Doubts and Misunderstandings in Islam - Mufti Minhajuddin | Islamic Reminder | Jummah Khutbah

Opening

My dear respected brothers and elders, respected sisters and students in Islam, peace and blessings be upon you.

This life that we are leading in this world is a test from Allah. All of us are undergoing this test and trial, and the Judgment Day will be when Allah will make it apparent who is successful in this test and who is a failure. Allah says that whoever is saved from the eternal fire of Jahannam and is granted admittance into Jannah — truly they are the successful ones. And all success and failure of this worldly life is but a deception. The worldly life is not but a deception. Meaning it is only a deception. The Creator of this world is telling us the success of this world is transitory — it is a deception. Even if the failure of this world is temporary, it is the eternal salvation of Jannah or the damnation in the fire of Jahannam that is what counts.

Two Great Trials: Shubuhat and Shahawat

In this test and trial that we are going through, the scholars mention that these trials are divided into two groups. One is the fitna of shubuhat — and one is the fitna of shahawat. The test of doubts and the test of carnal desires. These two trials — whether we fall into doubts regarding our faith, or whether we fall prey to our nafs, our inner self — these are the tests that we have to overcome.

And this is what Allah identifies for us in Surah Al-Fatiha. When Allah tells us to seek guidance from Him, He instructs us to seek the guidance of the straight path — the path of those people who have been honoured by Allah. Not the path of those who have earned His anger, nor the path of those who have gone astray.

The Path of Those Who Earned Anger — The Trial of Shahawat

Who have earned the anger of Allah? Allah describes them in Surah Al-Baqarah. This is referring to those who, despite knowing Rasulullah ﷺ and having complete knowledge, still rejected him. They recognised him the way a father can recognise his own children. When the messenger that they recognised came, they still rejected him. So this was not due to any confusion or lack of information or clarity, but rather because of kibar and arrogance — which is a shahwa of the nafs, a problem of the inner soul and a corruption of the inside. That is why we seek the protection of Allah — O Allah, protect us from falling into the path of shahwat.

The Path of Those Who Went Astray — The Trial of Shubuhat

Allah tells us: do not go into excess in the religion, like those of the Nasara. They went astray themselves and they led many others astray. They did not have shahwat nafsaniya — in fact, they conquered their shahwat. They took vows of celibacy. They were very ascetic — zahid and abid — and worshippers of Allah. But despite all of their ibadah, despite all of their zuhd, divorcing themselves from worldly pleasures, going to the monasteries and convents, and becoming priests and nuns — these early Christians that Allah is speaking about — they still went astray. How so? Due to lack of ilm. They fell into shubuhat, into doubts regarding the nature of Isa. Some of them said that he is God, some said he is one half God, some said he is one third God.

They did not kill Isa. They did not crucify Isa. But they fell into doubts regarding his nature — regarding his passing away, regarding how he left, whether he was uplifted, whether he was killed, who was killed, who was crucified. Allah says that all the different groups disputing regarding him are all in doubts. The fact of the matter is they do not have the knowledge — the true knowledge regarding who he was — that he was a messenger of Allah, that Allah gave him those miracles, that he was uplifted, and how his consummation occurred, how he came into this world.

His conception — the Christians use the word "immaculate conception," whether you should use that term or not depends on what it means — but we know that how he was conceived was a miraculous event. That's for sure. How Jibreel came, as mentioned in Surah Maryam, when Maryam was in her solitude, in her ibadah. And she said she seeks the protection of Allah when the angel came — she said, "I seek the protection of Allah from you. If you have any fear of Allah, do not harass me, leave me alone." So he terrified her, and then consoled her, and said that he just blew into her and she became pregnant. The scholars of Tafsir mention that she went instantly into labor — she didn't have a nine-month pregnancy. She became pregnant and straight into labor.

So from that conception of Isa (peace be upon him) all the way to when he was uplifted, they are in much confusion. They do not have the knowledge. They are following conjectures and their own ideas. And the reality is they did not kill him. Allah says: I am telling you the reality — Allah is the one who uplifted him and took him up into the heavens, and Allah is keeping him, and Allah will bring him back down again. Allah has the power to do so and has His infinite wisdom in deciding what He did and what He will do in the future.

The Solution: Ilm and Tazkiyah

So this is the reality, my dear friends. We have to make sure that we do not fall into either of these two traps. And the solution to both of these is that we gain ilm and we have tazkiyah. We gain knowledge of the deen of Allah — this will remove all our doubts. And if we do our tazkiyah and purify our hearts and do tarbiyah, this will allow us to conquer our nafs. This is where our institutes of learning — like Darus Salaam, other madaris and other mashayikh that are doing the effort of deen — they play a role.

The Difference Between Shahawat and Shubuhat in the Hereafter

These two trials — the trial of nafs and the trial of doubts — are not equal in their consequence. If a believer — one who has Islam and Iman — is a sinner, falls into shahwat, dies of a drug overdose, or alcohol poisoning, in a casino, in the company of a woman of ill repute — in the worst possible scenario their death occurs — but they have Islam, they have Iman, they are a believer — that person eventually will enter Jannah, either directly or indirectly. The one who dies with Islam and Iman will enter Jannah for sure. It's only a matter of directly or indirectly.

Directly, if Allah chooses to forgive their sins. Indirectly via Jahannam — which is easy for me to say and easier for you to hear, but it's not an easy deal, it's a very horrific experience. Via Jahannam means that person will burn in Jahannam as an expiation for their sins, for all the sins they committed — until Allah alone knows how long — and after their sins are forgiven through their burning in Jahannam, eventually they will enter Jannah. But the reality is the one who dies with Iman will enter Jannah, 100%. There is no option of them not entering Jannah eventually — directly or eventually.

And the other person who does not commit any of these sins, but does not have Iman itself, does not have belief, or has doubts in their belief — will not enter Jannah to begin with. Period. Will not be admitted into Jannah. SubhanAllah.

This is the difference between the problem of Shahawat and the problem of Shubuhat. The problem of Shubuhat will not take a person out of Jannah only immediately — but eternally the person will be deprived of Jannah.

Aqeedah vs. Amal: 100% and Never 100%

This is the difference between Aqeedah and Amal. Our Aqeedah — nothing less than 100% is acceptable. And Amal — we can never reach 100%. Big difference. Think about it.

In our Aqeedah, nothing less than 100% is acceptable. If you say that I believe in 99% of the Qur'an, it's like believing in 0% of the Qur'an. If you say I believe in 99.9% of the Qur'an, it's equivalent to not believing in it at all. We cannot believe in anything less than 100%.

So our Iman has to be:

Belief has to be in the entirety of the Deen of Islam as conveyed to us by Rasulullah ﷺ — when he mentioned things in brief, we believe in that; when he mentioned things in detail, we believe in every detail — without any sign of rejection.

And we believe in what Rasulullah ﷺ said, not because he is a great philosopher or a great thinker or a genius. Because he is above and beyond all that. We believe in him from the perspective that he is speaking on behalf of Allah.

If someone says that I believe in Muhammad ﷺ because no one had a mind like him — no one was more intelligent than him, he was a great thinker, great philosopher, great economist, great revolutionary, great leader, brought social justice for the deprived and underprivileged class of Mecca, changed the social structure of Mecca and Arabia, and was a great general and a great warrior and a great teacher — so that's all fine, we get happy. But guess what? This is still downgrading Rasulullah ﷺ. Because he missed the most important point. What is that? That he is a Nabi of Allah. He is a recipient of divine revelation. And he was selected to carry the message from Allah for the rest of mankind. We cannot give up that.

We have to believe in Rasulullah ﷺ as a messenger of Allah. This is Iman. Any doubt in that — a person will be out of the fold of Islam.

Tasdiq, the belief, does not have any room for doubt.

The Quantity of Iman Must Be the Same for All

When it comes to Iman, from the kamiyyah perspective — from the perspective of quantity — what you believe in, our Iman and the Iman of the Tabi'in should be the same. The Tabi'in should be the same. The Sahaba should be the same. The Ashara Mubashara should be the same. Our Iman and the Iman of Ali, of Uthman, of Umar ibn al-Khattab, even of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them all) has to be the same.

If I say that I believe everything that Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) believed in, except for three things — he's still not a Muslim. Except for two things — he's not a Muslim. I believe in everything Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) believed in, except for one thing — he's still not a Muslim. He has to believe in everything Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) believed in. And in fact, from the kamiyyah — the quantity perspective — our belief should be the same as Rasulullah ﷺ himself.

The kafiyyah — the quality, the strength and the level of conviction — yeah, that would be different for sure. The level of quality of the belief they had versus the quality we have is very, very different indeed. Their quality was so great they were ready to give their lives for Islam. Our quality and strength is so weak that it's hard to get up for Fajr. It's hard to abstain from haram. But quantity-wise it is exactly the same — it must be — otherwise you're in trouble.

Amal Can Never Be 100%

And when it comes to Amal — when it comes to performance — it's the exact opposite. Just like in Aqeedah less than 100% is unacceptable, in Amal you can never be 100%. Because the pinnacle of ibadah and the most perfect ibadah was that of Rasulullah ﷺ. And Rasulullah ﷺ himself, after worshipping Allah, used to make istighfar. And he used to say:

I seek forgiveness of Allah, I seek forgiveness of Allah, I seek forgiveness of Allah. And he used to say:

"O Allah, I have not worshipped You the way You deserve to be worshipped. I have not fulfilled Your right of ibadah." If he did not fulfill the right of ibadah, if his ibadah was not 100%, then how can our ibadah ever be 100%?

And the reason his ibadah is also not 100% is because despite his ibadah being the most perfect ibadah, he was a creation. And Allah is the Creator. Allah is Qadeem. He is without beginning or end —

He is the First without a beginning. He is the Last without an end. He is in a different plane. Allah is wajibul wujud — necessarily existent. There is no concept of any existence without His pre-existence.

None of the creation is like unto Him. He is all-hearing, all-knowing. He has absolutely no resemblance to His creation. He is infinite in His being, and infinite in His sifat, infinite in His attributes. And Rasulullah ﷺ, despite all of his greatness and being the best of the creation, is of the creation. He is the best of the creation — right there it tells you he is from the creation. That's why he is the best of them. He is not outside of the creation. He is not a part-time creator, or half-creator, or one-third khaliq. He is not khaliq. He is makhluq. He is khairul khalq. He is the best of the makhluq.

So since he is makhluq, that means he is finite. He is not infinite. He is finite in his being, finite in his attributes. He is hadith. So therefore, his ibadah can never equal the infinite. The finite can never equal the infinite. In fact, however great the finite is, it is zero compared to the infinite. That's why he had this perception and he used to say:

"O Allah, I can never ever praise You the way You deserve to be praised. Your greatness can only be described by Yourself. You alone can describe how great You are. I am incapable of describing Your greatness."

If we say that about Allah, we can even say that about Rasulullah ﷺ — we are incapable of praising Rasulullah ﷺ sufficiently:

"I cannot even praise Rasulullah ﷺ with my words. But I have elevated my words and granted them honor by mentioning Muhammad in my words. I have praised my words, elevated the rank of my words by speaking about Muhammad ﷺ. I cannot elevate the rank of Muhammad ﷺ by speaking about him."

Isqat al-Farida: The Minimum Level of Ibadah

So can our ibadah ever be 100%? It can never be 100%. One is isqat al-farida — when we perform the obligation and the obligation is uplifted from our shoulders. We hope at least to reach this level.

Isqat al-farida means — like we are going to perform the Jummah Salah. When it comes to the Fiqh of Salah, we learn the Fiqh of Jummah. What are the arkan of our Jummah Salah? What are the shara'it? What are the conditions to be fulfilled before you come? The tahara, the wudu, and covering the awra, facing the qibla, the correct time, the niyyah — these are the shurut. And what are the arkan, the pillars of the Salah? We have the qiyam, we have the ruku, we have the sujud. We don't pray one rakat, we actually pray two rakat. You fulfill all the conditions. And now insha'Allah you reach a level called isqat al-farida — the obligation is uplifted from your shoulders.

What's the example of when isqat al-farida is not achieved? A person misses the two rakat of Jummah, comes right at the At-Tahiyyat time, and then the Imam says As-Salamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah, As-Salamu Alaikum wa Rahmatullah. He gets up and performs one rakat. He was so busy thinking about his work — why he came so late? Because he was working so late.

Allah says: after the adhan, hasten to the remembrance of Allah. Leave buying and selling. But he continued in buying and selling till the last moment. And he came — maybe his wudu broke — so by the time he made wudu and came he was so lost in his business, profit and loss calculations, that he thought he missed one rakat. So he makes one rakat. After making one rakat, he says As-Salam. Now he is so lost that he doesn't know. The guy next to him tells him, "Brother, you missed two rakat, you just performed one rakat." He said, "Are you sure?" He said, "I am 100% sure you performed one rakat."

Now what is he going to do? Is his Jummah over? He looks around — this is the last Jummah in the town, there is no other Jummah. He has not passed the minimum level of isqat al-farida — the obligation remains unfulfilled. So what does he have to do? He will have to make istighfar — some big time istighfar — and he will have to perform Dhuhr Salah. To make up for the loss, he will have to perform four rakat Dhuhr. Make tawbah to Allah. Hopefully come on time from next Jummah.

So if we are not in that situation where we have to perform Dhuhr, we have qualified at the lowest level of isqat al-farida. But beyond that, all the virtues of Jummah — there are so many virtues, so many rewards. One Jummah to one Jummah is a source of kaffara for all the sins in between. Will we be able to acquire all those virtues? Will it become a means of forgiveness of our sins?

The true quality of Salah is that Salah has within it the intrinsic ability to prevent you from sins and immoral acts. Is our Salah so powerful that it will protect us from falling into sin? Or are we performing Salah and still sinning? If you perform Salah and still sin, are we going to say Allah is wrong? Or our Salah is not at the right quality? Allah is not wrong. Allah cannot be wrong. No one is more truthful than Allah. So therefore, there is a problem with our Salah.

We have not reached the level of husul al-fadila where we start getting all the virtues. The fada'il and the true benefits of that ibadah are not becoming manifest because we have not perfected our Salah. We have not brought it to the level which is matlub 'indallah — which is desirable in the sight of Allah.

There is a narration that Rasulullah ﷺ said: a person performs Salah and he gets up and walks away —

(Sunan Abi Dawud, Kitab al-Salah)

The person performs the Salah and walks away. Some of them get half the reward, some get one third, one fourth, one fifth, one sixth, one seventh, one eighth, one ninth, one tenth. Some people get a small percentage of the reward. Some people get no reward at all. So if a person's Salah has so many faults — in the inner performance and in the outer condition — that he doesn't get any reward, what is the minimum? The obligation is uplifted. He doesn't have to go back and do Dhuhr. But he won't get the additional bonus points. He won't get the benefits. And to be able to get the full benefits, then we have to have the complete Salah. After working on the Salah and improving upon it, then we can hope to get those benefits. But can we ever say we have absolutely, 100% fulfilled the right of the ibadah? Absolutely never.

Conclusion: The Purpose of Learning

So the ibadah is always something we need to work on. And the Aqeedah has to be something that is absolute. We can continue to learn more details, but when it comes to belief, it has to be complete. It has to be that — Alhamdulillah — I believe in 100% of the Deen. May Allah protect us from these shubuhat.

And this is the purpose of Darus Salaam, this is the purpose of this Masjid and Madrasa — so that we can work on these two things: Ilm and Tazkiyah. Rasulullah ﷺ came as a teacher, to teach Ilm, and he came as a Muzakki to do the Tazkiyah and Tarbiyah. And that is what we hope to strive for — that we produce Ulama and Alimat here, scholars, men and women, who are endowed with the knowledge, wisdom and Ilm, as well as the Tarbiyah, to go out and become leaders in their respective Masajid and communities, and serve throughout the United States.

Alhamdulillah, as you have been aware, this is happening. And since tomorrow is our big fundraising event, I just want to take the last 30 seconds to remind everyone that we have an opportunity, insha'Allah.