Islamic Education- Means of Access and Signs of Acceptance- Lesson (36-70): Tasting the Sweetness of Faith

2009-02-07

In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Whoever tastes the sweetness of faith will sacrifice everything for it: 
 Dear brother, we are still tackling the topic "Tasting the Sweetness of Faith", and it is based on the fact that faith has principles and has sweetness and both are different issues. Most people are capable of perceiving the principles of faith, but few are the ones who have been true to their covenant with Allah and paid the price of the sweetness of faith in order to taste it. The difference between perceiving the facts of faith and testing its sweetness resembles the difference between saying one hundred billion dollars and owning this sum of money.
 Hence, what attracts you to Islam is not the principles of faith, but the sweetness of it, and the minute you taste that sweetness, you will willingly make conceivable sacrifice for the sake of testing it. . Furthermore, you will become the happiest person in life regardless of your condition, era, country, hardship, prosperity, richness, poverty, strength, weakness, marital status, and health condition. Testing the sweetness of faith has an expensive price to pay, but its outcomes are amazing. The price you should pay for it is being disciplined, being ready to sacrifice and being openhanded, and the results will be splendid. 
 The sweetness of faith is tasted and can't be seen with the eye:
 
The first fact in this blessed meeting is: Tasting the sweetness of faith is something touches the soul, and it can't be seen with the eye. Actually, the true believer's heart is of full of security, optimism, trust in Allah and the feeling that Allah loves him, and they are enough for the population of an entire country. Let me repeat that again: What attracts you to the religion is the sweetness of faith not the principles of it, for the latter are so easy to be conceived and everyone can comprehend that Allah creates the heavens and the earth, that the Quran is a Divine Revelation and that there are Paradise and Hellfire. Most Muslims (the one billion and five hundred million Muslims) believe in these principles. However, Allah says:﴾Allah has promised those among you who believe, and do righteous good deeds, that He will certainly grant them succession to (the present rulers) in the earth﴿
 [An-Nur, 55]
 Unfortunately, Muslims have not been granted succession in the earth, though they are great in number, they are rich, they own unlimited natural resources and they are blessed with living in an important and strategic geographical areas, but they don't own the upper hand, their affairs are controlled by sh3er and the other party has the authority over them in thousand ways. All these facts are because Muslims have perceived the principles of faith but they haven't tasted its sweetness. If only they tasted it, they would sacrifice for the sake of testing it the worthy and the trivial and the soul and the valuable. The first fact about the sweetness of faith is that it is tasted not seen.
 To make this fact clear, if you are hungry, and you are presented a very expensive delicious food to eat, you will indescribably enjoy every bite of it, and the one who watches you will have no idea about the taste of that food no matter how much he is prudent or wise, will he? Asking for more food means that you are enjoying it, but if you are satisfied with few bites from the plate you have, this means that the food is not that good and you will stop eating no matter how hard you are invited to do, for this food is not that delicious. 
 The believer is hard to be tempted because he has tasted the sweetness of faith:
 
What strongly proves that you have tested the sweetness of faith is that you ask for more (you want to keep testing it). Accordingly, you offer night prayers, you offer voluntary fasting and you donate money to serve people. Hence, longing for more sweetness is a sign of tasting the sweetness of faith, whereas being satisfied with few deeds and the minimum amount of prayers indicates the weak effect of the sweetness of faith on you, and it means that you haven't tasted it yet. In this case you have perceived the principles of faith and abide by them, but you haven't tasted the sweetness of faith yet.
 Dear brother, when someone of you tastes the sweetness of faith, let him not allow anything to distract him or to prevent him from tasting it continuously. There is a popular saying which goes as follows, "Don't let the shining gold or the painful whips of the whipper distract you from your goal." The believer is not a commodity for sale, and I would like to say that whoever sells his beliefs, his principles or his values for any sum of money even if it is billions, he will lose his value in the Sight of Allah. In fact the sum of money he takes is his price, even if it is not billions but less than that, and he is over (as a Muslim). The following Hadith shows how the believer should react whenever he is tempted: ((O my uncle, by Allah, if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left in return for my giving up this cause, I would not give it up until Allah makes Truth victorious, or I die in His service.))
 [The Prophetic biography]
 Hence, the believer is not for sale, and he is not a subject of any bargain because he has tasted the sweetness of faith. 
 Nothing will distract whoever seeks faith and its sweetness: 
 
Dear brother, sometimes a trivial reason might distract you from attending a religious session, but if you taste the sweetness of faith in that session as you understand your religion more, you will never let any guest prevent you from attending that session. I repeat, when you taste the sweetness of faith, you will never allow any reason in your house, any obstacle or any problem (and distractions are many in life) to stop you from attending that session, because you are seeking faith and its sweetness. This is the very taste which makes you among those foremost (in Islamic Faith of Monotheism and in performing righteous deeds), and accordingly you will never allow anything to deflect you from your goal. Allah says to those who believe in Him:﴾ on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. ﴿
 [Al-Baqarah, 62]
 However, those who have weak faith and who haven't tasted that sweetness, will be preoccupied with any issue no matter how trivial it is, leaving the principles of faith and canceling any religious session. 
 The love for the Sake of Allah and associating partners with Allah in love: 
 Dear brother, life matters usually distract you from the sweetness of faith. Therefore, it is said, "There is love for the sake of Allah (which is Tawheed [Monotheism]) and there is associating partners (people or things) with Allah in love (which is Shirk [polytheism]). When you love Allah, this love includes loving His Messenger, peace be upon him, loving the Companions of the Prophet, be peace be upon him, loving the pious followers of them, the followers of their followers, the devoted scholars, the exalted scholars, the Masajid, the Quran, offering good deeds and the people of faith even if they are poor instead of loving the rich haughty powerful people.
 Hence, the sweetness of faith is based on loving for the Sake of Allah. Believe it or not, and I am not exaggerating when I say that loving your pious, chaste and religiously devoted wife is derived from loving Allah, but loving someone with Allah is Shirk itself. Let me clarify this point to you, this kind of love is manifested in loving someone, who is very far from Allah, for your own interests and in order to gain benefits from him. Such a person will drive you away from the Path of Allah, and you might forget to offer Salah while you are with him, and you might commit sins. Thus, whoever you love and might deviate you away from Allah, loving him is considered love with Allah which is Shirk. On the other hand, loving for the Sake of Allah is Tawheed, and all sorts of love is derived from this love such as loving to offer good deeds, loving to sacrifice for Allah's Cause, loving to give Sadaqah and loving your pious wife: 
 ((Praise be to Allah Who bestowed upon me the fondness for Aishah.))
 [Mentioned in the relic]
 You love those around you and those who are close to you. There are many kinds of love, but all these kinds are derived from the love for Allah. Hence, your love for people or things which draws you closer to Allah is love for the Sake of Allah. The Prophet, peace be upon him, used to make the following Du'a: 
 ((O Allah, I ask for Your love, and the love of those people who love You and love of actions that bring me closer to Your love.))
 This is the meaning of love for the Sake of Allah, whereas associating partners with Allah in love drives you away from Him. 
 In order to evaluate your relation with people, use the popular game which we all know "pulling the rope". Whenever you are with people in a meeting or in a picnic and people you have relations with, you should pay attention to the following: If they drag you to their slackness, to love the worldly life and to sin, stay away from them, but if you are with people and you are able to bring them to your realm, then stay with them. Hence, your evaluation for any relation should be by asking the following question: Is it me who is dragging them to my world or is it the other way round? The love for the sake of Allah makes you love Allah more, and the other love "associating partners with Allah in love" keeps you far from loving the Almighty Allah. 
 Time is more valuable than money:
 
Dear brother, when you love other than Allah, you will hit rock bottom. Pay attention to the following Allah:﴾ While he [Jibrael (Gabriel)] was in the highest part of the horizon, ﴿
 [An-Najm, 7]
 According to some interpretations, this Ayah means that "what elevates the believer and makes him honored is performing night Salah, and his self-glory comes from dispensing with people. The more you are exalted, the more you stay away from trivial matters, tittle tattle, arguments, meaningless debates, backbiting, gossiping and silly talks. By Allah dear brother, nine tenth of people's talk is nonsense. The believer is someone whose honor lies in getting acquainted with Allah, whose purposes are noble and who exerts efforts and spends time for achieving good goals, so he can never be dragged to silly matters and meaningless talks, like staying up till 1 AM with people backbiting other people, watching movies and talking about money, women, prices and other rubbish. 
 All of you know that the believer deeply believes that time is more valuable than money, and the proof is that when someone, Allah forbid, is afflicted with intractable disease, he will never hesitate to even sell his house in order to save his life and pay for the operation. Therefore, deeply inside your heart, you realize that that time is more valuable than money. If a man burns half million dollars before us, what will we say about him? We will consider him insane. Thus, if burning money is considered craziness and insanity, what about wasting time? Believe me, and I am not exaggerating, the most precious thing you have is time, and the believer is the one who can manage his time and make use of every second of it. For that very reason, Allah, may His Glory be glorified, swears by the life of the Prophet, peace be upon him, saying: ﴾ Verily, by your life (O Muhammad, peace be upon him), in their wild intoxication, they were wandering blindly. ﴿
 [Al-Hijr, 72]
 Allah gives you time, and your heroism lies in spending it in getting acquainted with Him, in obeying Him and in offering good deeds, because when you run out of time, no deed will do you any good. This is the meaning of the following Ayah:﴾ By Al-'Asr (the time)* Verily! Man is in loss* Except those who believe (in Islamic Monotheism) and do righteous good deeds, and recommend one another to the truth (i.e. order one another to perform all kinds of good deeds (Al-Ma'ruf)which Allah has ordained, and abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds (Al-Munkar)which Allah has forbidden), and recommend one another to patience (for the sufferings, harms, and injuries which one may encounter in Allah's Cause during preaching His religion of Islamic Monotheism or Jihad, etc.). ﴿
 [Al-Asr]
 The worldly life has nothing to do with the believer's rank
 
Pay attention to the following Hadith:((Our Master Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, asked permission of the Prophet, peace be upon him, who authorized him, and the Prophet, peace be upon him, was reclining on a mat which left traces on his side, so Umar sat down and raised his head in the house, and what he saw in the home contained nothing of sight, he cried and said: "The Messenger of Allah sleeps on mats and Kisra, the Persian king, sleeps on silk". The reclining Prophet, peace be upon him, sat up, and said, "Do you have doubts O Umar? These people have been given rewards of their good deeds in this world only."))
 In another narration, the Prophet, peace be upon him, said:

(("What I have been given is Prophethood, not kingdom."))
 In a third narration, the Prophet, peace be upon him said:
(("Will you not be satisfied if you are granted the Hereafter while they are granted only the worldly life." Umar said, ""Please beg Allah's forgiveness for me, O Allah's Messenger."))
 A poor believer might be in the most exalted rank in the Sight of Allah. Actually, the worldly life has nothing to do with the rank of the believer (in the Sight of Allah); he might be a pious orderly, while the general manager is Fasiq. This is life, and these are the standards according to which people are evaluated, but Allah's standards are of different nature. In a fourth narration of the above mentioned Hadith the Prophet, peace be upon him, said to Umar:((What relationship do I have with this world? I am in this world like a rider who halts in the shade of a tree for a short time, and after taking some rest, resumes his journey leaving the tree behind.))
 [Mustadrak, by Ibn Abbas]
 Consider this funny example: The worldly life is like the shade of a donkey in a very hot day, and a person came to sit under 2this shade avoid the sun. He was thirsty, so he went to drink water. Meanwhile, another person came and sit in his place, and when the first man came back, he claimed that place, and the second person defends being in that shade. While they were badmouthing one another and quarrelling, the donkey left his place (taking his shade with him) and thus all these quarrels are pointless. 
 The worldly life tempts, hurts and passes by:
 
Some of my friends who are lawyers told me that thousands of law suits are canceled because one of the parties died after spending twenty three years in the courts. Hence, this life is so trivial to be one of our concerns. Our Master Umar Ibn Abdul Aziz used to reauthor the following Ayah every time he entered his place of work, so pay attention to it:﴾Tell Me, if We do let them enjoy for years* And afterwards comes to them that (punishment) which they had been promised!* All that with which they used to enjoy shall not avail them. ﴿
 [Ash-Shu'ara', 205-207]
 Allah the Almighty says:﴾Consider not that Allah is unaware of that which the Zalimun (polytheists, wrong-doers, etc.) do, but He gives them respite up to a Day when the eyes will stare in horror. ﴿
 [Ibrahim, 42]
 It is narrated that Umar, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "If someone owns the worldly life and death comes to him, he will not be richer than me." The worldly life is like a wonderful dream of a poor man in which he lives in a palace, but when he wakes up, he sees the reality of his wretched room, ragged clothes and poor food.
 A man I know, who used to work in Souq Al-Hamidiyah, had a strange hobby. He used to collect the garbage of his store and put it in a fantastic box with gift wrap and a red ribbon on it. Then, he put it outside his store. Whoever saw that box thought that there was diamond in it or something worthy, so he took it and walked away. The store owner used to watch the man who took the box, and he noticed that after two hundred meters away from the store, the man started unwrapping the box only to find the garbage in it, so he swore and cursed the one who put the box. The store owner used to have fun while watching the reaction of people and their shock when they saw what was inside the box. By Allah, whoever spends his life in pleasures and forgets all about Allah, will be stunned just like those people. The worldly life tempts, hurts and passes by. ﴾He (Allah) will say: "What number of years did you stay on earth?"* They will say: "We stayed a day or part of a day. Ask of those who keep account." ﴿
 [Al-Mu'minun, 112-113]
 It was said "The worldly life is one hour, so spend it in obeying Allah, and your ownself is greedy so accustom it to being satisfied (with the little of everything)." 
 Man's heroism lies in offering a good deed that will benefit him in his grave:
 Dear brother, our Master Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "The pleasure that is followed by fire (of Hell) is worthless and every good matter that is followed by fire (of Hell) is also worthless. Likewise, the evil that produces Paradise is not evil. Any bliss other than Paradise is valueless and any misfortune other than Hell is (regarded as) good health". If we want to compare the bliss in life (including women, money, positions, pleasures, palaces, mansions, cars, private jets and yachts) with the bliss of Paradise it will be like comparing a speck with the mountains of the earth. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said in a very delicate Hadith:((What life takes from the Hereafter is like the quantity that the needle takes when it enters the sea then leaves it.))
 [AtTabarani, by Al-Mustawrid Ibn Shaddad]
 When you take a boat to go to Arwad (a Syrian island) from Tartoos (a Syrian coastal city), try to put a needle inside the sea and then bring it out, can you see how much water it holds? How much water the needle will have if we compare it to the water in the Mediterranean, the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Antarctic Ocean,, the Arab Sea and all oceans on earth? Nothing! The previous Hadith is the words of our Prophet, peace be upon him. Our master Sa'd Ibn Abi Waqqas, may Allah be pleased with him, said, "There are three situations in I consider myself as a real man, and other than them I am just one of the common people. One of them is that I never heard something from the Prophet, peace be upon him, but I knew for sure that it is the truth that is revealed to Him from Allah the Almighty."
 I know a man, who used to live in one of the poorest most wretched districts in Damascus, and his house was a 60 square meter basement. Furthermore, the sunlight never finds its way into that house. This man collected money lira by lira for twenty six years in order to buy a house in Muhajereen district (a well-known district in Damascus) with a beautiful view. One day while he was sitting with his wife on the terrace and having coffee, he said to her, "By now our future has been guaranteed." However, on fourth day he lived in that new house he died and buried in his grave. This worldly life tempts, hurts and passes by, so your heroism lies in offering a deed that will be your salvation in your grave. 
 Happiness and pleasure:
 
Dear brother, the pleasures of the worldly life come from external factors, and you need to money to gain them. Hence, pleasures such like a luxurious house, a modern car or a beautiful wife should be paid for. These pleasures are of tangible nature and enjoying them is followed by melancholy, whereas the real happiness comes from within. You can't buy happiness or sell it, but rather the Almighty Allah bestows it upon you after you pay its price by obeying Him and being devoted to Him. Moreover, this happiness increases by time and ends up with being admitted to Paradise. I invoke Allah to make the graces you have in the worldly life connected with the ones of the Hereafter, and Allah has the Power over all things. By obeying Allah, whoever lives in prosperity and Allah bestows upon him blessings such as good reputation and health, then he is admitted to Paradise after he died, enjoys continuous graces which never end after death. This continuity is achieved by obeying the Almighty Allah.
 I would like to repeat again that happiness increases by time, whereas enjoying pleasures decreases by time, and whoever enjoys them becomes melancholic afterwards. Pleasures are of tangible nature, they come from outside and they decrease by time, whereas happiness increases by time, and it comes from your obedience to Allah, from acting upon Allah's Order and from offering good deeds. Therefore, in any society, you will never see a melancholic believer, for that contradicts his connection with Allah. Keep in mind that everything is in the Hand of Allah the Almighty, even the powerful people are in His Hand:﴾ All of you, and give me no respite* "I put my trust in Allah, my Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving (living) creature but He has grasp of its forelock. Verily, my Lord is on the Straight Path (the truth). ﴿
 [Hud, 55-56]
 As a conclusion, look for the sweetness of faith, because it will bring you happiness in the worldly life and in the Hereafter, it draws you closer to Allah, it prevents you from being distracted by anything else or any obstacle. On the other hand, the results of slackness will be negligence, boredom, displeasure and postponement.

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