- Islamic creed
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- Belief in the Last Day
The effects of the belief in Allah and the Last Day:
Noble brother, I already explained that no pillars of faith are so inseparable in the Quran as the belief in Allah and the Last Day are. Believing in Allah only is not enough, it definitely needs a supportive element.
What prevents people from extorting each sh3er properties? And what prevents them from indulging in forbidden taboos? It is definitely the belief in Allah and the Last Day. If one closely follows the effects of the belief in Allah and the Last Day, he will find that the social restrictions regulating the social, economic and familial relationships are mostly due to the belief in Allah and the Last Day.
Difference between believing society and atheist societies:
I would almost say that a Muslim society is self-controlled with what we called the inner dissuasion, whilst a non-Muslim society is externally controlled with what they called dissuasion.100 thousand robberies have been committed in only one night in New York causing a total loss of USD 2 billion (*) i.e. USD two thousand million in one single night! Believing in afterlife develops the inner dissuasion, while the disbelief turns the humans into monsters. Only the external dissuasion, such as electronic control and other similar measures, make the western society straightforward, but if such control ceases, one would be astonished. Per contra, the society of true believers is self-controlled and the examples are countless.
He said to the shepherd: give me this sheep and take the price.
The shepherd replied: I do not own it.
He said: Tell the owner it died.
The shepherd replied: I do not own it.
He insisted: Take the price.
The shepherd said: By Allah I badly need this money, and if I told the owner that the sheep died or that the wolf devoured it, he will believe me as he knows how honest and true I am, but what about Allah?
The foundation of the belief in Allah and the Last Day is the following verse:
﴾Does man think that he is to be left to wander without an aim? ﴿
Chaos in the universe contradicts the Perfection of Allah:
Do you think that you can kill, assault, extort, commit adultery, destroy a woman, arbitrarily divorce her, steal the trade mark from your partner, enslave people for your own good, mercilessly smash them, and peacefully go through life till the very end?﴾Does man think that he is to be left to wander without an aim? ﴿
Everything you do is for your own good, everything is enslaved to your own good, and life ends and there is nothing after death? This would be pure chaos, and Allah is exalted above all chaos!
﴾Did you then think that we had created you in vain and that you shall not be returned to us? ﴿
Chaos does not match with the Perfection of Allah. Mighty Allah is fair. One is dissuaded by the belief in Allah and the Last Day. They observe their limits, take what belongs to them and leave what does not.
Examples of religious and external dissuasion:
Let us put religion aside and ponder for a while. If no police, no prisons, no investigation centers, no criminal departments, no life sentences, no executions, no hard labors for life and no dissuasive faith existed, people would have eaten one another.People live either under the power of a system, a law or an external restriction - which applies to the western part of the World - or within a society where the inner dissuasion is developed.
Belief in the Last Day generates trust between believers
When a believing person enters the house of a fellow believer to carry out some reparations, the tenant feels relieved by his presence, doesn’t he? Does he ever fear that person will open the closet and take whatever is inside? That is not possible! Watch your behavior toward your fellow believers… You easily give them your own car and rest assured that they will never foul you, never lie to you, never replace a defective part with a second hand one and tell you it is brand new. They will never magnify the problem for you.When Allah prevents you from lying, He prevents a thousand million Muslims from lying to you.
When He prevents you from stealing, He prevents a thousand million Muslims from stealing from you.
When He prevents you from defrauding, He prevents a thousand million Muslims from defrauding you.
If a Muslim community enjoys a psychological comfort and security, it is because of the belief in the Last Day.
A Muslim community is morally disciplined:
I once said: The reason behind the glory of the Islamic marriage is that Allah is fair towards both partners. In atheist communities direct relationships prevail; the strong devours the weak, the rich takes unfair advantage of the poor, the scholar despises the ignorant…a pure direct relationship! But in Muslim communities, people are fairly treated by Allah. Each Muslim fears Allah and, therefore, would never treat the other side unjustly, never cheat on him, never defraud him, never lie to him; but, instead, he will seek Allah’s mercy by forgiving him and tolerating his faults, and seek Allah’s mercy by serving him.Examples of glorious attitudes of today’s Muslims:
Each and every favor a Muslim does to his fellow believers seeking Allah’s sake only and never claiming to be rewarded or thanked, is like a person who bought ten air-conditioning units, donated them to a mosque and declined to mention his name. What does such a person seek? Allah’s sake indeed!Is there a ministry in any country of the World where the employees are recruited for Allah’s sake and get no fees in return? Today, all the religious endowment positions are not rewarded. When one is assigned as a mosque Imam or a mosque servant for no reward whatsoever, it means that his reward is only with Allah. Where could we find such a person? This is all due to the belief in the Last Day.
believers are patient over adversities:
Believing in the Last Day strengthens the believer’s heart to be patient, fearing Allah only. How many husbands are prevented from divorcing their wives because they fear Allah? How many wives were patient toward their husbands because they feared Allah? How many business partners were attacked by a terminal illness and stood home for years and years and their share of profits from the factory or the shop comes right to their hands because their partners fear Allah? How many men donated their own money because they fear Allah? If you take the Last Day out of people’s hearts and minds, life will be troubled, and we will then need external electronic restrictions: the hall is monitored and everything you take out of the store without paying the price would emit a sound to alert the staff that you stole something. Therefore, everyone pays the price before leaving the store. Shall we call such behavior obedience to Allah? Never! Shall we call it perfection? Never! It is a pure fear of the alarm system, so it is never activated to tell everyone that they are robbers.The difference is great between an electronically controlled society and a self-controlled one. The external control has no value whatsoever. The most deviated and wicked person would behave impeccably because of the existence of highly accurate monitoring system, but not because he likes integrity.
Purposes and targets of believers:
I once entered a home appliances store in Beirut where I saw a monitor showing an employee behind his working desk, and many notebooks. I did not recognize the man. But I continued my way to the forth floor to buy what I need. I arrived to my destination, and I found the same man, who was working as an accountant. Now the picture is clear: the owner of the store placed a camera to watch the man. Every single gesture is monitored for eight hours, therefore the man is disciplined because he is subject to a strict external monitoring system, while a believer accountant works for eight continuous hours because he fears Allah. When you do your job in an impeccable way because of your fear of Allah, you transcend. But when you do it because you fear getting fired or you fear a monitoring machine, you do not.This religion is basically built on love:
This religion is basically built on love. If Allah wanted obedient servants, He would force them to obey. But Allah wants loving servants; therefore, you are free to obey or to disobey, you can do whatever you like to do, the choice is yours. However, Allah wants those who love Him, those who come by their own will, who obey Him by their pure initiative, who come longingly, because the creation of the universe and the man was basically built on love.﴾He shall love them and they shall love Him﴿
The story of Abuldahdah:
At a late age, Aboul Dahdah was seen planting a walnut tree, and we all know that walnut trees need many years to be fruitful. When asked why he was planting this tree knowing that it wouldn't give any fruits before too long, he said: "If I do not benefit from its fruits, the coming generation surely will and I shall get the reward".Think for a while. What would make you do something for which you will never get its fruits? There are glorious deeds that take all of your lifetime, but you never benefit from their fruits, while those who come afterward will. You do it for Allah's sake because He never forgets your good deed. You may even say: "May Allah have mercy on me because of this deed". You are a believer and Allah is Alive and lasts forever. You may write a book from which you never get any benefit, while the coming generations will, and you are totally satisfied with this.
A believer has a mission on Earth:
Ever wonder why a western family never thinks about having a child? A relative if mine visited his brother in the United States. He saw in the house next door kids’ clothes hanging in the balcony. Shortly after, he paid the neighbor a visit and much to his surprise found out that the neighbor has no kids. When he asked him about the kid's clothes he recently saw in the balcony, the neighbor simply replied: "Those were the dog's clothes". They do not love kids. One kid is enough. People there have no mission in life, and they find life more comfortable without children. They may get out every night, go for a picnic every day, spend hours in a nightclub or attend a party in some hotel, and a child is certainly a heavy burden. He, who has no mission, never wills to have a child, and he lives for himself.On the other hand, a Muslim lives for his children. He works nights and days to see, in his old age, his children married and settled in their own houses, enjoying an eminent social status. He educated them and secured jobs for them. A Muslim father is sacred because his only worry is his children and how he can manage to take them to the top of the society.
The marks left by our ancestors are worship of Allah:
The positive effects of the Last Day are countless. You may not believe that most of the lands of “Bilad al-Sham” (*) are in endowment status. The landlords allocated these lands for the public interest. All the forefathers and the ancestors had allocated the revenues of their properties for the public benefit. While the worldly people say:﴾And they say: there is nothing but our life in this World; we live and die and nothing destroys us but time, and they have no knowledge of that; they only conjecture﴿
Examples of Muslims giving back trusts to their owners:
I once told a story about a man that had to borrow three hundred thousand. No one accepted to lend him the money he needed. The man had a farm including a house and a swimming pool, so he said that whomever will lend him the money shall be entitled to get the farm as a warranty until I returns the borrowed money. With this said, a man accepted to lend him the money and got the farm which was located in a quiet remote area, where the air is clean and the view is beautiful. The money lender just fell in love with the place.Two years later, the borrower succeeded to gather the money and headed to the farm to give the money back. The man refused to give the farm back pretending that everyone has got his right. He extorted a farm worth millions for three hundred thousand only!
Intense sadness and grief seized the farm’s owner, and ended in a heart attack. Lying in his deathbed, the man handed a letter to his son and asked him to let the car that would carry his corpse pass in front of the usurper’s shop. He asked him to give him the letter in front of all present people.
When the man died, his son did what he was asked to do. He stopped the funeral in front of the man’s shop and handed him the letter.
What did the dying man’s letter say? It said: “You unfairly took my farm and I am going to the place of Ultimate Truth where we have to account for our every single deed… If you are a hero, do not follow me”.
A fellow brother told me that he once participated in a public auction of a property belonging to three hundred persons, most of them orphans. The man charged four or five people to participate in a fictitious way on his behalf. The auction started with ten thousand and closed with only two-thirds of the real property value. He told me: “This way I spared SP 750 thousand”. I replied: “This is haram!!! This property belongs to orphans and has a market value. You will never escape from the punishment of Allah!”
The man’s attitude changed. He is one of our brother who frequents the mosque. He said: “By Allah this is right!” and asked: “What shall I do then?” I said: “Either you buy it for its real value or you withdraw from the auction”.
I saw the man later on and he said: “I withdrew from the auction, sir. I feared the grave!”
What prevents you from taking forbidden money? What prevents the elder brother from taking his brother’ and sisters’ money though he has a power of attorney if it is not the fear of Allah? If we negate the fear of Allah and the Last Day, people turn into monsters that eat one another.
﴾Does man think that We shall not gather his bones * Yes! We are able to make complete his very fingertips﴿
After death, man will be resurrected just as he was created at first. He will stand for accountability and will be asked for his every single deed.
﴾This is because Allah is the truth and because He gives life to the dead and because He has power over all things * And because the hour is coming, there is no doubt about it, and because Allah shall raise up those who are in the graves﴿
The dangers a Muslim must avoid before death:
1- Get yourself prepared by doing good deeds:
Bravery consists of getting yourself prepared for the biggest future event which is death. Death that most of people tend to forget. Is it appropriate for an eighty year old man to build a casino at such an old age, and completely drop the afterlife from his account? Furthermore, a man in his seventies who plays backgammon late into the night and does not pray is a lost man and Allah says:
﴾And that man shall have nothing but what he strives for ﴿
2- Man shall have nothing but what he did:
You have nothing but what you did. Therefore, if an undisciplined man, with bad faith and secular doctrine, a man who believed in the matter only as we say nowadays, has a son who is one of the good people of Allah, a straightforward person with right faith and good deeds, would the father be rewarded? Never! He will never be rewarded.
For example:
Here is a story about a mosque. Before he died, a very good man allocated a
land of his own to build a mosque and asked his son to execute his will after
he passes away. The son, a man with little faith, rejected to execute his father's will and intended to sell the land and spend the money. But when his own son, a good child, knew about his grandfather's will, he said one word to his father: "Either you build the mosque as per grandfather's will, or you are not my father anymore and you will never see me again." With this said, his father found himself with no other option but to build the mosque.
The father asked his son to build the mosque. The son, with little faith, refused to execute the will and the grandson forced his father to execute it. Who is going to be rewarded after the execution of the will?
﴾And that man shall have nothing but what he strives for * And that his striving shall soon be seen * Then shall he be rewarded for it with the fullest reward ﴿
Every single deed: working, raising children, good deeds, feeding the poor, sponsoring orphans, supporting the weak, all this is written and "shall he be rewarded for it with fullest reward."
Calamities on the Last Day:
In that Day one shall fly from the closest persons to him. The holy Quran warns us:﴾The day on which a man shall fly from his brother ﴿
One would ask: why does the Quran start with the brother? A father is old, the son is still young and man usually seeks help from his brother. Relatives are mentioned in the Holy Quran in many versus. The wife, for example, came before all relatives in one verse:
﴾The love of desires, of women and sons is made to seem fair to men ﴿
When it comes to desire, wife comes to the fore. In another verse, the father comes to the fore:
﴾Say: if your fathers and your sons and your brother and your mates and your kinsfolk ﴿
So when it comes to honor and pride, one says "I am that person's son".
﴾The day on which a man shall fly from his brother * And his mother and his father * And his spouse and his son-- * Every man of them shall on that day have an affair which will occupy him ﴿
But when it comes to sacrifice, the most precious thing ever is the son:
﴾(Though) they shall be made to see each other. The guilty one would fain redeem himself from the chastisement of that day by (sacrificing) his children, ﴿
Let us summarize. When it comes to sacrifice, the son comes to the fore. When it comes to help, the brother comes to the fore. When it comes to pride, the father comes to the fore. When it comes to desire, the wife comes to the fore.
The laws of the afterlife are different from the laws of the World:
Here is a very precise point. A man could be jailed for violating the law. The prison warden would receive hundreds of phone calls in one hour if the prisoner is an important person who has a large net of connections, followers, relatives and strong people who could interfere and exercise pressure, whether he was right or wrong. This could happen in the real World, but on the Last day things are quite different.
﴾And every one of them will come to Him on the day of resurrection alone﴿
Lessons of the Pilgrimage:
1- Recalling the Last day:
Pilgrimage is a simple example. One could be either a big businessman, a great savant, a big industrialist, a highly ranked officer, a doctor with rare specialization or a manager. But in Pilgrimage, he is simply a pilgrim among so many sh3er. It he ever wants to stand before the shrine, he will be pushed by other pilgrims. No one knows him because he wears the towels (Pilgrimage apparel). Whomever he might be, no one knows him. It is as if Allah wanted, from the Pilgrimage, to give us a minimized picture of the last day. No one knows you. No one is highly placed. People rush and you must rush with them.
﴾And certainly you have come to Us alone as We created you at first﴿
2- Reminding man that he is Allah's servant
In Pilgrimage, no one has any position. One is a perfect stranger that no body knows. He wears Pilgrimage apparel and nothing of the World appearances distinguishes him. Just a white towel. Back home, you could wear suit worth fifty thousand Pounds, but in pilgrimage you just wear towel worth a few Pounds towel. The richest and the poorest wear the same towel. Allah made Pilgrimage as an example where ranks fall and leaders grovel. All the people are equal… They wear the same apparel. This is precisely what the Resurrection looks like.
﴾And every one of them will come to Him on the day of resurrection alone﴿
Danger of father’s negligence in raising his son:
One more issue. Sometimes a brother would painfully say: "My son is an atheist, my daughter does not pray but loves to dance and act." This is very painful and Allah says:﴾O you who believe! Save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones﴿
If the son grows undisciplined and the father noticed when it was too late, it would be almost impossible for him to bring his son back under his control. But if he starts to teach him in his early age when he is still in kindergarten, if he takes him to the mosque, teaches him to pray, to learn the Quran and to be honest and true, that is certainly the right way to raise him. If he does not start at that early age, he will never be able to control him when he grows up. This is the problem with fathers. At the beginning of their married life, they pay attention to their wives and neglect the children. All of a sudden the father comes face to face with the devastating fact that he lost his son. This is why the Quran says:
﴾O you who believe! save yourselves and your families from a fire whose fuel is men and stones﴿
Abou Huraira said: When this verse was revealed "And warn your nearest relations", the Prophet PBUH beckoned Quraish and addressed them:
((O children of Kaab son of Louay save your selves from fire. O children of Mourra son of Kaab save yourselves from fire. O children of Abd Shams save yourselves from fire. O children of Abd Manaf save yourselves from fire. O children of Hashem save yourselves from fire. O Fatima save yourself from fire for I can not keep you safe from Allah's punishment. It is only a parental relationship that I am keen to respect.))
The naïve understanding of the Prophet intercession:
One of the naïve illusions that people have is the concept of intercession. They never stop repeating: the prophet will intercede for us. If you meticulously study the intercession concept, you shall find that the intercession as figured by the public is groundless. They say: "Do whatever you want and the Prophet will intercede for you." This is a naïve understanding that was refuted by the Quran.﴾What! as for him then against whom the sentence of chastisement is due: What! can you save him who is in the fire? ﴿
What a Muslim does for Allah's sake is astonishing:
What is so astonishing in a believer's attitude is that he provides majestic deeds for nothing in return given his belief in afterlife. Such deed has no precedent in the whole world but is common among people of true faith.Examples:
A fellow who studies in Germany to obtain a Ph D decree about Damascus' scholars paid me a visit and asked me about the number of lessons I give per week. I mentioned 18 lessons between dawn, noon, evening and Friday's sermon. He asked how much I get paid for these lessons, and when I said "nothing" he reacted as if he was struck down, as if he distrusted my common sense. He who does not believe in the afterlife find such deeds so irrelevant.I once attended an Islamic marriage. One of guests invited a non-Muslim neighbor, who is very close to him, to come along. When the non-Muslim saw the sheikhs who attended the marriage, he said to his friend: "This man is certainly a millionaire." His friend replied: "What makes you say that?" He said: "He has surely paid about fifty thousand pounds to each sheikh to come along." His friend replied: "Not even a penny!" It was obvious that in their marriage traditions a scholar is paid to attend the marriage, while in our tradition sheikhs attend marriages and get nothing in return.
If one does not believe in the afterlife he will. How could someone give his soul, his life and all of his money for nothing in return, and seek Allah's mercy in the afterlife only? If it was not for the afterlife, no one would pay a single pound! Donation, sacrifice and devotion cannot exist without believing in Allah and the Last Day.
I invoke Allah that you take the Last Day into account. Before you ask to be rewarded for what you did, look at what Allah saves for you on the Resurrection Day. The believer is virtuous.
A Muslim doesn’t ask anyone but Allah:
A father of a venerable brother was in an intense dispute with his uncles. They asked me to interfere so I might succeed to bring them together again. We met several times. It was about trade, disputes, changing prices, a careless brother, big losses, hostility, separation… However, Allah allowed me to reconcile them though they were distant from religious gatherings. When everything was back to normal again, one of them asked me: "How much you want, sir?" I never felt as much offended as I felt that day. I am not a lawyer or a judge. I am a sheikh and I did what I did for Allah's sake.If you cling to the afterlife and never wait to be rewarded by people like you, you feel as if you are rich. Hundred of brother refuse that I talk about their deeds, and when I praise them they suffer a lot as if I have denounced them. They wish to keep their deed between Allah and them. This is what faithfulness is all about.
There are people who silently give whether precious or cheap. The higher one's belief in the afterlife, the less one cares about reputation. One does not want praise or thanks, and does not want that you mention his beneficence. He is content with Allah's satisfaction.
Dear brother… if you truly believe in afterlife, you will donate and wait for no praise or thanks or honor. You just seek nothing.
﴾We only feed you for Allah's sake; we desire from you neither reward nor thanks﴿
Prophet Ibrahim and purifying Allah's House:
A fellow brother from Egypt was visiting. During the sermon, he felt the need to go to the bathroom. When the sermon was over, he said: "This is quite incredible! Is it possible that the washroom is cleaner than a house??!!!" I said: "These are two good men, very successful in their careers who come and impeccably clean the bathroom." "Would this be possible in a mosque?" he asked. I replied: "This is Allah's house and it must be a supreme model in everything. The one who does this is a very respectful and educated man who says "May Allah be well-pleased with me."I once visited a mosque where one of mosque’s rarest servants lived. Everything was so bright and clean. The carpets were washed every day with shampoo, the windows sparkled as if they were just mounted and everything was in order. He once told me: "I am doing this because of this verse:
﴾Purify My House for those who visit (it) and those who abide (in it) for devotion and those who bow down (and) those who prostrate themselves﴿
He passed away and I invoke Allah to grant him His mercy.
Since Allah honored Prophet Ibrahim with the purification of his House, this verse applies to all the mosque servants. From 20 to 30 young men come every Thursday to our mosque to clean the carpets and wash the windows with highly pleased and happy spirits. The cleanliness you all are enjoying in this mosque is the fruit of personal conjugated efforts that seek Allah's reward only.
O God! This is what I am able to do. One would clean, another would contribute with his knowledge, his service, his donation, his science. Every man would give something. When you truly believe in the Last Day, you rush in such an unimaginable way to give and donate.
Translation of lessons into actions:
Every one should give something. I know people who have been coming here for 25 years and never missed a lesson, but I wish they gave something, even a simple straw! One may say: "What a wonderful lesson, sir!" So??? What is the worth of praise if it is not transformed into work? What is the worth of a meaningful lesson is it is not translated into a meaningful work afterward? This lesson has no value if it is not transformed into work. It obtains its real value only when it is transformed into work. I deeply wish that your belief in the Last Day grows so that you see all profit, all benefit, all intelligence and all superiority in giving. A Muslim society is built with giving. This town is blessed, but we need the awakening to be guided with the Quran and the Sunnah.Allah accepts only sound and clean hearts:
I truly hope that every one of you will do a sincere work to put between Allah's hands.Abou Huraira said: Allah says in the Sacred Hadith:
((I am the farthest associate from polytheism. He who does a work that he associated some one else with me in, I will leave him with his polytheism.))
I do not accept an associated heart. I do not accept an associated work. One would say: "I serve people a lot." Why? "Because I like to plant in every place some one to serve me." This way you have no reward in afterlife. It might be a smart behavior, but it is about a beneficial principle that, in Allah's calculations, has absolutely no value. When you make a favor to someone seeking Allah's satisfaction, and never react even if the person you helped hurts you; when you say "God, I am doing him this favor for your sake only and wait to be rewarded by you", only such a deed is acceptable to Allah.The good deed is the believer's real value:
﴾and the good deeds, lift him up﴿
The good deed lifts you up. He who seeks a deed for Allah's sake only, let him do it between him and Allah. For instance if someone prays at night and never tells anyone about it, would Satan (Shaitan) be able to say: "You are a hypocrite!" Never! If someone gives charity and never speaks about it, would Satan (Shaitan) be able to say: "You are hypocrite!" Never!
If your fear for yourself make it secretly. If you want to be a model for the sh3er, there is no harm in it. If you spend all of your time in serving Allah's servants, Allah will grant you an unlimited gift at death. I would even say I starts after death.
