As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back to the Faith Revival. There's a concept in our religion of guidance, hidayah. We're always asking Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala for guidance every time we read Surah Al-Fatiha. But what comes first, iman or hidayah, faith or guidance? And if you think about it, you need to believe in the
equation in order to benefit from it. Every time Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions iman and hidayah, faith and guidance, in the Qur'an, in the same ayah, He mentions them in sequence
with faith coming first and then guidance. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions, يهديهم ربهم بإيمانهم. Allah guides them by their faith. So faith comes
before guidance. When a person has iman, when a person places their faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will give them guidance as a result of that. من يؤمن بالله يهدي قلبه.
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Qur'an, whoever believes in Allah, Allah guides his heart. The reason why this is so important to understand is that a lot of people say, where is the guidance in my life? I want Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to open this for me. I want Allah
to show me this way. I want Allah to show me that way. But you have to ask yourself, have you placed your faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala before you ask Him for that guidance? Have you submitted yourself to Him so that when He shows you that guidance, you're going
to actually dedicate yourself to those pathways of guidance. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tells us in the Qur'an, an ayah which we draw a dua from the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam, وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ حَبَّبَ إِلَيْكُمُ الْإِيمَانُ
And verily Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made faith beloved to you. وَزَيَّنَهُ فِي قُلُوبِكُمْ Not only did He settle it in your hearts, He beautified your hearts with iman وَكَرَّحْ إِلَيْكُمُ الْكُفْرَ وَالْفُسُوْقَ
وَالْعِصْيَانَ And He made hated to you disbelief and defiance and disobedience. Fusook being a greater category of sin than Isyan in this context. And Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala says, أُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْرَّاشِدُونَ And verily they are the ones who are guided. From this we take a dua. The Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam taught us to say, اللهم حبّب إلينا الإيمان Oh Allah make faith beloved to us. اللهم حبّب إلينا
الإيمان وزيّنه في قلوبنا And beautify it in our hearts وكرّح إلينا الكفر والفسوق والعصيان And make disbelief and defiance and disobedience
hated to us واجعلنا من الراشدين And make us amongst those who are guided. Now rushd is a very specific type of guidance. If you realize the Prophet salAllahu alayhi wa sallam called the khulafa, the caliphs that would come after him, the immediate ones,
الخلفاء الراشدين المهديين. So they are the guided, the rightly guided caliphs. Rushd is a very specific type of guidance that we can take after iman and hidayah.
Hidayah is to be guided intellectually, is to be guided in your path, to be guided in your ilm. Rushd is to be guided even in your amal, to be guided in your actions. So rushd
is actually a more intensive form of hidayah, a more intensified form of guidance. Meaning if a person puts their faith in Allah and submits themselves to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
and they ask Allah for guidance and they seek it from him, not just for salvation in the hereafter but Ya Allah allow me to do everything in this world that is beneficial to my faith that will benefit me and my guidance, then Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala would grant them
that. But are you willing, it goes back to us, is your heart willing to bear the steps that come with guidance? Is your heart actually willing to submit to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala
or are you just testing the waters? You have to be seriously committed for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to open those pathways for you. If we truly seek that faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, Allah surely will allow it to bear that fruit. So we end with the dua once again.
Allahumma habib ilayna al-iman, wa zayinhu fee qulubina, wa karrih ilayna al-kufra wa al-fusuqa wa al-usyan, wa ja'alna minal rashideen. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllahu khayran. I
will see you all next time inshaAllah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
