Countless Blessings - Dr Ahsan Hanif

The Fluctuation of Iman — A Story from the Companions

Imam Muslim rahimahullah reports in his Sahih that one day Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu, the greatest of the companions of our Prophet ﷺ, was once walking in the street. And he came across another companion by the name of Hanzala. And when he looked at this companion by the name of Hanzala, he saw from his facial features, from the way that he looked, that he was anxious and worried — there was something wrong.

The companions radiyallahu anhum were people who loved one another, and they cared for one another. And when they saw that someone from amongst the community was in difficulty, going through some issues or problems, they wouldn't just walk away and ignore them. They would go and try to help and ask out of concern for them. And so Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu, when he saw Hanzala, he said, "Oh Hanzala, what's wrong?"

Hanzala replied and he said, "Nāfaqa Hanzala" — Hanzala has committed hypocrisy. This is the companion of the Prophet ﷺ saying that I have committed hypocrisy, nifaq. And so Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu said to him, "Oh Hanzala, why have you committed hypocrisy? What have you done that has caused you to commit hypocrisy?"

Hanzala replied and he said, "Oh Abu Bakr, when I meet the Prophet ﷺ and am in his company, and he reminds us of death and the akhirah, and he reminds us of jannah and naar, as if we can see them in front of our own eyes — then my iman is extremely strong, and I find that I am connected to Allah. But then I leave the Prophet ﷺ and I go home. I go to my family, my wife, my children, my business, my job — I go back to the dunya. And no longer do I feel that type of strong iman. My iman weakens. And because of this fluctuating state of iman, I feel that I have committed hypocrisy."

Abu Bakr radiyallahu anhu — who is the greatest, most illustrious companion of the Prophet ﷺ, and the most beloved companion to the Prophet ﷺ — when he heard Hanzala radiyallahu anhu say what he said, he replied and he said, "Oh Hanzala, by Allah I feel exactly the way you feel. What you say, what you're experiencing — I go through exactly the same thing. So let us go to the Prophet ﷺ and ask him concerning this."

So both of them, Abu Bakr and Hanzala, sought out the Prophet ﷺ. And as they were approaching the Prophet ﷺ, he also saw — by looking at Hanzala and at his face — that something was worrying him. So he said to Hanzala, "What's wrong, Oh Hanzala?" And Hanzala replied, "Nāfaqa Hanzala, Ya Rasulallah" — Oh Messenger of Allah, I have committed hypocrisy. The Prophet ﷺ asked him why, and Hanzala went through that same story again — that same reasoning that he just gave to Abu Bakr.

"Oh Messenger of Allah, when I'm in your company and you remind us of Jannah and Naar as if we can see them, my iman is extremely strong. But when I leave, when I go back to my family, and my business, and my job, my iman becomes weak. And so because of this — sometimes strong iman, sometimes weak iman — I fear that I have committed hypocrisy."

The Prophet ﷺ — the most kind, generous, merciful person that Allah has ever created — knowing the state of his ummah, knowing the problems and the issues that they are faced with, knowing the difficulties that they experience — said to Hanzala and Abu Bakr, and by extension to us, to me and you:

"By the one in whose hand is my soul — if you were to always be in that state of strong iman, then the angels themselves would descend from the heavens and come and greet you and shake your hands in your houses, and on your mattresses, and in the streets. But oh Hanzala, sa'atun wa sa'a — there is a time for this, and there is a time for that."
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2750)

Iman Fluctuates — This is Our Reality

This beautiful hadith of our Prophet ﷺ brings to light an issue that all of us experience. If people like Abu Bakr and Hanzala, and the companions of the Prophet ﷺ, experienced these issues whereby there were times in their lives when their iman would become weak — then what about me and you? They were there at the time of revelation. They lived with the Prophet ﷺ. They heard its recitation from his lips. They prayed in congregation behind the Prophet ﷺ. They performed jihad with him, and they made hajj with him, and they fasted the month of Ramadan with him. Yet even they could have weak iman.

So what the Prophet ﷺ advised them and advised us is that there are times in which this will happen. Iman fluctuates. Iman at times is strong, and at other times it becomes weak.

There are people here today sitting in this congregation, in this masjid, who even on this blessed day of Jumu'ah, this blessed day of Friday, before they came to the masjid — when they woke up this morning — they found that they were disconnected from Allah. Their iman was weak. They didn't feel in their hearts that they had a strong attachment to Allah. And this is a reality that we all face and experience.

If you were to think back to the time of Ramadan last year, or you were to think back of that time — perhaps if you went for umrah or for hajj — the type of iman that you experienced during those seasons, at those times and in those places — no longer perhaps do you feel that way sitting here today. And so iman becomes weak.

So the question, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, is not whether your iman at times will become weak, because we know that the companions also felt that type of weakness. And by the way, the weak state of iman that the companions felt is probably the heights of iman for us. Yet still, even for them, they had this fluctuating state.

So the question that we need to really address is: during those times of weakness, when our iman does become weak, when we feel that we're detached from Allah, when we feel that we're not connected to the Qur'an and the speech of Allah, when we come and we pray in congregation with thousands of other Muslims surrounding us — yet still our heart is still hard, we don't feel that it softens, we don't feel that we've come closer to Allah — that is a problem that we have to address. That is our iman calling out for help. We need to do something to increase and boost our iman.

The Hadith of Three: Tasting the Sweetness of Iman

It is for that reason that I want to, inshallah, analyze a hadith today. And there are many, many ways that you can increase your iman — every act of good, every act of worship to Allah is a means of increasing your iman. But I want to focus on a single hadith in this khutbah. That is a hadith narrated by Anas ibn Malik radiyallahu anhu, collected in Sahih Muslim, that our Prophet ﷺ said:

"Three things — if you have them and you achieve them, then you will taste the sweetness of iman."
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 43; Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 16)

I've chosen this hadith because of this wording — that you will taste the sweetness of iman. My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, there is a sweetness to iman that once you taste, you will never ever want to leave having that taste ever again. And it is not something which you taste in your mouth. It's not like fruit or food or something that you place in your mouth. The sweetness of iman is something that you feel in your heart — contentment, peace, tranquility, that feeling of being attached to Allah, close to Allah. That is the sweetness of iman.

And the Prophet ﷺ said that iman has a sweetness. Why? Because Allah in the Qur'an, when He speaks about tawheed, He describes it as a tree. And a tree — one of the greatest benefits of a tree is the sweet fruit that you take from that tree.

"Have you not considered how Allah presents an example — a good word like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed and its branches are high in the sky, producing its fruit every season by permission of its Lord."

Indeed, from the parables that Allah has placed forth for us is that the example of the goodly word — what is the good statement? لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ — the example of that statement is like the example of a good tree. A good, blessed tree. A tree that has its roots firmly in the ground and its branches spread out far into the sky. It gives its fruits in every single season.

That is the example that Allah has given for iman and for tawheed — that it is like a tree that doesn't just come into harvest once a year, or perhaps once every two years. Iman — true iman — is something which you can plug into at all times. It is something which you taste the sweetness of at all times.

And that's why Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah rahimahullah said that indeed in this world there is a heaven — just as in the next life, in the akhirah, there is a heaven. And in order for you to enter into that jannah of the hereafter, you must first enter into the jannah of this world. What is this jannah, this heaven, this garden and paradise that he is referring to? It is tasting that sweetness of iman. It is coming closer to Allah by worshipping Him and doing acts of goodness.

And that's why the scholars of the past would say that what we have in our hearts — if the rulers and the powerful and the rich people knew what we had in our hearts, they would kill us for it. Because it's more valuable than all of the wealth and money that they have. It's more valuable than all of the power that they have, all of the land that they possess, all of the prestige and fame that they have. It's much more valuable, much more precious than all of that.

Why? Because what the scholars had in their hearts was strong iman. They tasted the sweetness of iman. They had tranquility and peace and comfort. And these things only come from Allah. It's not something which you can buy, not something which you inherit, not something which you download, not something which you qualify for. It is something which Allah gives as a gift and an honor and a blessing. But there are things that we can do in order to achieve those things, in order to come closer to attaining those gifts from Allah. And that is what the Prophet ﷺ was focusing on in this hadith.

The First: Love of Allah and His Messenger Above All Else

The first thing: an yakūnallāhu wa rasūluhu ahabba ilayhi mimmā siwāhumā — the first thing is that Allah and His Messenger ﷺ should be more beloved to you than anything and everything else.

And this is something which we all know is a part of our religion — that we love Allah more than everything else, we love the Prophet ﷺ more than everything else. And even though this is something which we know and inshallah to some extent we have this type of love within our hearts, all of us fall short of the mark. Because to truly love the Prophet ﷺ and to truly love Allah is not just to make a claim upon your tongues. It's not just to say something when it feels like it's good to say it out loud. But what it means is that you put that into action. That in your heart there is nothing more beloved to you than Allah and His Prophet ﷺ. And you defend the honor of Allah and the honor of the Prophet ﷺ by defending their religion. That you implement the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ and the laws of Allah even when it goes against your desires.

And we all know that sometimes when you're practicing this religion — you want to worship Allah — shaytan comes and he whispers and he attacks you. The people around you look down upon you. People say stuff about you that probably isn't so pleasant. But that is from the sacrifice that you face. That is what the Prophet ﷺ taught his companions. That is why the reward of holding on to the path of Allah and His Prophet ﷺ is one of the greatest rewards that you can attain.

The Prophet ﷺ was once in a graveyard with his companions. And he was giving salams to the inhabitants of that graveyard. And then he said out loud, "I long to see my brothers. I long to meet my brothers." And so the companions were amazed by this statement. So they said, "O Messenger of Allah, are we not your brothers? We're here around you. Haven't you already met us and seen us?"

He said, "No. You are my companions. My brothers are those people who will come after me. They will not have seen me or met me. Yet still they will believe in me and they will follow me."

That is the description of being a brother of the Prophet ﷺ — of being a part of his ummah — that even though you never met him, you never saw him, you never sat with him, you never spoke to him, you still believe in him. And you still follow his sunnah. And you're still willing to give more precedence to him and his way over yourself and your parents and your children and everything else that you hold dear.

And the Prophet ﷺ knew and acknowledged that this would be difficult. It is difficult to wake up in the morning for Salatul Fajr. Difficult to fast in the month of Ramadan. Difficult to take money out of your pockets and spend it for the way of Allah. But you do it because you sacrifice these things knowing that that is what Allah wants, that is what the Prophet ﷺ instructed us to do.

And so the Prophet ﷺ in this hadith acknowledged the difficulty of this challenge. He said ﷺ that for one of those people — his brothers — for one of them to hold on to this religion will be like holding on to red hot coals. Red hot coals. And one of the reasons why this example is given here by the Prophet ﷺ is because when you take a red hot coal in your hand, then your natural inclination is to drop it — to let it go because it's painful holding such a thing in the palm of your hand. But to fight those desires, to fight that desire of wanting to let go — that is the example that the Prophet ﷺ is giving. That despite that difficulty, despite that hardship, you keep holding on to that red hot coal. Because that is what Allah wants, that is what the Prophet ﷺ wants.

Obviously this is a metaphorical example — but that's what it is. It's translated into our morning prayers when you wake up for fajr, or when you come for isha, or when you fast in the month of Ramadan, or you give sadaqa, or you save for years on end to make hajj once in a lifetime. All of those sacrifices for Allah and for His Prophet ﷺ.

And that's why you have the example of the companions radiyallahu anhum, who would come and they would sacrifice all of their wealth, they would sacrifice their families and their children and everything, just to protect the Prophet ﷺ.

The Example of Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah at Badr

Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah radiyallahu anhu, on the day of the battle of Badr — when he was in the ranks of the Muslim army — in the opposing ranks, the enemy lines, was his own father, fighting with the Quraysh. And on that battlefield, he had to fight his father on the day of Badr. He had to face him. Every time his father came, he would look for a way out — go right, go left — because it's his father. He doesn't want to face his father on the battlefield. But there came a time in the battle where he was trapped. He had to face his father. He couldn't move. And it was either him or his father. And so out of love for Allah and for the Prophet ﷺ — knowing that tawheed and iman is a far greater bond than the bond of blood and the bond of fatherhood — he took the life of his own father.

And Allah praises in the Qur'an:

"You will not find those people who believe in Allah and believe in the Last Day, that they love and ally themselves with those who have enmity and hatred and who oppose Allah and try to harm His Messenger ﷺ — even if those people be their fathers, their own sons, their own brothers, or their own family members."

That is the praise that Allah gave to Abu Ubaidah on that day of Badr. This is the sacrifice that they made. It wasn't just that they sat at home and were unable to do certain jobs, or sat at home and it was difficult for them to perform certain acts of worship. They performed actual sacrifice — sacrificing money, leaving their homes, leaving their loved ones, moving from one city to another. All of these trials that they had to go through out of love for Allah, out of love for the Prophet ﷺ.

And so when you have that type of love — that type of love for Allah and the Prophet ﷺ — even though people around you may not agree or may not like it, but you follow the Qur'an and the Sunnah. Even though your appearance may look different to the way that other people are around you. Even though you may have to do certain things that your friends don't approve of. But it doesn't matter. Because that is my sacrifice to Allah. That is my sacrifice to the Prophet ﷺ. That's what it means to love them more than anything and everything else. When you achieve that level and that state, then you have started to taste the sweetness of iman.

The Second: Loving Others Only for the Sake of Allah

The Prophet ﷺ continued on to the second of these three points — from the three things that will allow you to taste the sweetness of iman: that you love someone and you only love them for the sake of Allah. You love them only for the sake of Allah.

And these things, my dear brothers and sisters, are things that we're already doing. We already claim to love Allah and the Prophet ﷺ. We already have friends and brothers and sisters around us who we love for the sake of Allah. But is that love sincere? Is it only for the sake of Allah? Or is it because these are my friends that I grew up with — even if they're bad company for me? These are the people that I work with, so I hang around with them. These are the people that I grew up with or the people that are related to my family. I have some business dealings, I need to get some money from this person, so I need to make him my friend.

What is that love that is truly for the sake of Allah? The Prophet ﷺ gave that example in a hadith — when he said that from the past nations, there was a man who was traveling from one city to another. And on the way, Allah sent to him an angel in the form of a man. And the angel came to that man and said, "Where are you going?"

The man replied, "I'm going to such and such a city to see a brother of mine." The angel replied, "Is it because you have some business dealings? Perhaps he owes you some money, some type of debt?" He said, "No, not because of money." He said, "Is it because of marriage? You want to get married into his family?" He said, "No, not because of marriage." He said, "Then why? Why are you going all of this distance?" He said, "Only for the sake of Allah. Only because I love him for Allah."

So the angel replied and said, "I am an angel from your Lord that Allah has sent down to you. And Allah wants you to know that just as you love that man, Allah loves you. Just as you love him, Allah loves you." When it's untainted love. When it's not love that has been tainted with anything from the dunya. Only for the sake of Allah.

And this is the friendship that will last on Yawmul Qiyamah. When Allah says in the Qur'an:

"The best of friends on Yawmul Qiyamah will be enemies one to another — except for the Muttaqeen." Why? Because it is those Muttaqeen in this dunya — your friends — who love you only for the sake of Allah. They won't be shy or embarrassed when you don't offer your prayers to remind you to pray. They won't be shy or embarrassed in the month of Ramadan to encourage you to recite extra Qur'an. They won't be shy or embarrassed to tell you to give more in charity. They will do everything they can because of their love for you — for the sake of Allah — to ensure that you enter into Jannah. As opposed to those friends who will appease you, those friends who are scared that if they remind you of Allah, you'll become upset and won't speak to them anymore. True friends don't care about that. They care only for your well-being in the sight of Allah. That is the true friendship.

The Story of Abu Idrees al-Khawlani and Muadh ibn Jabal

Abu Idrees al-Khawlani rahimahullah said that he entered into the mosque in Damascus. And within that masjid he met the great companion Muadh ibn Jabal radiyallahu anhu. And he said to him, "Oh Muadh, I love you for the sake of Allah." Muadh looked at him and replied, "Allah! — take an oath by Allah — swear by Allah that you love me only for the sake of Allah." And he made him repeat this oath three times. And then he said, "Have glad tidings. For I heard the Prophet ﷺ say that Allah says in a hadith al-Qudsi:"

"My love is obligatory upon those who love one another for My sake, and those who sit with one another for My sake, and those who visit one another for My sake, and those who strive for one another for My sake."
(Muwatta Imam Malik, Book 51, Hadith 16; also referenced in Musnad Ahmad)

Four types of people upon whom Allah's love is obligatory — those who love one another for the sake of Allah, those who sit with one another for the sake of Allah, those who visit one another for the sake of Allah, and those who strive for one another for the sake of Allah. These are things that we already do — we already have friends that we love, friends that we visit, friends that we sit with, friends that we strive for. But the important point in this hadith is that it must be for the sake of Allah. Only for the sake of Allah.

And when you have that type of friendship, then even on Yawmul Qiyamah you will see the fruits of it. That will be a blessed friendship in this life and the next. And that's why the Prophet ﷺ, when he first came to Medina, was eager to pair up the companions — one from the Ansar, one from the Muhajireen — making a pact of brotherhood amongst them. That's why you have the examples of Abu Bakr and Umar and the way that they had that rivalry between them. Rivalry for what? Not for money, not for fame, not for power — only for the pleasure of Allah.

The Third: Hating to Return to Disbelief as You Hate the Fire

The third issue that the Prophet ﷺ mentioned to us in that hadith — from the three ways that you get to taste the sweetness of iman — the Prophet ﷺ said:

"That a person should dislike and hate that they should leave this religion after Allah saved them from disbelief, just as that person dislikes that Allah should throw them into the fire of hell."
(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 16; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 43)

Recognizing the Greatest Blessing: Iman

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, Allah has bestowed upon us so many blessings. And if you were to try to count and enumerate those blessings, it would be impossible for us to do so. If you were to just sit down and try to think of the blessings that Allah has placed just within your own body — your eyesight, your hearing, the fact that you have ten fingers, the fact that you can walk, the fact that you can talk, the fact that you have a brain — and that's before you even go into the heart, and the lungs, and the kidney, and the liver, and all of those functions. Even with modern science and technology, even with breakthroughs in medicine, we're still only able to fathom a very small percentage of the true miracle of the way that our body works — just the way that we breathe, just the way that oxygen and carbon dioxide work. And that's before you look around you at the other blessings that Allah has bestowed upon you — upon your family, your children, in terms of wealth and job and safety and security.

If you were to place all of these blessings in one scale, and then what you do in return in terms of worship and good and obedience to Allah in the other — you would find that you could never, never come to being grateful for those blessings of Allah.

And that's why the Prophet ﷺ said that from the people who will come on Yawm al-Qiyamah is a man who only spent his whole life in worship of Allah. All he did was ibadah. All he did was obey Allah. He will come on Yawm al-Qiyamah and say to Allah, "O Allah, on this day, I want to be held to account only for my good deeds. I don't want Your mercy, O Allah. I don't want Your forgiveness. Only hold me to account for the good that I did."

So Allah will place all of His blessings that He bestowed upon this man in one scale. And He will place his ibadah — his lifetime of worship — in the other scale. And it will be seen that all of his lifetime of worship is only equal to half the blessing of eyesight. Only half the blessing of eyesight — let alone hearing and speaking and all of those other things. So when this man will see that Allah's blessings are far greater than a lifetime of worship, he will say, "O Allah, rather Your mercy." And Allah through His mercy will enter him into Jannah.

Allah has placed upon us many blessings. But the greatest single blessing that Allah has bestowed upon us — far greater than all of those other things — is iman. The fact that you are a member of this ummah. The fact that you believe in Allah, that you accept the Qur'an as the speech of Allah, that you believe in the Prophet ﷺ — that blessing of being a part of this ummah, of being a Muslim, of having iman, is far greater than any other blessing.

How many billions of people have come from the time of Adam and will come until the end of time — it will only be a few from amongst them that Allah will have blessed with the greatest of blessings. The blessing of iman. The blessing of knowing Allah and worshipping Him alone. The blessing of following the shari'ah of the Prophet ﷺ.

But the irony in this is that even though this is the greatest blessing of Allah, it is the one that we most neglect. Even though it is the greatest favor, the greatest honor that Allah has bestowed upon us, it is the one that we neglect most. We often think about our sight, we think about our hearing — especially when someone around us falls ill, or we fall ill — we appreciate these types of blessings. If we go through a difficult financial period, we appreciate money and its value. But when do we appreciate the blessing of iman? When do we appreciate the blessing of the Qur'an? When do we appreciate the blessing of being part of the ummah of our Prophet ﷺ?

Conclusion: Work Towards the Sweetness of Iman

So my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, these three things are what we need to work on in order to taste that sweetness of iman. In order that when we go through those periods of time when our iman is weak, when we feel disconnected from Allah, we have the ability to strengthen our iman:

That we love Allah and His Prophet ﷺ more than anything and everything else. That we have people around us that we love, and we only love them for the sake of Allah. And that we dislike that Allah should take away from us this blessing of iman, just as we dislike that on Yawmul Qiyamah, Allah should throw us into the fire.

We ask Allah that He constantly gives us strong iman. And that He gives us the ability to increase our iman when it becomes weak. And that Allah makes us from amongst those people who will have His blessings in this life and the next. And that Allah enters us into the highest levels of paradise.

Indeed Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who have believed, send blessings upon him and peace.

O Allah, send blessings and peace upon Your servant and Messenger Muhammad. And be pleased with the rightly-guided Caliphs — the imams of guidance — Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. And with all the companions, the followers, and those who follow them with goodness until the Day of Recompense. And with them is Your generosity and grace, O Most Generous.

O Allah, forgive the Muslim men and the Muslim women, the believing men and the believing women — the living and the dead. O Allah, give our souls their righteousness and purify them. You are the best of those who purify them. You are their Guardian and their Protector.

Glory be to your Lord, the Lord of Glory, from what they describe. And peace be upon the messengers. And all praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.