As-salamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Welcome back to the Faith Revival. So this
hadith comes in the form of a father speaking to his son, which makes it very powerful. This is the famous companion Ubadah ibn Samit radiyaAllahu ta'ala. Ubadah, as he was passing
away, he says to his son, Ya bunayya, O my dear son, innaka lantajida ta'ma haqeeqat
al-iman. You will not taste the reality of faith. You will not be able to taste the reality of faith. Hatta ta'lama annama asabaka lam yakun yukhtiak. Until you understand that
that which has come to you was not meant to have missed you. Wa annama akhtaak lam yakun yusiibak. And that which missed you was not meant to have come to you. And he says to
him, Ya bunayya, O my dear son, I heard the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam say, inna awwala ma khalaqa Allah al-qalam. The first thing that Allah created was the pen. Fa qala
lahu uktub. So Allah said to the pen, write. Qala rabbi wamaatha aktub. And so the pen said, O my Lord, what should I write? So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said, uktub maqadira kulla
shay' hatta taqooma as-saAAa. Write the decree of everything until the day of judgment is established. Ya bunayya, inni sama'tu rasoolAllahi sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam yaqul. O my son,
I heard the Prophet sallAllahu alayhi wa sallam say, man mata ala ghayri hadha falaysa minni. Whoever dies with an understanding other than this understanding is not from me. Meaning
is not of my followers and not of this religion in the true sense. This hadith is so profound. You will not taste the reality of faith. What does that mean? It is so easy to talk about
faith when you're not in hardship. It is so easy to talk about what should work and what shouldn't work, but your faith is really put to the test, your iman really is put to the
test when you get hit with something of divine decree that you were not expecting. Something comes to you of divine decree that you were not expecting and that's where all of that
building up of iman is supposed to hold and take root when something comes at you and respond to the test and respond to the trial. Ibn Abbas says, whoever establishes their
belief in divine decree has established their belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and whoever destroys it would destroy their belief in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. It all goes back
to that firm belief. Now notice here that Ubadah radiyaAllahu anhu is saying to his son it starts with knowledge. If you want the reality of faith you have to at least
have the intellectual understanding. Spiritually you might bend a little bit when something happens and hopefully not break. You might have a hard time with sabr, with patience when something comes to you that would test your faith. But at least intellectually first
and foremost you have the ilm, you have the knowledge that what has come to me was not meant to have missed me. You know why? Because how do people end up letting shaytan into
their lives? The prophet sallAllahu alayhi wasallam said never say the word law if. Why? Because he said that opens, kalimat law, if you say the word if it opens all of the doors
of shaytan. Shaytan now has so many entrances because the word if opens so many possibilities. If I would have done this, if this would have happened, if such and such happened, if that
happened. You're not going to have any time to let your iman take root in Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala if you're constantly questioning well if this happened and that happened. The point is Ubadah radiyaAllahu anhu is saying to his son come back to the realization that
if you did that and if you did that and if you did that this still would have happened to you. You still would have been in the same situation and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala never
lost control of the situation. Your iman has to be able to take root in that and you have to find comfort in that understanding. And Ubadah is not saying you're going to taste
the sweetness of faith. He said you will not even begin to taste the reality of faith until you come to that understanding first. You have to come to that understanding that the
circumstances are beyond my control. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has obligated me to do certain things but circumstances are beyond my control. If you have that understanding
then iman settles in the heart and you're able to taste the sweetness of the fruits of that iman so long as you come to that understanding. Things happen and this would not have missed
me and this would not have come to me. All of this is planned and all of this is in Al-Lawh Al-Mahfood. All of this has already been written by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. I'm comforted in knowing
that I do not know what the next page contains but that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not allow me to escape from his knowledge or from his mercy subhanahu wa ta'ala. May Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala allow us to taste the reality of iman. Allahumma ameen. See you all next time inshaAllah. Asalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. For more information visit www.fema.org
