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Ep. 6: The Armour of Piety | Guidebook to God
What exactly is taqwa, God-consciousness, and how do we attain it? Today’s content is all about this beautiful quality.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Taqwa, piety of heart, piety of purpose and action. Taqwa is defined as taking the means, doing the things that will protect you from the punishment and anger of Allah. It's wiqayah. It is a shield. يَسْتَجِنُ الْعَبْدُ بِهَا مِنَ النَّارِ It is a shield and an armor that you put on in your life that protects you from the punishment of Allah. وَلِبَاسُ التَّقْوَى خَيْرُ The armor and the clothing of piety, that is where you will find your goodness. I want to talk to you a little bit about Qad consciousness, awareness of Allah. Taqwa is one of those things that is easy to say but difficult to do. It is one of the eternal commands of Allah. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا التَّقُوا اللَّهِ Be mindful of Allah. Be conscious of Allah. Be aware of Allah. Be fearing of Allah. Be loving of Allah. Be hoping in Allah's mercy. The great imams, al-Imam ibn al-Qayyim for example, he describes taqwa as being having equal measure of الحب والرجاء والخوف. It is having equal measure of three important aspects of your life. Love of God, fear of God, but hope in the mercy of Allah in this life and the next. Khalq ibn Habib, he gives another explanation. Some of the ulama say that this is the most precise definition of taqwa. He says, أن تعمل بطاعة الله على نور من الله ترجو ثواب الله It is that you do your best to obey God using the light that was sent down to us by Him through the Prophet ﷺ and the messengers of God of the past, hoping that it will be accepted and you will be rewarded for your deeds.
و هي أن تترك معصية الله It equally means that you abandon, turn away from and stop committing sins على نور من الله because you are enlightened by the path of God ترجو تخشى عقاب الله fearful of the punishment of Allah. Another important definition is provided to us by Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه. And in the authentic hadith we know that the Prophet said to Umar, التقوى هاهنا Umar, taqwa is in here and the Prophet struck him in the chest. He touched his chest and he said, taqwa begins in the heart. It's between you and God. It's a privacy that you have with Allah. It's a privacy that you have in your dealings, in your thoughts, in your behaviors, in your assumptions, in your good intentions and hope that you have for Allah. It's the love you have in the heart. It's the fear that anguishes you, but it's also the hope and the mercy of Allah سبحانه و تعالى. In another explanation given in the sahih, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is asked to describe taqwa and Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه conveys this when he's asked by Abu Huraira, what is taqwa and how does it show and manifest itself? He says أتركت ذا طريق ذا شوك في يوم من الأيام. He asked, have you ever walked down a path that was full of things that could injure your feet? Back then, it was easier to walk barefoot in certain places. Have you ever walked in a place where there were thorns or things that would cut up your feet and jagged rock? And they said, yes, yes, we've all experienced that. You're standing in your kitchen, you dropped a glass in the darkness of the night, in the middle of the night you went to get a drink and there's glass everywhere and you don't have your slippers. ماذا صنعت؟ What did you do when you were in a place of danger such as this? He said تفقعت الطريق, I looked down at where I was going to put my feet. I stepped gingerly. Every step I took was measured.
Every ounce of my energy, my hearing, my sight, I tried to observe everything around me. And if I needed help, I asked for someone, bring me some slippers, bring a broom. I asked to protect myself. So the Prophet ﷺ had demonstrated this to Umar, he hit him in the chest and he said ذاك الطقوة. That is consciousness of God. That is mindfulness of Allah. That you live each and every day in your life taking small steps, being careful where you put your footsteps, being careful how you live your life. You don't make big moves without studying it, thinking about it, calculating it. You don't invest until you're sure it's halal. You don't pull out and wonder is this right or wrong. You don't speak about others without being sure what you're saying is correct. You don't give opportunity to other people to slander or gossip or hold words of contempt to others to you at the expense of other people. You're a person of substance, of taqwa, of consciousness and mindfulness of Allah. What are the things that awaken taqwa in my life and your life? Well first and most important is to know that there's a punishment in this life and in the next life for those who take liberty with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Those who take liberty with other people. To fear the genuineness of the difficulties that we can bring ourselves in if we live a godless life. A life that is lacking of taqwa, lacking of consciousness of Allah. Number two, to have hope in the next life as much as we seek hope for this life. To look towards the next day and to know that whatever we miss out in this life will never be missed out entirely. And that whatever we missed in this life was never meant to be for us. To know that there is a greater purpose and design for our existence. To have hope and reward in the next life even if we are not as complete in pleasure in this life. To fear the day of judgment. To fear nu'iddu lissu'ali jawaba.
To have an answer to the question that will be put for us on the day of judgment. Why did you do this? In the authentic hadith the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam says that Allah will ask and he will say ya abdi atadhkuru yawma katha wa katha. Oh servant of mine, oh slave of mine, do you remember such and such a day? Annaka faalta katha wa katha. That you did this and this and this. Fayuqirru alabdu. You will say yes oh Allah I do remember. And may Allah make us of those who the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam said that there will be some believers who Allah will say to them qadsatartuha alayka fid dunya wal yawm aghfiruha lak. On the day in your life, on those days I hid it from other people judging you and seeing you and holding you in contempt and today I forgive it for you on account of the genuineness of your heart. The things that increase our taqwa with Allah are being shy of Allah. Having a sense of haya, having a sense of shyness and modesty between us and Allah. Knowing that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala raqeebun bil ibad. He is aware and a witness over us. That Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala laysa bi ghafil. He is not unaware. He is not turned away. He hasn't ignored us. ma ya'zubu anhum ithqala dharra. Not even the mustard seed or half of an atom's weight is beyond his understanding of us, his seeing of us, his knowledge of us subhanahu wa ta'ala. Some of the degrees of taqwa and as you understand that taqwa is of different levels. All of us we begin on the taqwa of Islam. The taqwa of Islam where we protect ourselves from Allah by being people who say la ilaha illallah muhammadun rasulullah. The second level of taqwa is al amal as-salih. The second level you go up from just belief into the practice of Islam. You begin to do your prayers. You begin to do that which is right. That next degree of taqwa is you begin to live a good life.
The next degree is not just I do the good things but now I abstain and I work hard to turn away from the disobedience of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And I turn away from the muharramat. The next degree it's not just that I believe in Allah and I practice what's right and I turn away from what's wrong but now I begin to do what is recommended. Number four I begin to do the sunan. I begin to do the mustahab. I begin to do the things that are recommended. The degree above that is now I begin to stay away not just from the haram but I seek to stay away from the things that are makrooh, things that are doubtful, things that can erode me and bring me closer to the haram even though I'm not yet in it. And then a degree above that is now I begin to invite others to come and join me in the good and I invite others to stay away from the evil. And finally of the things that increase our level of taqwa is that I put myself in a place where I even question the permissible times in my life where it's not about halal or haram. It's not about sunnah or bid'ah. It's not about mustahab or makrooh. It's something that is entirely permissible. I begin to think can I change this to making it desirable or to making it something pleasurable that a person of taqwa when they begin to eat their food and they say bismillah and they ingest it they say alhamdulillah for Allah giving me this food it will give me strength to pray in the night prayers. So now that very permissible act of just simply eating or having a cup of coffee that it becomes a means of the worship of Allah. So that is a level of taqwa that we all seek. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to give us insight into our inner workings of life to lead us towards the path of righteousness and to make us from those who are determined in our affairs. Wa sallillahumma wasallim wa zidwabarik ala sayyidina wa habibina wa nabiyyina Muhammad salallahu alayhi wasallam.
Your brother Yahya Ibrahim wasalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
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