it?
What are we doing with it? Chaitan will
cause you. We want you to be lazy.
Don't worry about that. You know, just,
you
know, all you feel all you know is
Ali Bataille, you good. You know, you said,
look at the minimal hadith. Oh, yeah. You
know, you can recite one letter. You know,
you can get that.
But what does the prophet
says that the amount of Quran
that we know will become shade for us
on the day of judgment.
So some of us may have baseball cap
worth of Quran. Some of us may have
a Mexican sub barrel full of Quran.
But if you have breath in your body,
we have to continue to learn as much
as we can. Like I said, if you
just learned an ayat a week, you have
52.
And if Allah has given you 10, 20,
30 years in
Islam, just think how much Quran you'll have.
There was a brother who got incarcerated.
And,
you know, he
when he when he when he came there,
one of the brothers who was there with
him
and he was just suffering he was going
through depression because, you know, he was incarcerated.
He had 2 several years in jail. He
made some bad decisions. I don't believe in
mistakes and bad decisions.
And the brother gave him the advice. He
said, man, just stay in the Quran. This
will help you to overcome this trial right
here. Just stay in the Quran. And brother
came out and, you know, he
speaks all over the country now, all over
the world.
You know, but he the Quran helped to
allow him to to to to to get
through
that test that Allah had put in him.
Again,
may Allah allow us to be of those
to reflect on the magnificence of the Quran
and get serious about it.
You know, again, one of my old teachers
used to say there are 2 types of
Muslims.
There's Muslims
in name and they're Muslims by commitment.
And we have to ask ourselves, what is
our commitment?
What is our commitment? Are we just Muslims
just to to wear the label of Muslim?
Or are we committed to this deen to
the point that we are learning
about what our lord says in the book?
Studying the life of the prophet, peace be
upon him, and his companions
so that, again,
that we can look at them as real
models and, again, not role models. And Islam
is not
a gang.
Islam
is is basically, it's a faith to help
you to get across that that bridge. There's
a bridge.
The bridge is real thin, thin as a
hair.
And that's the bridge
over the hellfire.
And the the more
you increase your iman,
you'll be one of those who may fly
over, one of those who may walk over,
run over,
crawl over,
not be of those who fall in.
And like I say, the similitude that Allah
has given us,
it's serious.
If he gave this book to the mountains,
it would be smashed. That's the heaviness
of the book. If I've said anything as
inconsistent with what Allah has given us, I
take full responsibility for that. If I've said
anything in which you gained some new insight,
as always, all praise belongs to Allah.
Allah.
Oh, lord.
Send peace and blessings upon our beloved prophet,
his
family, and his companions.
And, oh, lord, increase his honor and elevate
his station.
Grant him the highest place in paradise and
bless him with your divine mercy.
And oh, Allah, bless us with his intercession
on the day of judgment and forgive our
sins. Amen.
The prophet
said he emphasized the importance of good deeds
in weighing our faith.
And Hadith narrated by Abu Baroda.
He said, do you know what the right
of Allah
upon his slave what is the right of
Allah upon his slaves?
That they should worship him alone and not
ascribe
any partners to him.
And do you know what the right of
the slaves upon Allah?
He will not punish whoever does not associate
partners with him.
So those are some of the rights that
we have if we do this thing right.
This thing called life. This thing called
life as living as a Muslim.
As as we say every week in the
in in the opening,
you even as one brother said, you you
you know, Allah said, you better not die
unless you're Muslim.
You better not die unless you're Muslim.
You know? And I know when we talk
to people
that,
you know, we we know the seriousness of
that and but a lot of times,
you know, people can't go
a 5, 10 minute conversation and change their
whole life. You might have to basically talk
to them in rounds. You know, I remember
talking to a brother for 5 years before
he came to take a shahada.
And so it's important
that
we not just treat this as a religion,
but as a way of life and look
for opportunities
to invite people to this way of life.
Because this is serious. This is a serious
time. We look at this hadith.
It hides the importance of worshiping Allah alone
and avoiding shirk,
which is the greatest sin in Islam. The
greatest sin in Islam. Shirk associating
partners
with Allah. That's that's that's a serious sin.
And so we have to, again,
engage in good deeds and avoid evil, and
we can, again, strengthen our
faith and it increase
the weight
in the eyes of Allah. So this is
how we increase our our iman.
The prophet also
taught us
that the weight of our faith can be
lightened,
and you know, by
getting rid of sins and transgressions.
There's a Hadith
Abu Sayed al Qutri,
says whenever a believer commits a sin,
a black spot appears on his heart.
If they repent
and abandon that sin and seek forgiveness,
their heart will be polished.
But if they return to that sin, the
black spot will increase until it covers their
heart.
And again, this is the covering
that the law mentions in the book, nay,
but on their hearts
is a covering because of what they have
earned.
And so we have to work to to
purify
our hearts, to clean our hearts, to remove
the the the the the dirt and the
filth from our hearts.
It's just like when you have
satellite dish.
You know, if there's interruptions, if it's stormy,
then it is hard to get that transmission.
But if it's clear weather, then you're gonna
get a clear picture.
And so if we
clean our hearts, then we can start receiving,
you know, the inspiration that's needed so that
we can continue to do as much good
as possible. Again, let us again strive to
strengthen our faith by performing good deeds and
avoiding sins and and and seeking the forgiveness
from Allah, especially during these times. Again, these
are the best days of the year, these
10 days of Dhul Hij.
And again,
you know, we stopped doing moon fighting a
long time ago.
You know?
So there'll be some people celebrating the Eid
on Sunday. Some will celebrate on Monday. We'll
be celebrating Monday at the at the Georgia
Convention Center, but we don't do moon fighting.
You know? And may Allah
give us all the reward of our efforts.
You know? Allah gives us so many opportunities
to gain success in this life and the
hereafter.
And so we have to be of those
who are earning that and not just be
ritualistic Muslims. We want to be of those
who
are getting serious about this deen, practicing,
especially the young people, you know, you know,
always say that I'm closer to the grave,
you know, than the cradle. For those of
you who still have maybe 40, 50 years
left on the on the planet,
it's on you.
Step up. Do what you need to do
to to make sure that Islam and and
the Muslim community will be surviving in this
part of the world.
And again, let us remember that the weight
of our faith
is not determined by our, again, beliefs, but
also by our actions. Not just our beliefs,
but our actions.
Our lord, take us not to task if
you forget or fall into error. Our lord,
lay down on us a burden such as
you did lay on those who have gone
before us. Our lord laid out on us
a burden which we do not have the
power to bear and overlook our faults and
forgive us and have mercy on us. You
are our protector and give us a victory
over the disbelieving people.