Guidebook to God
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Ep. 1: The Beauty of Faith | Guidebook to God
Many of us wish to increase our iman, our faith, and become better believers. Iman is something that begins in our hearts, but what exactly is it? How is it different from islam and ihsan? Sh. Ibrahim describes these three beautiful components of faith.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. The beauty of faith is that it's involved in every aspect of a Muslim's life. You and I as people who have come to hold Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala in such high regard, to be praising him, loving him, fearing him, hoping in his mercy, in particular, loving him for sending us al-Nabiyya al-Ummi, the final messenger, Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wasalam, who was sent as a correction to all of our affairs in this life. Beauty of faith is an internal concept. It's something that begins inside, but it's also something that manifests on the outside. Al-Imam, the great Imam al-Hasan al-Basri, he famously said, very early on, he lived in the time right after the Sahaba. So he was a student of the Sahaba, lived amongst them. He is from the heads of the Tabi'een. He was famously quoted in saying, لَيْسَ الْإِمَانُ بِالْتَمَنِّي وَلَا بِالْتَحَلِّي وَلَكِنَّ الْإِمَانَ مَا وَقَرَ فِي الْقَلْبِ وَصَدَّقَهُ الْعَمَلِ Iman is not something that you just simply wish for. It's not just something you say, I wish I was a better believer. I wish I had greater amounts of faith in my heart. Rather, Iman is something that is believed in the heart, held in the heart, but the actions of the body confirm it. And therefore, it becomes important for us as believers to kind of think about what it is that we seek of our faith in Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. What is it that we seek to instill our habits, our characteristics, to embellish the better things that we have going in our life, and to limit some of the negative things that we know have and should have no place in our life? The beauty of faith, of course, is rooted
in the tradition and the sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. In fact, the majority of the Qur'an, a third of the Qur'an was sent to tell us about who is Allah and to tell us about the things that we would not know had he not shared it with us through the message given to our Nabi Muhammad ﷺ. Two thirds of the Qur'an are about the things we believe in, the things that are present today, the things of the future to come, and the things that we were told about from the past. They are the things about the unseen world, things that relate to our faith and fate and qadr and predestiny and ordainment. One third of the Qur'an, of course, is about our relationship with Allah through our dealings with each other. And therefore, the shara'ah of Islam, the laws and the typical way of dealing our existence with each other as human beings is very limited in comparison to the issues that seek to embellish and increase our faith. So let's begin to analyze this word, Iman and the beauty of Iman. The Prophet ﷺ, as he was sitting one day amongst the sahaba, entered upon them a man and we begin by studying the hadith of Jibreel. This hadith is referred to as the hadith of Jibreel who came in the form of a human being. He was dressed in very, very white clothes, dark hair, dark beard, and he entered upon the Prophet ﷺ and the sahaba, wa laa ya'rifuhu ahad. And this is the riwayah of Umar al-Mukhatabit, actually the very first hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim. And as he entered, none of the sahaba knew who this man was. But they could see laa yuraa alayhi atharu al-safar. He wasn't a person who traveled a great distance. So he asked the Prophet ﷺ after entering, sitting next to him, that his hands were on his thighs, sitting knee to knee right in front of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. What is Islam? And what is Iman? And what is Ihsan? And those three elements are the three aspects of faith
in its totality. Now one of the important principles that you and I need to understand is that the word Islam and Iman and Ihsan, when they are used separately, they all mean the same thing. But when they are used in the same sentence, in the same hadith, in the same ayah, Allah wants us to pay attention to each of the separate meanings that clarify the issue more. You'll come to know that as a part of our submission to Allah, our Islam or surrender to Allah, that's really the technical definition of Islam, is that you've given yourself over in submission, in surrender to Allah ﷻ. It's all a physical manifestation of your life. They are physical things that you have to say, ashhadu alla ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah. It's a physical performance of the salah, the movement of standing, qiyam and ruku and sujood. It is a physical reading of the Qur'an in my prayers and at-tahiyyatu lillah. It is the physical aspect of siyam, of abstinence from food, from drink, from my lustful leanings towards my spouse. It's being determined to give physically from my zakah and my wealth. I can't pay zakah in kind or in duty to other people. It's actually a physical sharing of wealth with others. It is also the physicality of performing the hajj, mashallah, may Allah allow us to return to the plains of Arafah and those who haven't been, that Allah carries them there, Allahumma ameen, before they return to Him. Islam is very physical in its nature. Iman, however, is the second stage and it's almost as if you go from Islam, from doing things outwardly, that now it begins to change you inwardly. Iman is the next stage where it is now about your rationale and mind, that you begin to use your mind to draw you closer to Allah. So al-iman an tu'min, that you believe
in Allah, wa mala'ikatihi, wa kutubihi, wa rusulihi, wa al-yawm al-akhir, wa al-qadar, khayrihi wa shurrih, that you believe in Allah, in all that surrounds Allah that is meant to be believed in Allah, the power of Allah, the nearness of Allah, the observance of Allah, that Allah is a part of our existence although separate from it, ba'inun min khalqih, but His knowledge and His power and His sight and His qudrah and His ability is very much a part of my life and your life. Number two is that we believe in the angels, that there are those who were sent as protectors for mankind, that there are those who were raqibun atid, recording the deeds of humanity, that there are those who are created to worship Allah and nothing else. Number three is that we believe in the scripture, we believe in the messages that were sent before our Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. For you to believe in the Quran, you must believe in the original gospel of Isa Alayhi Salam. You must believe in the original Tawrah that was given to Musa, the original Psalms of Zabur that was given to Dawud Alayhi Salam. You must believe in the suhuf of Ibrahim, of Musa and all of the other scriptures that were given to prophets and messengers before our Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You must also accept all of the prophets of Allah, those we know of and those we don't know of. And you must have in your heart no regard or dislike for one more than the other. No adherence to one that you say, I'm not going to listen to anything that Jesus said, I'm only going to listen to Moses or Muhammad. Rather, as a believer, everything that was sent by Allah through all of the messengers of Allah comes from the same light, seeking the same purpose and its completion, tamaman alayhi, is the message of our Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. You believe in the accountability of the day of judgment. And you believe that there will be a day where you and I will stand before Allah, before the Almighty God and be asked about the small
and the large, the good and the bad, the halal and the haram, the sunnah and the bid'ah. That you believe that no sin will ever be hidden from Allah. You will never have power to escape Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. There is none of you except will stand before Allah are the words of the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. And finally, you believe in fate. You believe in qadr. And all of these are aspects that we will study throughout our series inshallah. But we believe in fate, that whatever good or whatever we perceive as bad is all from Allah. That nothing happens to us that Allah is not too powerful and you and too able to change for us. That nothing has occurred that is beyond the knowledge of Allah. That if all of humanity came to give me something that wasn't written for me, I would not receive it. And if all human beings, if all of the nations gathered to stop something written for me, that they can't stop it if it is written for me by Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. That that belief in Allah is what gives me salvation. And therefore, iman along with Islam are things that lead us to the final aspect, the completion of our faith, which is al-ihsan, which is the height of all faith. That even though we cannot see Allah, we know that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la sees us, observes us, knows us and is aware of our condition. When you put those three together, we total that up and we call that Ya ayyuhallatheena amanoo, O ye who have submitted in faith, O ye who have chosen to be believers, O ye who have come to accept the revelation to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. May Allah count us amongst them, join us in the highest heights of Jannatul Firdaus with our Nabi Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam and the prophets and the messengers who have come before him. Wa sallillahumma wasallim wa zid wa barik ala Sayyidina wa Habibina wa Nabiina Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, your brother Yahya Ibrahim.
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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