The Faith Revival
23 / 30
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu everyone. Welcome back to the Faith Revival. So we've really spoken about the impact of sin on faith, the impact of the pursuit of wealth and envy and stinginess and we've spoken about a lot of things. But what about good deeds that actually can hurt your iman? What does that mean? The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, Lan yashadu al-dini ahad. No one overburdens themselves with the religion. No one exaggerates or goes to extremes with the religion. Illa ghalaba. Except that the religion defeats him. That's powerful. The religion defeats you. The religion actually crushes your iman. What is the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam talking about? He says, Fassaddidu wa qaribu wa ghdu wa roohu. He says, so be moderate and proceed gradually. Wa ghdu wa roohu and worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the morning and between Asr and Maghrib. Wa shay'un min al-dulja wa al-qasda al-qasd tablughu. And a little bit in the last part of the night. And proceed moderately, moderately and you will reach your goal. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is telling us that sometimes the most detrimental thing to your iman is when you set unreasonable expectations for it. When you have this sudden burst, that catalyst that we spoke about a few episodes ago. You have that sudden burst and this want to just take it all on at once. I've been so far away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, now I need to grab everything. So I need to go from being this wicked transgressor, this sinner, to being a companion of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Like I need to get to that level tomorrow because I've done so much bad in my life, I need to jump into this. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam witnessed that in his life and he warned people from going to extremes with good deeds because it will crush your iman when you can't maintain that output. And there are many examples of that. You know every fundraiser in Ramadan,
of course it is the Yaqeen fundraiser so please donate to Yaqeen. Every fundraiser in Ramadan you'll see people quote Abu Bakr as-Siddiq radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhu. And they'll say that Abu Bakr gave all of his wealth for the sake of Allah. And Umar gave half of his wealth for the sake of Allah. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam praised Abu Bakr and Umar. However, what they won't tell you is that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam actually stopped other people from giving all of their wealth. Why? Because he recognized that that was unreasonable. So when people came to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and said I want to give it all for Allah, he said amsik alayk ba'ad al-maal, you should hold some of it for your family, you should not give it all up. They said Ya Rasulullah I want to give it all up. The very famous story in Surat Ali Imran, lantanaalul birru hatta tunfiqu mimma tuhibboon. You will not achieve Jannah or righteousness until you give of that which you love. Abu Talha comes to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and says I want to give my most beloved garden. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says ara anta ja'alaha fil aqrabeen. It's better if you leave it for your family or donate it to your relatives. Because he understood sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that these people might be depressed afterwards because they'd recognized that they went too far. Abu Bakr radiyaAllahu anhu on the other hand, his iman was secured. Likewise the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam allowed some people to fast more than others. There are companions that fasted every day. There are companions that fasted every single day except for the two Eids. He didn't allow that for other people because he knew that it was unreasonable, that the expectation was too much. So he tells Abdullah ibn Amr ibn As radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum that the best fasting is the fasting of Dawood alayhi salam. If you really want to fast, then he took him through the equation. First try Mondays and Thursdays. Try three days of the month. Okay you want more? Then don't go beyond fasting alternate days because he recognized Abdullah ibn Amr was too overzealous and he was too young and he was trying to do it all at once.
Trying to pray all night. I want to pray all night long Ya Rasulullah. I don't want to wait until the last third of the night to start praying. And what did the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tell him? He said Ya Abdullah, he said listen to me, Oh Abdullah, la takun ka rajul kana yaqoomu alayl fatarak. Don't be that guy that comes later on in life and says I remember when I used to pray qiyam al layl and then he just abandoned it all together because it became too burdensome because the bar he set was way too high. And so people need to understand that I need to set short term goals and long term goals. Long term we all have something to strive for. We will never surpass the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and his companions. So long term I want to get here. Short term I can't go from not reading Quran at all to reading the Quran three times a month. I need to start somewhere. I can't go from not praying my five prayers on time to praying all night long or to saying that I'm going to pray qiyam al layl every night. Start with your five prayers. I can't go from barely fasting Ramadan to trying to fast every other day. Going straight to the fasting of Dawood alayhi salam. If you set unrealistic goals for your faith you will feel defeated when you're unable to meet those goals. So what do you have to do? You have to set goals that you can achieve inshaAllah. Once you achieve these goals in baby steps then you build on them inshaAllah ta'ala. You don't start with these lofty goals, you build on them. And there is a methodology that Imam al-Ghazali says with our faith that's very profound. He says that you leave sin immediately. You don't gradually get off of a sin. Once you recognize you're sinning you immediately cut it out of your life because if you leave it in any capacity or any proportion it's only a matter of time before you dive into it all together. But you build good deeds gradually. So rapidly detach from sin, slowly and gradually attach to good habits and good practices to build your iman. Otherwise you will fall short because you're going to feel like you're not sufficient. And if you set
a goal for yourself and you're not able to meet that goal then readjust the expectation and readjust the goal. Don't give it up all together. So if you say from now on I'm going to pray qiyam al-layl two times a week and you're finding it too difficult, don't say well I tried doing qiyam al-layl and it didn't work. Then do one time a week inshaAllah ta'ala. If you said from now on I'm going to read this many pages of Qur'an and it didn't work, cut it in half inshaAllah. But keep on going. Don't detach from it all together. Otherwise again it will be a depression of faith. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to proceed with moderation towards Him and not be overburdened by a religion that is meant to provide ease and tranquility to our hearts. Allahuma ameen. See you all next time inshaAllah. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.
Welcome back!
Bookmark content
Download resources easily
Manage your donations
Track your spiritual growth
1 items
1 items
1 items
25 items
50 items
9 items
