Is Your Faith Just Words or Real Action?

It's a little bit more. Yes, it is. Right.

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Thank you.

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Wow.

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Salam.

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Alhamdulillah. for.

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The question and the thing that every one of us seeks in life, every one of us naturally seeks in his or her existence. We seek to be saved from that which we fear and to be given or to receive and secure that which we hope for. Our lives are all lives which run between hope and fear. Every one of us, every human being has hopes and every human being has fears and we worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala out of hope and out of fear. The difference between the Muslim, the one who holds in his breastahill and everyone else is that we know and we are taught that all that we fear, we can only be saved from it by Allah. And that all that we hope for it can only come to us through Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. The thing if you were to sum up any person's life, anything that motivates any human being, it is a summation of hope and fear. Hope for certain things, fear of others. This translates to the hereafter as well. We have things that we fear and we have things that we hope for in the hereafter. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in he gives us the formula. The formula for how an individual in this life and in the hereafter is to receive what he hopes to secure what he hopes for and to be saved from that which he fears. He says subhanahua those who believe and do not mix their belief with oppression. And we will mention and detail from the Quran what is meant here in this verse by oppression. So those who believe and do not introduce into their belief any oppression Those individuals for them is full safety and they are guided and they will be the guided ones. This is our hopes and fears. Our fear Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us for them is safety. doing all that we could hope for which is guidance. The thing that we hope for most is that we be rightly guided. Not just in our religious affairs but in our everyday affairs that we are not left to confusion that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grants us guidance in all of our dealings and every facet of our lives and that a person may die upon this hope and fear having been saved from all that he fears and having secured cured all that he could hope for. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala here tells us only one type of person will will secure will will be given absolute safety and be granted guidance. only one type of person and that is the person who believes elan. Now this word elan it is often misunderstood. It is often misunderstood in the sense that many of us, many people when they see the word belief in the Quran, what often comes to mind is just a faith that resides in the heart. And this is not the true meaning of belief. If we remember back over the weeks and over the months previous weeks and months of talks, we discussed in detail how in the Quran there are no absolute synonyms. Meaning no two words in the Quran mean exactly the same thing. Whenever a different word is used, some different meaning is implied. And so the question is what is the difference between what is the difference between belief if we would translate it that way which is to believe and e which is faith Islamic faith faith here in the context of the Quran and sunnah. Emanuel.

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Eman. What is Eman? Eman is different than just believing. Eman, first of all, is only used for very important things. You wouldn't use the word in general for the most important things you would use the word ean. You would use the word to mean that that you're believing something important or it could be something minuscule unimportant. However, the word iman is only used for very important things. We hear this language used with the sons of Yakub Alis when they came back to their father with that big lie when they threw their brother their helpless brother into that well and left him for dead. They put fake blood on his th on his clothing. And they said to their father, they didn't say, they didn't say you don't believe us. They said you do not have faith in what we're saying. Why? Because this is a very important issue. And so iman in the Quran is not just speaking about regular belief, believing something meaning to be merely an action of the heart. No. Eman is such strong belief that there is no doubt and it drives the person who holds Eman to implementing whatever this Eman entails. And so eman we understand even from a linguistic standpoint that eman is something that is in the heart. It's on the tongue and it's in a person's actions. This is eman belief. Now belief is something that's in the heart. I believe something I don't believe it. However, eman if a person has e in Allah, this will drive them to speak with this iman to implement what this eman entails. This is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala uses the word im in the Quran and he's referring to salah. When the direction changed, some of the companions asked the prophet sallall.aii wasallam, what about our prayers that were prayed to the direction of al makdis, to the direction of Jerusalem. Are those prayers still valid? Do we have to make those prayers up? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala sent down the verse. And Allah would not misplace your e. Your e. He didn't say your salah. He said your e. So he used the word eman to refer to salah. And not only salah but any act of worship whether it's in the heart on the tongue in a person's actions the companions as narrated to have said to some of his his students subhanahu wa'ta'ala They would say, "Let's sit and let's sit and believe for a few minutes." Believe meaning Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to recite the Quran together or whatever it was that they were intending to do. This is all part of eman. And that's why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions in the Quran in multiple places that anytime a new verse of the Quran is revealed, it increases the believers in eman. Why? Because it brings with it new beliefs. It brings with it new commandments. It brings with it new acts of worship. And so all of these acts of worship are all part of amen. So there's no such thing. It does not exist where a person believes something in his heart only doesn't say it, doesn't implement it and this person is considered to be a mman. No, a M is not someone who just believes that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is is one and that Muhammad is his messenger. Abu Jah believed that he did. Abu Jah believed that Abu Talib believed that as a matter of fact when the prophet sallallah.aii alaihi wasallam came to Abu Talib when he was on his deathbed and he said to him sayahill and I will and I will argue on your behalf in the court of Allah before Allah if you aid me in this argument. And say, "And he said to him, as is famously mentioned, he said, "If it were not for my people blaming me and saying that I left the religion of my forefathers and disgraced my forefathers by by becoming Muslim, I would have said. And in many of his lines of poetry, he has a poem that he had authored and this entire poem is about the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam and the good aspects of Islam that he had brought and he said that if it weren't for my people holding me back I would have believed I would have entered into Islam as well but I can't have it said about me that I disgraced my forefathers and Abu Talib believed believed that the prophet Muhammad sallall.aii wasallam was a prophet and a messenger. He believed that he accepted that. However, this was not enough for him to be considered a Muslim. Why? Because belief is not something that you can just have in the heart. It is something that has to be spoken and it has to be implemented otherwise this is not considered to be eman. Therefore when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says and describes to us the people that will be given full safety and full guidance in this life and in the hereafter. those who believe and do not introduce into their belief into their faith any oppression. And what's meant by oppression here or transgression is shik because shik in the Quran is referred to by Allah as oppression, as transgression. Shik meaning that a person worship Allah and direct any other acts of worship to other than Allah. Subhanahu wa tala. This is what shik is. If a person introduces this into his im, it spoils his iman. Just if a person has wul and they pass gas or use the restroom, it spoils his woo. Likewise, if a person has toed and shik is introduced into theirhed, it spoils theired. Therefore, iman is not just something that's in the heart. I believe and it has no effect on my behavior. This isn't eman linguistically and legislatively in Islamic legislation. It is that which resides in the heart, that which manifests on the tongue, that which entails actions. It increases with the worship of Allah and it decreases with the disobedience of Allah. This is exactly how the companions and the defined e in the Quran. If you say what is.

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This will be enough for this afternoon. Inshallah we will continue this next week. Subhanahu.

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Alhamdulillah. Okay.

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Allah.

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Oh, I shall.

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Alhamdulillah. forch.

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Allah. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells our prophet Sam in delivering all revelation that he has received from Allah to us. He says to him, "Subhanala," and so relate to them the stories of those who have preceded you, the stories of the righteous and the wicked in order that people may contemplate these stories, the stories of the Quran, the stories of the prophet. sai wasam. The stories that are found in the sunnah, they are not for the sake of entertainment. They are not allegorories and makebelieve metaphors. These are literal stories, occurrences through the history of humanity and maybe even before or things that will occur on the day of judgment. They are real events. They are to be taken literally and they are to be pondered upon and pined over and contemplated in order that we can find guidance in order that we can better understand this message of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to us. One of these stories and one of the greatest stories that were told to us and related to us by Allah in the Quran is the story of Benny is with Mus Alisam, their prophet, their messenger MS and his brother Haron and the things that occurred to Misam and in their respective eras. We could divide these two eras. We could divide the story of Misam with Bani into two eras, two general times or epics. The first is before they were taken and delivered across the Red Sea, before they were saved from Pharaoh and after they crossed the Red Sea. very very similar to the story of this nation and its prophet and our prophet Muhammad Sam during his time in Mecca before he made Hijra and crossed that desert to what was known at the time as Ye and after he migrated across that desert to what later became Medina S. Wasam, the city of the prophet, the messenger, and was referred to as Medaw, the city of lights, the city that has been given light. Because before the prophet sallall.aii wasallam arrived in Yre, it was just another city. many cities it existed. However, when he arrived and began to reside in Medina, it lit up not just metaphorically, it physically had a light to it. And mentioned that when the prophet Sam arrived at Medina, IT LIT UP. IT HAD A light to it that we had not seen before almost beyond description and that when he passed away that light left with him. This is why the story of Mus Alam is so detailed and so meticulously mentioned and it is brought up a lot throughout the Quran because of the parallels between our prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam and his story and his time with his people and Musam and his story and his time with his people in this particular story Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in of an incident that occurred right on the heels of the splitting of the Red Sea. Misam was commanded by Allah during the last third of the night to leave Egypt with his people and to flee towards the direction of the Red Sea headed towards Beth Makdis ultimately the blessed land of Jerusalem. And as the prophet Musam left with Beni in the morning, Pharaoh noticed that they were gone. And so he gathered all of his people and all of his chariots and all of his military. And he said to those with him, "It's time that we crush them once and for all. Rid ourselves of these people." Not only were they oppressing them and repressing them when they resided amongst them, but they wouldn't even let them leave just Bur did with our prophet sallall.aii wasallam. And so Musam was directed, given direction by Allah by way of revelation that landed him at the shores at the banks of the Red Sea. At the shores of the Red Sea, they have the sea in front of them and Pharaoh and his closing in very closely behind them. And those companions with Musam out of fear, a weakness, a terror that enveloped them, they said to MS, "That's it. We're here. There's nowhere to go. Indeed, they are going to catch us now." And Misam said, Musam taught them a valuable lesson that even when the physical world seems to close every door and shutter and window in your face, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has promised that whoever obeys Allah, Allah will make a way for him. Even if he has to pause the laws of physics themselves, even if water is to change its very nature to accommodate the righteousness of a man worshiping Allah, it will happen because that is the promise of Allah. And so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala commanded MS to strike the sea with his staff and this sea opened up and they were able to cross through the sea without a drop of water touching them. This is an incredible miracle. This is something unbelievable. I want everyone to take a moment and really appreciate, imagine deeply that you are with Musam at this moment. He taps the sea with his staff. Seemingly there's no connection between the two. And suddenly the sea parts and a a dry path is carved out of this sea for M has set out. With all the power and technology of humanity today, if we were all to collaborate, all seven or 8 billion people on earth today to try and do such a feat, we would be unable to. And so is with the with Mam. They're watching this happen and they cross the sea with MS and down out of his arrogance follows them into the sea and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala destroys Pharaoh and those who were with him right on the heels of this incident when they got to the other side and they were headed to Beth Maktis the land that Allah described to them through Musam Not only were they delivered from Pharaoh, but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala had promised them the their residence in Jerusalem and that it was the promise to them holy land at that time, not now. They blew their chance for that as Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala later mentioned. But at the time it was promised to them. AND SO ON THEIR WAY THERE, having just seen one of the most incredible miracles that any prophet has ever been given by Allah, they came across a people that were worshiping idols. It said that these idols were in the forms of a calf, of a cow. And as they passed these idols, they said to him, "Desate for us idols, statues that we can worship Allah through just these people have idols." Now, what did they mean by this? What was the belief behind this? was the belief that they were going to worship this idol separate from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. No, Musam resided amongst them for years and taught them the of Allah. What was intended is that we want something tangible, something that we can worship and make offerings to. Our intention is we're worshiping Allah. But this is a representation for us. And Misam, he said to them, "You are a people of serious ignorance." And he made things right and he taught them right from wrong at that moment. And he explained to them that we worship Allah alone without any partners. But it had already made its way into the hearts of many of them. And this is why when Mus Alam left them in the care of his brother JUST FOR 40 DAYS, THE FIRST THING THEY DID WAS DESIGN a calf and worship it. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us that when they watched those pagans worshiping that idol, they almost the visualization is THEY SOAKED IN THAT shik into the depths of their hearts. They wanted it and then they went looking for Misam to give them something that they already decided they wanted. And this, as we've mentioned before, is the is the formula to disaster. To believe something and then go looking through the Quran to find its evidence. Here they did exactly that. They believed it. They accepted it. They judged it as being good. And then they went to MS to give verification. They weren't asking him a question. They weren't requesting. They wanted him to be a follower to them, not the other way around. This story has so many angles to it, so many benefits and so many aspects in guiding us. Now a person may ask what does this story have to do with us today? A similar occurrence happened in our prophet's time saiam with some of the new Muslims that were accompanying him after the conquest of Mecca in a companion known as Abu Abui. He narrates, he says,.

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Who says after the conquest of Mecca, we accompanied the prophet Sam to the battle of Hune. And as we were accompanying him, we had just accepted Islam. Abu Walt accepted Islam during the conquest of Mecca. They had only been Muslim for a couple of weeks at most when this happened. They were new. It wasn't all of the companions. It was a new group of Muslims that entered into Islam upon the conquest of Mecca. and they still had a lot to learn and they still had a lot of their old beliefs to shed. And so he said, "We were new to Islam. We were with him on our way to.

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He said, "And while we were with him, we came across a group of mushik and they had a very huge tree and they had designated this tree as the hanging tree, meaning the tree where they would go and they would hang certain things on the tree. A warrior would go and hang his sword on the tree. A person who needs something would go and hang something a keepsake on this tree hoping to get some baraka from this tree that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or their gods would bless them through this tree for good luck. They believed that when they hung their swords on this tree, it would make their swords sharper with which they could cut down their enemies. And so he said,.

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And so we continued on our journey and we came across another big sidra, a type of tree that grew in the desert. And so we called out to the prophet sallall.aii wasallam from the sides of the path. Oh messenger of Allah, designate for us a hanging TREE LIKE THEY HAD a hanging tree the one we just saw. Now if we stop right here and we ask ourselves these companions, these men who just accepted Islam, who accepted Islam by saying, "None is rightfully worshiped but Allah and left off the worship of their idols." What was their belief? What was their intention when they requested a tree for this purpose? They were on their way to a battle. They have the messenger of Allah with them. The idea sounds really good. It sounds great. We're on our way to a battle. We have the messenger of Allah. They were hanging their swords on the tree to make their swords cut deeper. And to give them good luck on their journey and their battle, we have the messenger of Allah. We want to have a tree that does the same thing for us that Allah will bless us through. They didn't believe that the tree itself is going to give them blessings. No, they requested of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam that he designate a tree that Allah could bless them through. And the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said ALLAHBAR for.

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He said these are the mistakes that were made by previous nations. I swear by Allah that you all have just requested of me what Bi is requested of Mos when they said to him designate for us idols like they have idols. Then he said something very very important. He said it is the sunen it is the habits and ways of the previous nations. You all will follow the ways and the habits fall into some of the mistakes that were made by previous nations. In another narration he said that there will always be people of this that will make the same mistakes that were made by the previous nations. They will follow in their steps to the POINT THAT IF ONE of them, if a man of the previous nations was able to insert himself and squeeze himself into a LIZARD'S HOLE, AS RIDICULOUS AS THAT IS, someone of this nation will do similar. And what is meant by this is not a dispraise of this nation. THIS IS THE GREATEST nation of all of humanity with the greatest of prophets and the greatest of books. But what is intended is a warning that we are to read carefully and learn the stories of the nations that preceded us in order to avoid the mistakes that were made by those previous nations.

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Subhanahu waala. He was happy. Alhamdulillah. Alhamdulillah.

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Allah. Oh,.

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What All.

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For.

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Allah. Allham.

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Alhamdulillah.

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Heat. Heat.

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So you.

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Stand shouldertosh shoulder. Close all of the gaps. muster together. Maintain the straightness of your rose throughout the prayer. Please, if you brought your phone, make sure that you double check it. Make sure that it is silent so as not to interrupt our prayer and our meeting with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

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Alhamdulillah. Fore! Foreign! Foreign!

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What up?

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For me. Hallelujah. Hello. Hallelujah. All.

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Can have them.

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Allahel. I don't the belt.

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Alhamdulillah.

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For a All.

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For.

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Send me Lord. Oh holy man.

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Allahel.

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Said I want amen.

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Salam. Awesome.

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Brothers and sisters, asalam alalaykum. Just a very quick reminder. First one is there is going to be a youth halaka this evening at 6:30 p.m. in the gymnasium inshallah. So again 6:30 p.m. tonight youth halapa and it will be held in the gymnasium. Second we are coming to the end of the year and of course this is the time you start thinking about the tax liabilities and what have you. Would you to remember Rama Academy depends on your help to redirect the tax liability that is you owe to the state of Arizona. Again, any amount of money that you owe as a taxes to the state of Arizona can be directed to the Rahma Academy, it doesn't cost you anything because you're going to pay those taxes anyway to the state of Arizona. Now, you just channelled it to a Muslim cause and that will help us run our school the best possible way inshallah. So, please again, brother Jabber is in the back. He can answer the questions. He has the flyers in his hand. Start planning for it now. even though we know it's couple of months away but please help us out. Let us plan for success this year inshallah. Our goal is to at least raise 150,000 from this program. Inshallah, please donate generously for your masid on the way out.