As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh everyone. Welcome back to the Faith Revival. So last time we talked about this idea of realizing the sweetness of faith. But how
do I even begin to get there? And the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam recognizes that there's a spectrum, that it takes time to get there, but a person has to actively practice certain things before they get there. So there are many hadith where the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam will say, لا يؤمن أحدكم حتى. No one of you believes until. And the translation is not that you don't believe as in you're a disbeliever until such and such happens, but that you don't truly believe until such and such happens. The most
famous one, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says, لا يؤمن أحدكم. No one of you truly believes until you love for your brother what you love for yourself. Because now you are putting the love of Allah above the love of possession and the love of circumstances
in this world. And it's either the love of Allah that leads you to take care of your brother or loving your brother for Allah that leads you to take care of him. So from the sweetness of Iman that we talked about last week, two of those things come into the equation.
He salallahu alayhi wa sallam, no one of you truly believes until I become more beloved to him than his wealth, his family and so on and so forth. So again this is when you reach that elevated level of Iman. But how do I even begin to get there, especially when
it comes to theology, especially when it comes to my aqeedah, my creed. Listen to this ayah in Surah An-Nisa. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ
I swear by your Lord, O Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam, they do not truly believe حَتَّى يُحَكِّمُكَ فِي مَا شَجَرَ بَيْنَهُمْ until they make you the judge of all of their affairs.
So it starts intellectually. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam's sunnah is what governs the interpretation of the Qur'an. It's what governs all of our affairs. When I try to
find an interpretation of the Qur'an that's going to settle well with my current context, I will not resort to anything without first going to the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, the tradition of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, orthodoxy to find
my solution. Theologically I'm willing to settle on that. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is our judge. We take it back to him salallahu alayhi wa sallam when we have any difference, when we have anything there. But what if going back to the sunnah of the
Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam makes us uncomfortable? It's difficult. So we feel like we need to escape this interpretation for our current context. Rather than maybe
some things don't apply in our context, we feel like we have to escape from it so that we can feel better about it. What does Allah say next? ثُمَّ لَا يَجِدُوا فِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَرَجًا مِّنَّا قَضَيْتُ
The next level is not just intellectual, it's that they make peace with the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam. They make peace with his judgement alayhi salatu wa
salam. So they are able to resolve, they don't find resistance inside themselves, internally when the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is put forth. There are elements of your faith that you are not going to be able to practice in your context. But you
should make peace with all of them to be able to say that Allah and his messenger do not wrong. Allah and his messenger alayhi salatu wa salam, everything that has been legislated
through those two means of divine revelation, either the Quran or the sunnah of the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, all of it is just, all of it is merciful, all of it is moral. Even if my current context does not consider it as such and even if I'm never going to
practice any of these things, that all of this comes from a place of morality and goodness and I don't find that resistance inside of me. So I move from the intellectual to the
breaking that resistance. I'm willing to make peace with all elements of my faith, but then look what Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says next, وَيُسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيمًا
And they submit themselves then, willingly. Now I go to a place of sakinah. By understanding and contextualizing everything about my faith, by learning more about the Prophet salallahu
alayhi wa sallam, by learning seerah with sunnah, his biography with the things that come from it, by learning tafsir, the methodology of tafsir, the interpretation of the Quran and everything that comes from it, by building myself intellectually and humbling myself
internally, I now come to a place where not only am I not finding resistance internally to elements of my faith, I am finding myself submitting to this faith with a full willingness
and embrace. I don't find any resistance, I am proud of the Quran and the sunnah, I feel enriched by the Quran and the sunnah. The Quran and the sunnah puts my heart to
ease. So you go through intellectual, resolving internally, or resolving any disputes you might have with the faith to going to a place where you're satisfied with it, and that's where a person starts to taste the sweetness of faith and they actually realize the true
reality of faith. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be of that last category and may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us on the way in that journey of faith when we feel that resistance and allow us to overcome that resistance. Allahumma ameen. JazakumAllahu
khayran. See you all next time. InshaAllah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
