20170113-Importance of Learning Deen- 1st Khutba- Imam Mokhtar Maghroui

Khutbah: The Importance of Learning Deen

Says Allah — what this means is: O you who have attained faith, be Allah-conscious; have reverence and awe and veneration in your hearts for Allah in a way that is worthy of who He is — worthy of His names and attributes, and therefore worthy of His glory and majesty, of His beauty and majesty, of His perfection in His beauty and in His majesty — and worthy of the gifts innumerable and the bounties and the favors infinite and unlimited that He consistently bestows upon us. And do not die except in the state of Islam.

We do not have a choice about when to die, nor where to die, in the divine scale. But we do have a choice about how to die. And thus says Allah: make sure we do not die except in the state of Islam — of loving surrender of our souls and spirits, of our hearts and minds, of our words and deeds, of our actions and reactions — all in loving surrender to Allah.

Life: An Alternation Between Good and Bad

My dear brothers and sisters, this life in an abbreviated form is an alternation between day and night — and between day and night I mean, in the metaphorical sense, between good and bad, light and darkness, between good and bad. Every human being either does good or does bad; does virtuous things or evil things; does things that are beautiful — hasanāt — or commits things that are ugly — sayyiāt — evil or wrong or hurtful. The person either obeys Allah or disobeys Allah. A person either commits ṭā'ah or dhunūb — obedience or sin. This is life simplified between the two. No matter what I do or you do, no matter what the simplicity or the sophistication of what I do, at every moment in my life it is summarized in one of these two: it is either hasanāt or sayyiāt — good or bad, obedience to Allah or disobedience to Allah.

Number one. Number two: this does not go without consequence. Allah, of course, as all of you know — and I am only reminding myself first and then you — He definitely and most explicitly and unequivocally instructed us about the consequences of what we choose, good or bad: in this world the consequences of that, and in the hereafter. Those who believe and do good, their Lord guides them by their faith, rivers flow beneath them in the gardens of bliss — versus those who deny Our verses and are arrogant about them, the gates of heaven will not be opened for them, and they will not enter paradise until the camel passes through the eye of a needle. And Allah said:

Whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has gone astray — clearly. And:

And man has nothing but what he strives for, and what he strives for will be seen, and then the reward will be given to him — from the many verses that clearly and simply and most explicitly tell us that when we do good there are consequences of that in our lives, in this world and in the hereafter.

If we face what we may perceive as challenges and hardships in this dunyā, let us be able to connect them and relate them to what we do in this life before we were challenged. If we enjoy something beautiful and righteous and delightful in this dunyā, let us connect it also to the obedience of Allah in our lives, by His grace and merciful love.

Why Do We Still Choose to Sin?

If this is so — thirdly — why do many of us still, even sometimes obstinately and deliberately, in minor issues and in major issues, still choose to disobey Allah, to commit sin? If this is so, and it is — during these few minutes I am going to remind myself and my dear brothers and sisters about some essential reasons why that happens.

Two reasons are within you and me — personal, internal, inward. And two or three other reasons I am going to mention are outward of me, external to me, that I should pay attention to. For we fall in sin, and some of us, as I said, fall in sin — in doing bad, in doing wrong, in minor or major issues — deliberately.

Two Inward Reasons: الجهل والنفس

The two inward reasons inside of us are very simple — you know them, but we don't think of them: al-jahl (ignorance) and al-nafs (the self).

First Inward Reason: Ignorance (الجهل)

First of all, about us: we do wrong when we do wrong, we sin when we sin, we violate the divine norms when we violate them — and wa al-'iyādhu billāh — in so many ways. First, sometimes the reason is ignorance on our part. Ignorance meaning here that one does not know — one does not know for two reasons: one chooses not to know, and one does not know beyond his or her control at the moment. In other words, she or he was not neglectful about learning but it happened — that happens. But also we don't know sometimes because we choose to remain as one who doesn't know.

Al-jahl — about what? Not knowing what? — that leads us to fall and to sin, the consequences of which are as we mentioned earlier in general from the āyāt of Allah in the Quran.

We don't know about Allah. There is so much jahl among some of us about who God is. But if you don't know whom you are disobeying, what sinning against the Divine means, what breaking the law means — not knowing Allah as to what His attributes are, what is Allah: الْعَدْلُ، الْمُنْتَقِمُ، الْعَزِيزُ، الْجَبَّارُ، الْبَاطِنُ، الْمُغْنِي، الْكَرِيمُ، الْمُحْسِنُ — when we don't know Allah, we don't know whom we are disobeying, and the extent of our sin. And the more we know Allah, the more every minor and flimsy sin appears to us as gigantic and colossal. And the less we know of Allah — in our ignorance — the less we see our major sins as major; we see our major violations as nothing, not so much.

Second: we don't know about the iḥsān of Allah and the 'adl of Allah. We don't know about God's benevolence and kindness and magnanimity and goodness and iḥsān. And we don't know about the extent of Allah's justice and equity and balance. We don't know sometimes about the consequences of what we do. We have not learned to know what the consequences of hasanāt — of doing good and being good and obedient to Allah and virtuous — what the consequences of that are in this life and in the hereafter. Or we do not know enough of the consequences of what we do bad and wrong, minor or major — the consequences of that in this dunyā, in this life, and in the hereafter.

We don't know that. We don't know sometimes that something actually is beloved to Allah, or something actually is despised by Allah. We don't know. And as I said earlier, we don't know because we choose not to know, or we don't know because we were not taught — and therefore we need to learn.

We don't know the consequences sometimes of what we do, good or bad. That is why sometimes, as Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned to us, that some of us on the Day of Judgment — when divine justice will be set — many human beings will be faced with divine justice about acts that are so terrible in terms of their consequences in the ākhirah in the hereafter, that these human beings amongst us used to look at those sins as very flimsy, nothing. But then when we are faced with the real consequences of that in the ākhirah, we are flabbergasted.

This is the consequence of what I did — to the extent that Rasulullah ﷺ said: the person utters a word he or she thinks is nothing, yet:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Book 78, Hadith 116 / al-Adab al-Mufrad; related in various wordings — see also Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6478)

That would cause him or her to free-fall into Jahannam — to the very depth of Jahannam — for seventy years, falling. We don't know the consequences of what we do, good or bad. That is within us.

Second Inward Reason: The Nafs (النفس)

The second reason why we sin — even knowingly — is the nafs inside of us: our character, our internal image, our internal drives, what we are inside. We have a shape outside and we have a form inside. That form is the characteristics, the attributes that define us inside of us. What is my nafs like? What is my psyche, my personality inside? What am I?

Some of us are greedy and selfish and angry and high-tempered and arrogant and deluded and conceited and ostentatious — a love of leadership, a love to be the head, a love to be famous and to compete for that — a drive inside, very strong for that. These attitudes inside of us, this nafs inside of us, could also be positive, beautiful: humble, righteous, kind, generous, forgiving, filled with humility — it bypasses the forcefulness of others, generous, benevolent, magnanimous inside, kind. Or it could be the opposite.

A nafs like that — and when a nafs is like that, regardless sometimes of what we know and what we don't know — sometimes even when we know and we have a base, negative nafs, we fall. Even when we know, let alone when we don't know. And when we don't know enough, and we have a nafs also that is inflated, we fall into sin.

That is why Rasulullah ﷺ said: three are destructive — all have to do with the nafs. Three destroy the human being — any human being, simple or sophisticated, man or woman, scholar or student or layperson, anyone, under all circumstances. Three are destructive:

(Reported by al-Ṭabarānī; also referenced in al-Bayhaqī, Shu'ab al-Īmān; and cited by al-'Irāqī as having a basis in sound narrations)

First: an obeyed greed — a nafs that is greedy and orders us to be greedy, in the physical sense and the emotional sense — not only in the physical sense — but we obey that nafs; we obey that shuḥḥ. We do not resist it, we do not restrain it, we do not deny it, we do not struggle against it. On the contrary, we indulge it, and we even do worse — we justify it.

Second: an eternal inclination inside of us that we take as leader — my hawā. That nafs which has those terrible characteristics — what it commands blinds me and becomes my imām, regardless of what I know. Even what I know, I translate and interpret in light of my hawā, of my nafs, because it is very, very strong. And the stronger the hawā in me, the more I incline information to suit me.

And one who is self-conceited — in other words, self-admiring — he or she likes themselves, meaning the nafs becomes my role model. These are destructive, and we disobey Allah and we sin on account sometimes of the hawā inside of us, regardless of how much we know or we don't know.

Three External Reasons We Fall Into Sin

The other reasons are external — three reasons externally that lead us to sin. And the first of them despite the ẓulm is the surrounding in which I put myself. Assume I know; assume I have even a good nafs or a bad nafs — and I put myself in environments and in surroundings and in conditions which make evil easy for me. I become desensitized. I see it so often, I hear it so often, I am with them so often — that naturally, for the average human being amongst us, they will be affected by that inside, and consequently in their actions. To the extent that if my companionship is a companionship of fools and stubborn ones, and people who follow their hawā and their shahawāt, and arrogant and conceited, and who belittle dhunūb — rest assured, it is only a matter of time until I become one of the statistics. Rest assured, until I myself become one who will belittle dhunūb: "Oh, this is nothing" — and I am thinking of myself as the greatest person in my community.

Second External Reason: Availability

Two other reasons, my dear brothers and sisters — even when we know, even when we have a good enough nafs at different levels: availability. We put ourselves in positions that make available to us the means to do wrong, to hurt, to violate, to sin. Availability — it is made available to us, and I run into it. If it were not available, perhaps my nafs would have resisted. But when I see it in front of me, when I hear it in front of me — that availability by itself stirs inside of my nafs, especially if my nafs is weak, it stirs the negative energy to do wrong, because it is available. And here, though I said this is an external reason because it is outside of me, yet many of us choose to make the means of wrong available to us by positioning ourselves in those available conditions — and even bringing them home and buying them.

Third External Reason: Accessibility

After availability: accessibility. It may be available but not accessible. And then when it is made even easily accessible to me — by others or by the foolishness of my own self — I drive myself to have it accessible. Then the fact that it is so psychologically, socially, and logically means I shall be more likely prone to fall into the sin of whatever kind that sin is.

The Remedy: Knowledge, Purification of the Nafs, and Guarding One's Environment

And therefore: I need to know, to remove my ignorance — and I need to pursue the path of what I have to know and need to know. I must have a regular diet of knowledge. A regular diet of knowledge. Most of us — most of the Muslims in most communities, except for some exceptions — do not think we have much to know, do not think we have much to learn. Many of us are so easily bored by knowledge, unless that knowledge is entertaining — that is, to suit the hawā and the nafs.

Number two: we have to work on changing this nafs — on making sure that, with knowledge, this nafs is a nafs muzakkāh — a nafs that is cleansed and not sick with diseases.

And as to the external parameters and conditions — sometimes there is nothing we can do about it; it is there and it is available. What we can do about it is to keep away from it, and not to make myself be in a surrounding or a condition that makes sin lighter for me in my heart, that makes it available, and that makes it accessible.

Seek the forgiveness of Allah. Indeed, what an excellent abode awaits those who sincerely and honestly seek forgiveness from Allah.

Second Part of the Khutbah

My dear brothers and sisters, nobody can reach Allah without Allah. No scholar, no worshipper, no man, no woman can reach Allah without Allah. Knowledge is necessary. Striving is necessary. Resisting the drives is necessary. None of that is sufficient without Allah. And therefore, the first and easiest way that I remind myself and you of is du'ā'.

Raise your hands — alone or in public — after every ṣalāh and alone. Raise your hands with humility inside of you. Summon it; make yourself feel humble and feel humility inside, and turn to Allah and ask Him for His refuge. Ask Him for His help. Ask Him to liberate you — to liberate us — from our dhunūb and the consequences of our dhunūb that are terrible.

The consequences of our dhunūb are terrible: in this dunyā and in the ākhirah, at the individual level, the community level, the national level, the worldly level — there are consequences.

The Story of Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn: Consequences of Sin in This World

And I close with this — a consequence, an individual consequence of sin — related by this great scholar of our salaf, Sayyidunā Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn — the great tābi'ī scholar, raḥimahu Allāh ta'āla. He says — in accordance with what the scholars have related — that once he had incurred a debt, a debt, and he could not pay it. And somehow with time that generated inside of him ḍīq and ghamm — anxiety, feeling very low and anxious, constricted. And he, as a scholar, as a walī of Allah, tried to find the answer: "Why am I feeling this way? What is this feeling?"

Now, many of us go and take this medicine or that medicine, this chemical or that chemical — and you know the consequences sometimes. But he, as his habit was, continued to think about it. "Why am I feeling this way?" — until he said: "I realized" — and Allah made him realize because he was sincere and honest — "I realized that what I am feeling is because of a sin I committed forty years ago."

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَنْسَى — We forgot. Allah does not forget. And there are consequences of the wrong in this world before the hereafter.

And yet — and yet — and yet — by His merciful grace and loving mercy, He pardons most. And yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet, and yet.