Gratitude For Islam: The Only Path To Salvation

Gratitude for the Blessing of Islam

My dear respected brothers and sisters, respected elders and young friends, indeed it is the mercy of Allah that Allah is the one who guided us to the deen of Islam. This deen of Islam is the only way of salvation in this dunya and the only way of salvation on the Day of Qiyamah. Allah very clearly states — the only deen acceptable in the eyes of Allah is the deen of Islam.

Regarding other ways of leading one's life, Allah says:

Whoever adopts any way of life, any other ideology, any other deen besides the deen of Islam — it will never be accepted from him, and hereafter he will be amongst the losers.

The reason I'm starting off with this reminder — for myself first and for everyone else — is that in this past week we have had major celebrations of other religions. Whether it was the Christmas of the Christians or it was the Hanukkah of the Jews. And this is an opportunity for us to reflect that, subhanAllah, when the Jews are celebrating their Hanukkah and the Christians are celebrating their Christmas, it is an opportunity for us to remind ourselves that alhamdulillah, we are blessed with something far greater — and that is the deen of Islam.

And thanking Allah for this deen of Islam is an obligation, is a faridhah, right here in this dunya. And insha'Allah this will also continue in Jannah. The Ahlul Jannah — the dwellers of Jannah — they will also say to one another:

All praise and thanks to Allah — He guided us so that we were on the correct path, and now we are deserving of these blessings in Jannah. And we would never have been able to adopt the right path if it wasn't for the guidance from Allah. And the messengers of our Lord Allah that came down with guidance — they came with the ultimate truth.

They will be affirming the truth as they are now at the highest level of conviction. They do not only have ilmul yaqeen — knowledge of it with certainty. They are not only seeing it, ثُمَّ لَتَرَوُنَّهَا عَيْنَ الْيَقِينِ — with the eye of certainty. But in fact they are now experiencing it. إِنَّهُ لَحَقُّ الْيَقِينِ. So they will say: the messengers of our Lord came with truth, this is haqqul yaqeen, we are in Jannah and we are enjoying its blessings. If we were not guided by Allah, we could never have been on the right path. And the proclamation will be made — Allah will send down the angels to proclaim that this is the Jannah, you are inheriting it, as a reward of the actions you performed in the dunya. SubhanAllah.

Reflecting on the Dominant Religion of Our Age

So when we have these manifestations of the Yehudi faith through Hanukkah or the Christian faith through Christmas, we should be reflecting on this. We are living in such a day and age when the dominant religion of the world is agnosticism or even atheism — either not believing in any revealed religion or actively disbelieving in the existence of God. And everyone is worshipping materialism, hedonism, following one's shahawat — one's desires. As Allah says:

Do not become a slave of your desires — this will lead you astray. So this is the dominant religion. And once in a while we may see some manifestations of other religious practices — perhaps at the time of birth, some of these festivals, or at the time of marriage. But beyond that, most of the religions, when it comes to the actual practice of those religions and when it comes to actually believing in their theology, they are a relic from the past. It is relegated to the pages of history. Not much is found anymore in the minds and hearts of people.

And this is something that people from other religions find very strange — that despite the fact that we as Muslims have a lot of weaknesses, and we need to focus on our weaknesses with the intention of improving upon them, if we do a cursory study about the level of religiosity, alhamdulillah thumma alhamdulillah, even in this era amongst the Muslim Ummah compared to others, then alhamdulillah there is still a concept of the deen and respect for the deen and respect for aqeedah in the Muslim Ummah that is not found in others. This is speaking about Muslim-majority countries. But the condition of those who are growing up in these lands is becoming very very similar to that of the majority population.

So alhamdulillah, when we are observing these things, the first reaction should be alhamdulillah — that oh Allah, You have guided us and saved us from falling into these wrong ideologies. That is definitely the first step. And perhaps we just take this for granted and we don't take this opportunity to reflect and thank Allah. We need to do that. And doing so is of course a means of furthering the blessings from Allah. As is often repeated, and deserves to be repeated, Allah says:

If you are going to thank Me for My blessings, then I will further increase them. If we actually show Allah actively — from our heart, from our tongue, and from our actions — that oh Allah, we thank You that You protected us from falling into such nonsensical beliefs.

The Error of Elevating Isa and Downgrading Allah

The mushrikun of Mecca were objecting against Rasulullah ﷺ and they said — how can he be a messenger?

How could he be a messenger when he eats food and he's walking in the markets and he's a human being like us? This was considered a sufficient excuse for disbelieving in him as a prophet of Allah. And now we have a man who is, of course, a very noble man, a very muqaddas and holy man — and subhanAllah, he's a prophet, not only a nabi, he's also a rasul, he's also min ulil 'azm — among the highest level of prophets — whose birth was miraculous and whose life was full of miracles, but at the same time he was a human being. And to believe that he was God, or one-third God, or the son of God — na'udhu billah — how has Allah allowed people to fall into such open error and to go astray.

And definitely, these are the daalleen — those who have gone astray.

Surah Al-Fatihah: Identifying the Two Deviant Groups

Allah is identifying both of these groups — the groups that are celebrating Hanukkah and the groups that are celebrating Christmas — both in Surah Al-Fatihah. And we ask Allah, after praising Him, glorifying Him:

Declaring our servitude to Him — only You do we worship, and only from You do we seek help. Oh Allah, guide us along the straight path, the path of the nabiyyeen, siddiqeen, shuhada, and saliheen. And then we ask Allah — غَيْرِ الْمَغْضُوبِ عَلَيْهِمْ — oh Allah, not the path of those who have earned Your anger. This is referring to the Jews. Allah describes them in Surah Al-Baqarah. وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ — nor the path of those who have gone astray. Allah describes them in Surah Al-Imran.

They earned the anger upon anger of Allah by knowingly disobeying Him, following their shahawat of kibr and arrogance, and denying the truth of the messengers despite recognizing them.

They recognize the prophets — they recognize Rasulullah ﷺ like they would be able to recognize their own children.

They would seek victory and say — when the final prophet comes, through his barakah and his leadership we will believe in him, and with him we will overcome you and destroy you. When the prophet came, when they recognized him — they rejected him. So the la'nah and curse of Allah on those who disbelieve. These are the Yehud.

The Dalleen — Those Who Went Astray

And then you have وَلَا الضَّالِّينَ — those who have gone astray.

This is Al-Qur'an yufassiru ba'duhu ba'dh — the Qur'anic ayat, some of them explain others. So this is Tafsir Al-Qur'an bil-Qur'an — explaining the Qur'an through the Qur'an. Which is, of course, the highest form of Tafsir possible, where Allah Himself is describing what He is saying. So when He mentioned daalleen in Surah Al-Fatihah, He explains who the daalleen are — these are those who exceeded all bounds, they made ghuluww.

لَا تَغْلُوا فِي دِينِكُمْ غَيْرَ الْحَقِّ — do not make ghuluww in your deen. You may start off with a good idea, but if you go past the limits, it can be turned into a very very wrong aqeedah. Sometimes people will say: okay, we believe Isa عليه السلام is the Prophet of Allah, we believe he was born from the Virgin Mary, we believe he was a Nabi. If they go a little bit further and say that he was the son of God — so they're just elevating him more than he deserves. That's bad, I get it, but how bad is that? It's very very bad. Because you're not, at this point, elevating Jesus beyond what he deserves. You're actually downgrading God. You're now downgrading Allah. Allah — وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ — you are not just elevating Jesus, you are downgrading Allah by saying He has a son. And this is the crime they fell into without realizing. They were very confused.

The Jews Knew — The Christians Were Confused

The Jews, on one hand, knew exactly what was going on. And the fact that they were totally aware of it — they knew Rasulullah ﷺ and recognized him. And Allah says:

The scholars of Tafsir say that Allah does not say يَجِدُونَ آثَارَهُ or يَجِدُونَ عَلَامَاتَهُ — it is not that they found his signs or indications or different prophecies. Rather Allah says يَجِدُونَهُ مَكْتُوبًا عِندَهُمْ — they found him. Like from head to toe, from birth to death, his description was so accurate in the Torah and Injil as if they found him — as if he was literally in the pages of their scriptures.

Rasulullah ﷺ was also prophesized by Isa عليه السلام. Because we are talking about the Injil. Allah speaks about Isa عليه السلام in Surah As-Saff:

And I come to give you the glad tidings of a prophet who shall come after me — his name is Ahmad ﷺ. So they had knowledge about Rasulullah ﷺ.

But when it comes to the Christians, on the other hand, they were very very much confused. His birth they found confusing. The fact that he was touching lepers and they were becoming healthy, he was touching the blind and they could see — in fact, the dead could become alive. And all of the different miracles that he was performing, they became very confused about his nature. Then how did it end? We cannot say death, because he did not die — he is alive. But his worldly ending — the first phase of his worldly life — how that came to an end, how he was airlifted by Allah and taken up into the heavens, that was also very much confusing for them. Because Allah allowed one of the traitors to be changed into his shape, and that man was taken and dragged and put on the cross and crucified. So there was an actual crucifixion — there was a man who was nailed to the cross, and there was a man who died. But it was one of the biggest cases of mistaken identity in the history of human civilization — it was the wrong person they hanged.

And this is something that happens nowadays. People, subhanAllah, are in prison for 10, 20, 30, 40 years — then they are exonerated through DNA evidence. They say, oh, he was innocent the entire time. So this type of mistaken identity case happened, and he was crucified.

So Allah says about the Christians:

All of these people who had different doubts were all in shock and doubt about his nature. Some of them said he is God. Some said one-third. Some said one-fifth. Some said he is the son of God. They had all different opinions.

The Council of Nicaea and the Trinity

This is why the emperor Constantine was very much perturbed by all of these different sects within Christian theology fighting with one another. So he locked them up in one cathedral — this is called the Council of Nicaea. And he said: you have to come out with one aqeedah, or I'm going to kill all of you. So they were compelled — they had a sword to their neck. So this concept of the trinity was created 300 years after Isa عليه السلام, and it was a compromise aqeedah. That's one of the reasons it doesn't make sense whatsoever. 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 1 somehow — the whole world knows that 1 plus 1 plus 1 equals 3.

And Allah speaks about the trinity in the Quran. Because the trinity is from the 3rd century and Rasulullah ﷺ is from the 6th century — so three centuries before Rasulullah ﷺ this aqeedah came into being. Allah says:

Indeed they are kafirs, those who say that Allah is the third of the three. And in another place Allah says:

Do not say this three — this trinity. Stop! This will be better for you. The reality is they did not kill him. Rather Allah elevated and took him up into the heavens.

The Nativity Scene Across the Street — What Should We Feel?

Right here across the street, we have the national headquarters of the Polish Catholic Church. The national headquarters — the markaz for the whole country. So in the corner there on Swift Road, when you're going, you'll see there's a big sign of the Catholic Church, and they have a big picture of Mary, and then they have the nativity scene of the so-called baby Jesus.

And the reality is that the birth of Jesus, and celebrating that, and the whole aqeedah regarding being son of God — it is wrong upon wrong upon wrong upon wrong. There are so many wrongs. One of them — ظُلُمَاتٌ بَعْضُهَا فَوْقَ بَعْضٍ — is the fact that his birth had nothing to do with December. And this is not even the most major mistake. The biggest mistake is the fact they are calling him son of God and everything that comes with that. But since we are talking about the fact that they are so-called celebrating his birthday — his birthday has nothing to do with December 25th. They themselves say that. If you just look it up, Google it on the way out after Jumu'ah — just Google "history of Christmas." And you will find out that when they came to Rome, the Romans were celebrating the Saturnalia, which was a jahili mushrik holiday in this December time. So then the Pope adopted those celebrations and said: okay, let's just celebrate Christmas at this time. So this is the quote-unquote birth of Jesus — wrong date, wrong month.

And when you see that scene, what should we feel? The first thing we should feel is alhamdulillah — oh Allah, You have protected us from the wrong aqeedah. But it is not just that. There should also be a sense of ghayrah imaniyyah — if somebody attacks the honor of our mother, na'udhu billah, and says this child is your mother's child when it is not — na'udhu billah, thumma na'udhu billah — they are attacking the honor and integrity of my mother. Or somebody attacks the honor and integrity of your sister. But if somebody says this is the son of my Allah, I don't have a problem with that? Now I am not saying we go and commit arson or go burn down churches or attack people. But in our heart, the question is — do we actually find that repulsive? Do we find some type of "how dare you say that about my Allah?"

The Heavens, Earth, and Mountains Tremble at This Claim

This particular concept — of feeling repulsion and "how dare you say that about my Allah" — is mentioned in the Qur'an at the end of Surah Maryam. What is that ayah? Allah says:

The heavens are ready to split apart. The earth is ready, if given permission, to split open. The mountains are ready to crumble into dust — because of the enormity of the statement that they have claimed the Rahman has a son. وَمَا يَنبَغِي لِلرَّحْمَٰنِ أَن يَتَّخِذَ وَلَدًا — it never befits the Rahman to have a son.

Reinforcing Tawheed — The Season of Shirk is the Season of Tawheed

So that is why, subhanAllah, we have to reinforce tawheed. لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ. This is the season to reinforce tawheed. When the season of shirk increases, the season of tawheed increases on our part, to defend ourselves. And go over these surahs with our kids:

Qul Ya Ayyuhal Kafirun is the nafi of shirk, and Qul Huwallahu Ahad is the ithbat of tawheed. That is why Rasulullah ﷺ in the two rakat sunnah of Fajr — Qul Ya Ayyuhal Kafirun in the first rakat, Qul Huwallahu Ahad in the second. Two rakat sunnah of ihram — Qul Ya Ayyuhal Kafirun, Qul Huwallahu Ahad. Two rakat wajib of tawaf — Qul Ya Ayyuhal Kafirun, Qul Huwallahu Ahad. This is a repeated theme. Because first is nafi — لَا إِلَٰهَ — then it is ithbat — إِلَّا اللَّهُ. So the Nabi ﷺ in the first rakat says لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ — making nafi of shirk. Second rakat — ithbat of tawheed, affirmation of tawheed. Say: هُوَ اللَّهُ أَحَدٌ — He is Allah, the One. اللَّهُ الصَّمَدُ — above and beyond, and independent of His creation. لَمْ يَلِدْ — He has no offspring. وَلَمْ يُولَدْ — nor is He begotten. وَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُ كُفُوًا أَحَدٌ — none of the creation is like unto Him.

So we have to repeat the concept of tawheed until it becomes strengthened in our hearts. May Allah grant us istiqamah and iman. وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ.

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Please pass the donation boxes from left to right. Please donate generously. الصَّدَقَةُ تَدْفَعُ الْبَلَاءَ — charity wards off calamities and draws the mercy of Allah. Particularly on the day of Jumu'ah, as comes in a hadith of Rasulullah ﷺ, it is more rewarding.

We also have our weekend Islamic studies Tafheem program for adults — for those who cannot study full-time during the week. We have insha'Allah sister-only classes by female instructors that have been added this semester. This is new. Online and on-site, on Saturdays and on Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 1:20 p.m.

Save the date: we have our annual no-tech retreat — getting unplugged from our gadgets and connecting with Allah — on February 8th and 9th.

Please continue to pass the donation boxes and allow them to reach the other side. Give opportunity for others, insha'Allah.

In our community, ICCD Masjid Des Plaines is hosting a weekend course with Sheikh Sabin al-Nasr from Damascus. He will be going over our collections of authentic hadith and fiqh from January 3rd to 5th. He has visited us multiple times. Alhamdulillah, we are honored to have him.

Join us for our weekly programs. Team Fajr will be tomorrow after Fajr Salah — Fajr iqamah at 6:15 a.m. This Tuesday we will not have Tafseer — it will resume on January 14th. Thursday nights we have our Urdu Seerah program. Thursday Tafseer with sisters will resume from January 9th.

And we continue to make du'a for Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and all of the Muslim Ummah.