- Islamic Biography / Prophetic Biography
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- The prophet's exemplary behaviour
Holding onto a good thought of Allah is the price for Paradise:
Dear brother, holding onto a good thought of Allah is the price for Paradise. In addition to being obliged to believe in Allah, man is supposed to hold onto a good thought of Him. I can tell you that there are a lot of believers who believe in Allah's Existence, yet they do not hold onto a good thought of Him, and they do not believe in His Beautiful Names or His Exalted Attributes.When man wants to know someone, he is not satisfied with knowing his name only, so he asks about his career, educational background, specialty and morality. If you want to know someone, then it is important to know his morals, his career and his education. Much in the same line, since man is supposed to know Allah, He should know His Beautiful Names and Exalted Attributes. Unfortunately, the majority of people use words which indicate their ignorance of the Almighty Allah. For instance, someone says to you, "Allah creates people to torture them" or "Glory be to Allah, no one is pleased with his life". This is not true, because the Almighty Allah creates people to have His Mercy on them and to bestow happiness upon them. Furthermore, Allah creates mankind to be admitted to a Paradise which is as wide as the heavens and the earth. Actually, having thoughts, which do not fit Allah the Exalted, indicate thinking wrongly of Him, given holding onto a good thought of Allah the Almighty is the price for Paradise. Allah says:
﴾And thought wrongly of Allah - the thought of ignorance.﴿
Believing in the Perfection, the Existence and the Oneness of Allah:
He, who believes that Allah forces him to sin and accordingly will punish him with an eternal Hellfire, is someone who thinks wrongly of the Almighty Allah. Saying that to people will drive them away from their Lord, will make them shun Him and will give them improper image of the Almighty Allah. Thus, it is wrong to say that Allah created people, then obliged them to sin and disbelieve in Him, and He would admit them to an eternal torment in Hellfire. A poet said:He tied him up and threw him in the sea
Then he said to him, "Do not dare to get wet"
﴾Allah never commands of Fahisha. Do you say of Allah what you know not?﴿
Concerning this point, Allah also says:
﴾Those who took partners (in worship) with Allah will say: "If Allah had willed, we would not have taken partners (in worship) with Him, nor would our fathers, and we would not have forbidden anything (against His Will)." Likewise belied those who were before them, (they argued falsely with Allah's Messengers), till they tasted of Our Wrath. Say: "Have you any knowledge (proof) that you can produce before us? Verily, you follow nothing but guess and you do nothing but lie."﴿
Believing that this universe was created by a Creator is not enough for man's salvation (in the Hereafter), so man should believe that Allah exists, that Allah is Perfect and that He is the Only Deity Who is worthy of worship. Actually, the Beautiful Names of Allah come down to three words: Allah exists, Allah is the Only One and Allah is Perfect.
Man should never think wrongly of Allah the Almighty:
In last Friday's sermon, I mentioned that man fears Allah's Names of Majesty by seeking Allah's Names of Gracefulness, given the Names of Majesty are like, Allah the Almighty, the Supremely Hegemonic, the Superb Vanquisher, the Superb Potentate and the Avenger. Hence, when you see Allah's revenge on an oppressor whose tyranny prevailed, you will be extremely relieved. This Divine Revenge is one of the manifestations of Allah's Absolute Perfection.Why does man act upon Allah's Order? Because he fears Allah's Names of Majesty, and he seeks Allah's Names of Gracefulness just like, Allah is the Most Merciful, the Gentle, the Ever-Wise, the Close, the All-Hearing and the Supreme-Answerer. These are the Names of Gracefulness. Thus, there is no refuge from Allah except to Him; we flee from His Torment to His Mercy, and we fear His Names of Majesty by seeking His Names of Gracefulness. On the authority of Abu Hurairah, may Allah be pleased with him, who said that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:
((Allah the Almighty said, "I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me."))
Only the last chapters of most of the stories, which we hear in our social relations, are conveyed to us. For example, we are told that someone committed suicide, another one declared his bankruptcy and a third one had an intractable disease or had been into an accident. We are told the last chapters of thousands of incidents, which confuse us and make us raise questions, but had we had the chance to know these stories from their start to their end, we would have understood the Supreme Divine Wisdom, Mercy and Justice.
In order to avoid making people think wrongly of Allah, we should never mention any story whose full details from its beginning to its end are not known to us, because knowing the full story will reveal Allah's Absolute Wisdom and Justice.
Adversities, which befall creations, are meant to divinely discipline them:
The bottom line is to avoid being the reason of making people think negatively about Allah. You should clarify to people the wisdom behind the Divine Commands and the purpose behind the creations' existence. Also, you should make it clear to them that the calamities, which befall them are meant to be Divine Treatment, and not Divine Revenge or Wrath:((I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me.))
((Jabir bin 'Abdullah, may Allah be pleased with him) reported: I heard the Prophet, peace be upon him, saying three days before his death, "Let none of you die unless he has good expectations from Allah".))
This is why some people bring you closer to Allah, while sh3er drive you away from Him, and some people endear Allah to you, while sh3er do the opposite. When you narrate a story without knowing its full details, you might give the listeners the impression that the Almighty Allah was Hard on someone, and that Allah took away the worldly life from him though he is upright, while Allah gave the gains of the worldly life to another lascivious person. You should know how to tell people about sh3er' calamities, and this needs training and learning.
It is safer to get acquainted with Allah through His Creations:
It is safer for man to start getting acquainted with Allah through His Creations, than to do so through His Actions. It is recommended to start knowing Allah through His Creations first, through His Quran second and through His Actions third. Knowing Allah through these stages enables you to explain Allah's Actions, but if you start with the third stage, you will be confused when you hear about the famines, the oppressed nations, the oppressing ones and the natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, volcanoes and the destruction of crops.As I said earlier, lots of stories are told without giving a clear explanation of its details, so when you just narrate it without highlighting the moral listens indicated in them, you will have negative thoughts about Almighty the Exalted. Man should take the safer path to reach Allah which is through reflecting on Allah's Creations, not on His Character which, because the other way round might cause his destruction. Hence, get to know Allah through His Creations:
﴾Verily! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are indeed signs for men of understanding* Those who remember Allah (always, and in prayers) standing, sitting, and lying down on their sides, and think deeply about the creation of the heavens and the earth, (saying): "Our Lord! You have not created (all) this without purpose, glory to You! (Exalted be You above all that they associate with You as partners). Give us salvation from the torment of the Fire.﴿
The second path:
﴾Do they not then think deeply in the Qur'an, or are their hearts locked up (from understanding it)?﴿
He, who knows Allah, should abide by His Orders:
After knowing Allah through His Creations and after seeing His absolute Perfection, His Miracles, His Wisdom and the Wisdom of the Quran (His Words), you should obey Allah's Order:﴾Say (O Muhammad): "Travel in the land and see what was the end of those who rejected truth."﴿
Once I visited a relative in Eid, and he told me about a person who had a second wife when he reached the old age. He said that the old man loved her dearly and he fulfilled her wish when she asked him to gave her a three story building he owned in Al-Muhajereen district (a very classy neighborhood on Damascus), but after he did so, she kicked him out of the house and got married to the young man she was in love with.
May relative went on, "How disastrous it is to become penniless suddenly." Although I do not know the details of that story, I said to him, "This story should have other chapters which you do not know". He said, "What do you mean?" I replied, "I cannot believe that an old man, who has a prominent social position, could be betrayed by a naïve woman and be kicked out of his own house!!!"My relative out of sudden remembered something about the story and said, "O yes, I remembered something about this man. He and his five brother inherited hefty sum of money from their late father, but he took all the money and left his brother with nothing". This last chapter of the story is a fair punishment from the Almighty Allah for taking his brother' money oppressively. When a crime is committed and the criminal is still at large, there will be anxiety in the society, but when you read about an awful crime and that the police apprehended the criminal and took him to the court of justice, there will be comfort in the society.
Man should never have negative thoughts about Allah the Exalted:
What I want to say is that one should never have any negative thoughts about the Almighty Allah, and should never tell people something that might drive them away from Allah or distance them from Him. There are lots of stories and interpretations which make people get away from Allah when they are wrongly conveyed to people. Pay attention to the following Hadith:
((Verily one of you performs the actions of the people of Paradise until there is but an arm length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him, and so he acts with the actions of the people of the Hellfire and thus enters it; and verily one of you performs the actions of the people of the Hellfire, until there is but an arm length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him and so he acts with the actions of the people of Paradise and thus he enters it.))
You cannot convey this Hadith without conveying its right interpretation. This man (mentioned in the previous Hadith) is not a sincere believer, for his deeds seem to be like the ones of the people of Paradise, but this man is a hypocrite in his reality, and he lives in an Islamic society in order to meet his own interests, and for that purpose he offered his good deeds. People misunderstand this Hadith thinking that the Almighty Allah makes man obey him his entire life, and then he makes him backslide in order to admit him to Hellfire. Well this interpretation is incorrect, because in the following Ayat the Almighty Allah says:
﴾And never do We requit in such a way except those who are ungrateful, (disbelievers).﴿
﴾Whosoever does righteous good deed it is for (the benefit of) his ownself, and whosoever does evil, it is against his ownself, ﴿
﴾So whosoever does good equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it* Whosoever does evil equal to the weight of an atom (or a small ant), shall see it. ﴿
﴾And if there be the weight of a mustard seed, We will bring it. And Sufficient are We as Reckoners.﴿
There are many other Ayaht which denote the Absolute Wisdom, Just and Mercy of Allah.
Man should avoid saying words that may have harmful effects:
The main point of this lecture is that man should avoid saying words which might give sh3er the impression that Allah is not Wise nor is He Just, that Allah created us to burden and torture us and that Qada' and Qadar (predestination and preordainment) are imposed on people. As a result, some people are predestined to be Kuffar and other people are predestined to sin, and thus they should be admitted to Hellfire forever without having the free will. The Almighty Allah says:﴾He gets reward for that (good) which he has earned, and he is punished for that (evil) which he has earned.﴿
﴾Verily, We showed him the way, whether he be grateful or ungrateful.﴿
﴾Those who took partners (in worship) with Allah will say: "If Allah had willed, we would not have taken partners (in worship) with Him, nor would our fathers, and we would not have forbidden anything (against His Will)." Likewise belied those who were before them, (they argued falsely with Allah's Messengers), till they tasted of Our Wrath. Say: "Have you any knowledge (proof) that you can produce before us? Verily, you follow nothing but guess and you do nothing but lie."﴿
Beware, never ever say any word if you do not know its effects on other people.
Inquiring marks the believer:
Sins are mentioned in the Noble Quran in an ascending order; Al-Fahsha'a (evil works) and Al-Munkar (errors), then Ithm (sins) and Udwan (transgression), then Shirk (polytheism) and Kufr (disbelief) and finally the mother of sins is mentioned, and it is:﴾And saying things about Allah of which you have no knowledge."﴿
Allah says:
﴾Ask Him (O Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him), (concerning His Qualities, His rising over His Throne, His creations, etc.), as He is Al-Khabir (The All-Knower of everything i.e. Allah).﴿
Allah says:
﴾So ask of those who know the Scripture [learned men of the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)], if you know not.﴿
Ahl Adh-Dhikr (people of remembrance) are those who know the truth when it comes to the matters of the worldly life, but as for the matters related to knowing Allah, Allah says:
﴾Ask Him (O Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him), (concerning His Qualities, His rising over His Throne, His creations, etc.), as He is Al-Khabir (The All-Knower of everything i.e. Allah).﴿
One should not talk about something he does not know, or convey to sh3er something he ignores; otherwise, he will be included in the following Hadith:
((The Prophet, peace be upon him, said in Hadith Qudsi, that Allah said: "I am as My servant thinks I am. I am with him when he makes mention of Me..."))
Such a man will also be addressed in the Hadith below:((Let none of you die unless he has good expectations from Allah.))
