Faith Is Internal: No Compulsion In Matters Of Religion

Lā Ikrāha fī al-Dīn: No Compulsion in Faith

You do not compel people — that would have been a nahi, that would have been a prohibition. But Allah Ta'ala did not do that. He used nafi, لا لنفي الجنس — He made nafi, He made negation.

So there is a big difference between negation and prohibition. He said:

There is no compulsion in faith. The path of guidance and the path of crookedness have become clear and apparent.

The Difference Between Negation and Prohibition

Now, I just made a statement: there is a difference between negation and prohibition. But sometimes it may be hard to understand what is going on — that is why if you give an example it may become more clear.

Consider someone who has, mashallah, eyesight — may have beautiful eyesight, may have 20/20 vision. We can prohibit that individual and say: do not look at haram, do not gaze at haram. So what is this? This is a prohibition. This is nahi.

And there is another individual who was tested by Allah. The Prophet ﷺ said:

The one who is tested by his two beloved blessings — meaning the two eyes have been taken away — if he does sabr and ihtisab, looking forward for the reward of Allah, his reward is Jannah. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 5653)

Now that person is blind. So will we prohibit that person? Think about it. Does it make sense logically to tell him: hey, do not look at haram? Can you prohibit them? No. Why? Because he can't see to begin with. Rather we will do what? Negation. We will say, you cannot look at haram — in fact you can't look at halal. You cannot even look at your wife's beautiful face, your child's beautiful face. Just the innocent baby that Allah gifted you with — this great gift of a child — unfortunately you cannot see the face of the baby. You cannot see anything because you are blind.

There is one of our dear students who has a severe allergy to chicken. I told him: for others you have to say, abstain from machine-slaughtered chicken, avoid haram chicken. But for you, we can make nafi and say: you can't eat haram — because you can't even eat halal. You can't eat any chicken. So Allah Ta'ala has protected you — like 100% you are confirmed you never ate haram chicken, for the simple reason you haven't eaten any chicken.

Anyway, going back to that — Allah Ta'ala in the ayah, He says لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ. The deen is something that comes from the heart. So it's not a matter of prohibition — "hey, don't compel people, don't force people" like the Iranian police forcing people to wear the hijab. Rather Allah Ta'ala is saying, even if you wanted to, you can't. There is no compulsion in faith. Because faith is what? Internal. And what is the condition of the heart that cannot be ruled by kings and by governments?

The One Who Rules the Hearts

Like the example of the Banu Abbasi king — he was sitting with his beautiful queen on his terrace, and there was a thundering sound. They thought: is an earthquake happening? What's going on? Natural disaster? He sent someone out, and they returned to say: the great Muhaddith was teaching his dars of hadith and he sneezed. Not a very loud sneeze — a normal sneeze. But he said, الحمد لله. And then the hundreds of thousands of students all together said, يَرْحَمُكَ اللهُ. So that was the thundering sound.

So then the queen tells the king: you think you are the king? Who is the real king? The one who rules the bodies, or the one who rules the hearts? The one who rules the hearts. The one who has the love of the people, the devotion.

In any case, the nature of deen is — it's from the heart. لَا إِكْرَاهَ فِي الدِّينِ, there can be no compulsion.

The Sunnah Method: Working on the Hearts First

And if you look at the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ, how did he bring the deen about? How did he bring that huge change where he took that mushrik nation — which was steeped in shirk from the aqidah perspective, from the akhlaq perspective, from the perspective of huquq ul-ibad, the rights of fellow human beings? Rights of women — they were burying daughters, innocent girls, alive:

And when the girl buried alive is asked — for what sin was she killed?

The weak were being oppressed. Murder, hijacking, robbery, killing — normal behavior. So how did he turn them into the Sahaba, رِضْوَانُ اللهِ عَلَيْهِمْ أَجْمَعِينَ? Allah declared His pleasure for them while they're still working on the surface of the earth. How did he do that — this amazing, unparalleled transition? Did he do it by enacting laws and morality police cracking down on protesters? No. He first worked on their hearts.

The Effort of Makkah al-Mukarramah: Building Iman

That is what we have — the whole effort of Makkah al-Mukarramah. The effort of Makkah al-Mukarramah was developing the iman, strengthening the iman. So tawheed, risalah, and akhirah — these three concepts were continually reinforced in the Makki ayaat, in the Makki surahs.

The Definition of Makki and Madani Surahs

We have the surahs of the Quran — the Makki surahs and the Madani surahs. What is the definition of a Makki surah? What is the definition of a Madani surah? There are different opinions.

The one that typically comes to mind: a Makki surah is revealed in Makkah, obviously, and a Madani surah is revealed in Madinah. That may be true most of the time, but not all of the time. One simple problem with that distinction is: what about the surahs revealed in different areas, in Tabuk? Tabuk is far from both Makkah and Madinah.

The other problem is, there are ayaat which were revealed in Makkah but after the Hijrah. Rasulullah ﷺ came to Makkah in the sixth year for Umrah, which became Hudaybiyyah. The seventh year he performed the Umrah. The eighth year he came for Fath-e-Makkah. The tenth year he came for Hajjatul Wada'.

So all of these ayaat that were revealed at Hudaybiyyah — Surah al-Fath — or at the time of Hajjatul Wada', such as:

Today I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as your religion.

Are these going to be Makki ayaat? They came right at the end! So they're not Makki ayaat. What are they? Madani ayaat. The preferred opinion — as Jalaluddin al-Suyuti mentions in Al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran:

Those ayaat and surahs revealed before the Hijrah are Makki — wherever they may have been revealed. And those revealed after the Hijrah are Madani — even if revealed in Makkah. (Al-Itqan fi Ulum al-Quran, Imam Jalaluddin al-Suyuti)

The Recurring Themes of the Makki Surahs

In the Makki surahs, the recurring themes are tawheed, risalah, akhirah — developing iman, belief in Allah, belief in Rasulullah ﷺ, and belief in the Akhirah. This was instilled, hammered, hammered, hammered, hammered into the hearts. Until that level of yaqeen was developed:

The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord, and so have the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers, saying: "We make no distinction between any of His messengers." And they say: "We hear and we obey. Grant us Your forgiveness, our Lord. And to You is the final destination."

They all believe in Allah, His angels and His Messengers. لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ — we do not distinguish between the Prophets. Does this mean they are all of the same rank? No. As Allah says:

Those Messengers — We favored some over others.

So when the ayah says لَا نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ, it means: we do not distinguish by believing in some and rejecting others. It is not a negation of difference in rank.

سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا — we hear and we obey. This is just like Allah Ta'ala mentions regarding the Jews, they also said سَمِعْنَا. So as far as hearing is concerned, it's the same — they both have good hearing. But after that the paths diverge. The Jews said سَمِعْنَا وَعَصَيْنَا — we hear and we disobey. The Sahaba said سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا — we hear and we obey.

The Madani Surahs: The Ahkam Come After Iman

Thereafter we come to Madinah — then the ahkam come. Any student of Quran knows: what are the Madani surahs primarily about? Of course, the imaniyyat are always there. But primarily the Madani surahs have ahkam — injunctions. Injunctions pertaining to the rights of Allah. Injunctions pertaining to the rights of fellow human beings. The ibadat, the muamalat — all of those injunctions come in Madinah.

So this is the tartib. This is the order. This is the divine order of Allah as implemented by Rasulullah ﷺ. And if you want to reverse the order, then we will end up having what we are seeing — massive protests, people burning the hijab, people cutting their hair. And then dhulm on the other side as well. This is a fact of not following the order taught to us by Allah in the Quran, and taught to us by the implementation of Rasulullah ﷺ in the Noble Sunnah.

The Level of Iman the Sahaba Reached

We have examples that after the iman was built, after the iman was developed, they would say: SubhanAllah, if we see something with our own eyes versus if we hear something that you have said — what will we do? We will disbelieve what our eyes are seeing and we will believe what you have said. When that level of iman was developed — as the poet of Rasulullah ﷺ, Abdullah ibn Rawahah, said:

"You showed us the path of guidance after we were blind and in ignorance, and in our hearts we have full conviction — whatever you said, it is going to come to pass."

Now after that, when the order comes, what do we see? Immediate compliance. Any protests? No protests.

The Prohibition of Alcohol: A Striking Example

One example is hijab — that was our current example, we began the story with. But if you take something that was perhaps even more difficult for them: the addiction to wine. Because khamr — wine — it's a scientific fact that this is something people get addicted to. There is a level of addiction, it's very very hard to kick the habit. There is a dependency on it. The person is medically addicted to wine, to alcohol.

And the Arabs — if you look at it from the literature perspective — they had hundreds of different names, hundreds of names for different types of wines. It was such a part of their culture, part of their poetry. From the different dates, and the grapes of Taif, they would make red wine, and white wine, and so many different wines. They would drink wine, and they would even give wine to the earth — as their poetry says:

"And the earth too has its share from the cup of the noble." — They would drink the wine, and the leftover drops they would give to the earth and say: O earth, you also drink with me — if they had no drinking companion. The nadeem is the drinking companion.

Now, when the order came — SubhanAllah — that khamr is haram, what do we see? Those who had it buried underground — it's basically rotten grape juice. Think about it: if you take grape juice and let it rot until foam starts coming out of it — that's called fermentation. It's rotten grape juice. They took it out and broke it. If it was in the pitchers, they spilled it. If it was in the bottle, now in your own personal cup — they spilled it. If it was in the mouth and they heard the order — they spat it out. Allahu Akbar! If it was already ingested and in the stomach, vomiting was induced and it was expelled. SubhanAllah. This was the level of compliance.

Comparison With the American Prohibition

It's a beautiful example, because we can compare and contrast it with the Prohibition Act passed by the United States Congress. The Congress decided to ban alcohol in this country in the early 1900s — that's where Al Capone of Chicago became so famous, because he was making illegal alcohol, bootlegging and selling it. The sale of alcohol, transfer of alcohol — all of this was prohibited.

But the entire exercise failed. It was a big failure. In fact, the illegal industry took over, and they were making so much money. The government, what did they want to do? Tax. So the movement for legalization — marijuana legalization, making all the drugs legal — why? Then we can tax it. Just like gambling, casinos. What's the benefit of casinos to the government? Taxing. So that's why they said: let's make it legal, so we can tax it. Otherwise, the criminals are making money and we are losing out on that.

Compare that with the prohibition of alcohol in the era of Rasulullah ﷺ — the ultimate success. This shows us that we have to work on developing iman, and after we develop the iman, that ability is created, that strength of conviction is there.

Complete Submission: Internal and External

But no, by your Lord! They do not truly believe until they make you the judge in all matters of dispute between them, then find within themselves no discomfort from what you have judged, and submit in full submission.

It's not only that they submit. Allah Ta'ala says, فَلَا وَرَبِّكَ — I swear by your Lord, O Nabi ﷺ. Allah took an oath. لَا يُؤْمِنُونَ — they can never be true believers until they make you the judge in all matters. And after you make a judgment, it's not only that they comply — compliance is for sure. But on top of compliance: لَا يَجِدُوا فِي أَنفُسِهِمْ حَرَجًا — they should have no ill feeling in their heart. They should have complete acceptance, pleasure, and happiness to fulfill whatever your order is. That is complete submission — external submission and internal submission of the heart.

My head is bowed down in submission — whatever my beloved asks of me.

Application for Us Today

May Allah grant us the hikmah, grant us the wisdom to follow the Sunnah of Rasulullah ﷺ, and grant us that iman. As I mentioned in the beginning — we're not here to discuss just what's happening in Iran and the political conditions of the world and current events, but rather how that applies to us.

For ourselves, we have to work on iman. And also for our children — as parents and as educators — for our students and for the rest of the community. What is the order? We have to work on developing iman. And as the iman develops, then we introduce the ahkam.

When it comes to a conflict and they're arguing about the ahkam — that means we have to worry about iman. Now there are further details of how this would be implemented, but time is short and we cannot continue with that. But in general, this is the condition.

A Practical Example: The Parent and the Teenager

SubhanAllah. A parent came to me and said: on the dinner table while we're eating, my son — a teenager — just said, "I'm not a Muslim anymore." I said "shut up, be quiet." Then I said, "let's go for salah after the meal." He said, "I'm not praying with you." Then I beat him. I forced him. Then after the salah, he tried to attempt suicide. He tried to drown himself.

So in this situation, what are we going to say? We don't beat him up like the Iranian morality police. What are you going to do? Work on developing iman.

If your child is already praying, do you have to worry about this? InshaAllah, no. We can continue working further on strengthening iman. Don't pull back on ahkam. The Prophet ﷺ said:

Command your children to perform salah when they are seven years of age, and discipline them for it when they are ten. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Hadith 495)

That is there. You should continue to instruct them. But when there is a problem of iman being so weak — to the extent that he is literally doing kufr and irtidad at this point — then what do we need to work on? Ahkam or iman? We have to work on iman.

May Allah grant us all iman, and khataman iman — a seal of faith. Grant us hikmah and correct understanding of the deen.

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Second Khutbah

Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we seek His help, we seek His forgiveness, we believe in Him, and we trust in Him. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls, and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him. We bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and none worthy of worship except Him. And we bear witness that our Master and our Prophet is Muhammad, His servant and Messenger, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and companions, all of them.

Indeed, Allah and His angels send blessings upon the Prophet. O you who have believed, ask Allah to confer blessing upon him and ask Allah to grant him peace.

Indeed, Allah commands justice, goodness, and giving to relatives, and He forbids immorality, evil, and transgression. He admonishes you, so that you may remember.

Announcements

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Sadaqah removes calamities and draws the mercy of Allah. (Al-Mu'jam al-Awsat, al-Tabarani, Hadith 5452)

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Three important announcements:

Tonight after Isha Salah: We have a very respectable guest speaker that is well-known — Sheikh Hussain Abdus Sattar Sahib, حَفِظَهُ اللهُ. He will be addressing the community on the topic of sleep — the Sunnah and the science. How we can have healthy, productive lives — a great, if not the greatest, portion of our life passes in this action of sleeping. How can we ensure that this action of sleep is according to the Sunnah? And how can we capitalize on this up to one-third of our life?

Tomorrow InshaAllah: Continuing Team Fajr. We have a program after Fajr — iqama at 6 AM — with a special guest appearance. Community breakfast will follow.

This Sunday: The monthly sisters-only dars with Mufti Azimuddin Ahmed after Dhuhr Salah. Please send our mothers, daughters, wives, and sisters for this program.

Weekly programs: Monday nights — Bukhari dars continuing. Tuesday nights — Tafsir program with Mufti Azimuddin. Thursday nights — weekly salawat gatherings.

Next weekend: Chicago's annual regional ijtima regarding the effort of iman — the same iman that is lacking, which results in deficiency in following the ahkam. How can we develop that iman and yaqeen? It is regarding this same concept, which we touched on briefly today, that will be discussed in greater detail at Jahan Masjid on Devon, starting from Friday October 7th to Asr on Sunday October 9th. All brothers are requested to join so we can all work on the effort of iman.

Request for du'as: For the Uyghur Muslims in China — the ongoing genocide, forced labor, starvation. May Allah make it easy for them.

Request for du'a of maghfirah: For sister Anwar Fatima, who has passed away, رَحِمَهَا اللهُ. May Allah Ta'ala shower His mercy upon her and grant sabr to the family.

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ. JazakAllah khair.