Experiencing the Sweetness of Faith Through Three Essential Qualities

The Sweetness of Faith: Three Essential Qualities

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ has mentioned in a hadith:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 16; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 67)

That there are three qualities, when found within a person, he will experience the sweetness of faith. The sweetness of faith is something that, subhanAllah, many people have experienced before.

Perhaps in the month of Ramadan, after exerting ourselves — reading Qur'an, performing salah, making dua — if you were to ask and take a poll: how many people feel more connected to their creator? How many people feel more in tune with their deen and more closer to Allah? How many people have experienced sweetness in their worship and in their obedience of Allah compared to before the month of Ramadan? You will find the vast majority, if not all of them, will say that they truly felt the difference. And it's evidently apparent why.

Our connection with Allah is similar to an internet connection when it comes to picking up the WiFi signal. The further you are from the router, the further you are from the building, or the more barriers between you and the router, the greater the distance, the less the quality of that connection. And when it comes to Allah, the same stands true — the greater the distance between the servant and the Creator, the weaker the connection. But this distance is not that of a physical distance. This distance is created through vice and through sin and through negligence of the various commandments of Allah.

Rasulullah ﷺ gave us a recipe — a way whereby inculcating, inshallah, these three qualities, we will find that we will be able to maintain that relationship with our Creator, and we will be able to continue experiencing those wonderful moments that we have all tasted bits and pieces of.

Imam Nawawi rahimahullah, when defining this, mentions: what is truly the sweetness of faith? He says the sweetness of faith, according to him, is:

When a person enjoys carrying out actions — acts of obedience — and he enjoys taking on difficulties for the sake of Allah. Every single person finds great difficulty — illa mashallah — the vast majority of people will find immense difficulty in reading Qur'an, immense difficulty in coming to the masjid on time to pray their salah. Many may even find immense difficulty in praying salah, because this is something which the nafs dislikes.

We may find it strange — how is a person supposed to like these things? But it is possible when you ponder about another example. How do you like bringing strenuous activities to the soul? How do you enjoy difficulties? You can understand this from a person who is working out. When you go and you lift weights, you're experiencing excruciating pain — if not immediately, definitely later on. But then when the habit kicks in, you'll find that person will religiously go every single day. And you will even hear them telling you: I enjoy the pain, I enjoy the feeling.

Or when a person wants to eat spicy food — a person who particularly enjoys eating spicy food — their whole face is turning red, they are perspiring from head to foot, drowning in their sweat, and you can see the difficulty on this person. Yet with so much relish, he continues to take bite after bite.

So similarly, a person, when inculcating these three qualities, will begin to look forward to these acts of worship. He will look forward to opportunities when he can sacrifice his life for the sake of Allah. What a wonderful relationship. What a wonderful thing to have.

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

Rasulullah ﷺ says the first quality is:

Number one: Allah and His Messenger are more beloved to him than anyone and everything else. What does this mean? The relationship between Allah and the Messenger with the ordinary Muslim — Allah with His servants, Rasulullah ﷺ with his ummah — is a relationship of love.

The scholars, the ulama, the mashayikh mention: if you want to understand how to create a relationship with Allah — which is a common question that everyone asks — how do I connect myself to my Creator? I feel so down, I feel so far away. So, أَنْ يَكُونَ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَحَبَّ إِلَيْهِ مِمَّا سِوَاهُمَا — it means that Allah and His Rasul ﷺ become a preference and a priority in their life.

Like if a person is fond of someone else — when you have a relationship with your spouse, they become your priority in life. If every single time the spouse is telling you to do a particular thing, and you keep saying, oh, I forgot, oh, I didn't do this, I forgot to take out the trash today, oh, I forgot to call, oh, I forgot to do the groceries — initially it will be overlooked. But if you find that happening again and again and again, what happens? Even non-Muslim psychologists have mentioned that the most important thing for a male in a relationship is respect, and the most important thing for a female is appreciation and love. But when the male constantly ignores the female or the female constantly ignores the male, then you'll find a rift slowly begins to form.

If Allah and His Rasul ﷺ are the most beloved, then that means they are a priority in our lives. If Allah and His Rasul are a priority in our lives, that means whatever Allah wants from me to do, I'm going to do it. No questions asked, because I love Allah.

We say so many times we love Allah — but Allah grants us the yardstick whereby we measure our relationship with our Creator. Allah mentions in the Quran:

If you truly love Allah, then follow Rasulullah ﷺ. That is the yardstick. How many commandments of Allah are we carrying out, and how many commandments are we ignoring? This is something for each and every single one of us to ponder about. But if Allah and His Rasul were truly, truly, truly a priority in our lives, then would we ever disobey them?

So many of us are disobeying Allah left and right and claiming to love Him. This is logically impossible. How can that add up? If you truly loved Allah, if you truly loved Rasulullah ﷺ, you would have obeyed them. Truly, that one who loves another obeys them. So Allah and His Rasul have to become a priority in our lives.

To this extent, Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 15; Sahih Muslim, Book 1, Hadith 69)

None of us will ever be true believers until I — Rasulullah ﷺ — become more beloved to them than their own parents. Generally, the most beloved person to a human being is their father or mother. And not every individual may have children, but every individual, by the mere fact of entering into this world, at one point in time had two parents. So more beloved than one's parents — and not even that, but more beloved than one's own children. You'll find a person will be ready to sacrifice themselves before sacrificing their own child. Rasulullah ﷺ has to become more beloved to us than even our own children, and وَالنَّاسِ أَجْمَعِينَ — even more than ourselves.

How Do We Cultivate This Love for Allah?

When it comes to Allah, Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned in a hadith of Imam al-Tirmidhi:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3789)

Love Allah because of the various different bounties that He has showered you with. Just think about the different bounties Allah has blessed you with. When you adopt this path of gratitude, a person excels and raises in multiple ranks, extremely swiftly to Allah. Those barriers are knocked down right and left.

One path is a path of complete negativity — when looking outside, you'll see maybe other people have been blessed with better cars than you, better homes than you, better health than you, better knowledge than you, more beauty than you. If you're going to constantly look at those individuals who are better than you, and constantly complain, then you're actually going to get further and further away and become more and more bitter.

Whereas perhaps a person may have a better car than you — you should think, subhanAllah, at least my car gets me from point A to point B and I don't have to worry. And if you don't have a car, you can think of those who have to constantly jumpstart their car every single time. And if you're riding a bicycle and your life feels miserable, you can look at those individuals who don't have limbs.

You may be on the street suffering — may Allah protect every single one of us from all types of calamities — but in every condition, if we are to look at those who are lower than us and contemplate more on the bounties Allah has granted us, we will appreciate Him more. We may be on the street, but think, subhanAllah, at least I am healthy. That other person may be living in a wonderful mansion but suffering from cancer. Allah has protected me.

Or at the very bare minimum, perhaps someone may have even lost all of their limbs. He can think to himself: alhamdulillah, Allah has blessed me with faith and blessed me with iman. That is only a limited amount of time. Let me do my duty to serve my Creator and then I will be enjoying limitlessly.

So number one: adopt a path of gratitude. أَحِبُّوا اللَّهَ لِمَا يَغْذُوكُمْ بِهِ مِنْ نِعَمِهِ — love Allah because of the various bounties He has granted you.

Number two: we can constantly take the name of Allah. إِذَا تَكَرَّرَ تَقَرَّبَ. Give da'wah. Constantly call others toward the greatness of Allah. This is something which, in the vast majority of Muslims throughout the world, is becoming completely extinct. When was the last time we spoke to our children in such a manner where we spoke about the greatness of Allah? Look at how kind Allah is — He granted us this, and He granted us that. Look at how amazing Allah is that He causes the sun to rise every single day meticulously like clockwork.

I remember our Ustaz Muhammad, hafidhahullah — he would bring his children, his daughters when they were very young, to the madrasa. The madrasa was on top of a hill, a hill station, and you could see various different farms around. He would bring his children in the summer and show them the various different farms that are growing, mashallah very green and blooming with various different crops. And then when it came closer to wintertime, when all the crops began to turn brown, he would bring them back again. He would ask: who came here and took a paintbrush and painted all of the various different plants? Allah is the one who caused them to be green, and then later on Allah causes them to slowly wilt away and turn brown. Then he would bring them back later on when they were about to grow and sprout — small sprouts — and he would ask them: how did this come about again?

These are all various different opportunities to introduce the greatness of Allah. How many times have we had this conversation with our children? How many times have we had this conversation with our spouses, with our relatives? When you think about different things that happened in your life — sometimes there are miraculous things which occurred, things that do not make any sense whatsoever — but if you think about the fact that it was Allah who is looking after us, who is taking care of things for us, then subhanAllah, it becomes a time to reflect on the greatness of Allah, and a person begins to appreciate Allah and develop his connection with Allah much more.

Additionally, we can constantly take the name of Allah. We've heard various things growing up — Romeo and Juliet — the more you love someone, the more you take their name with relish. When it comes to the hadith:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1; Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 4692)

We find that Rasulullah ﷺ says:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 1; Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Hadith 4692)

Whoever migrated for the sake of Allah, then he did so for the sake of Allah. But when it came to migration for other purposes — such as marriage, etc. — then he did it for whatever purpose he did it. The scholars mention: why did Rasulullah ﷺ take the name of Allah multiple times in this hadith? When it came to the love of Allah — doing it for the sake of Allah — he said, you've done it for the sake of Allah, for the sake of Allah. When it came to something else, then you did it for whatever purpose. They have mentioned: because of laddhat — because of enjoying taking the name of Allah — such was his appreciation for Allah that he took His name again.

So we take the name of Allah tens if not hundreds of times a day. But how in tune are we? Unfortunately, addressing myself first, our condition is such — it's so pitiful, it's so sad. We are standing performing salah, even those who regularly come to the masjid for all five daily prayers. We have various different problems, various different issues, and we're standing in salah saying Allahu Akbar — Allah is the Greatest — and in every single rak'ah we're saying:

You alone do we worship, You alone do we seek help from. We are taking the name of Allah — it's coming on our lips and it is audible to us — but yet we're thinking about others, other people, other things besides Allah. How far have we gotten?

When we say Allahu Akbar, do we actually mean Allahu Akbar? When we're taking the name of Allah, we have to concentrate on what we are saying. We have to ponder about the meaning. Allah is the Greatest. SubhanAllah. When you're in your sujud, when you're in your ruku', you contemplate — you ponder about what you're reciting: Subhana Rabbiya al-A'la, Subhana Rabbiya al-Azeem. So when you're making dhikr of Allah, make it with understanding of what you are saying, and inshallah that would result in a greater connection with Allah.

There are many other things a person can do as well — attending lectures wherein the greatness of Allah is being spoken about. Many times, unfortunately, we hear the call from the front of the masjid that my success, your success, the success of all of mankind is in following the commandments of Rasulullah ﷺ, following the commandments of Allah as taught to us by Rasulullah ﷺ. And we know and understand through experience that the lecturers are talking many of the times about the greatness of Allah. And we feel — astaghfirullah — in fact we hear this too: when a person gives his whole entire khutbah about the greatness of Allah, someone says, he spoke about nothing, just fluff, I didn't even — there was no point in even coming to the khutbah today.

You're talking about the greatness of Allah — what does that say about your connection with Allah, that you are passing such a comment? There is a point. And we should do it — it will increase our iman, it will increase our connection with Allah. How else is Allah going to become the most beloved to us if we are not making Allah a priority?

How Do We Cultivate Love for the Prophet ﷺ?

Secondly, sending salawat upon the Messenger — how does he become the most beloved? Send salawat. The more you remember Rasulullah ﷺ, the sacrifices that Rasulullah ﷺ made for us — the fact that we are enjoying this pristine deen — subhanAllah, look at others around us. We are so fortunate. Look at people who are following other religions — they don't have a clear path of success, they don't have a way to live their lives. Every single thing for us is chalked out. And this is because of the efforts of Rasulullah ﷺ. Read about the life of Rasulullah ﷺ. Read about his exemplary character. This is something for us to ponder about.

The Second Quality: Loving Others Solely for the Sake of Allah

The second quality Rasulullah ﷺ mentioned:

When a person loves another and he loves them only for the sake of Allah. Many of us have various different friends and different connections. But how many of those connections are truly for the sake of Allah?

It's so strange nowadays if a person texts us and says: assalamu alaykum, how are you doing? Are you free? I just wanted to meet you. We wonder — what agenda does this person have? What does he want to ask me? What's going on? But if we're doing it just to meet them for the sake of Allah... When was the last time — we should think to ourselves — when was the last time we visited someone, anyone in this world, truly solely for the purpose of just visiting them because we love them for the sake of Allah?

How do you know that you love someone for the sake of Allah? The scholars have mentioned:

That no matter how kind they are or how harsh they are — as my teacher would say, straight talk breaks no friendship. If you're doing something wrong and a person is upfront with you and telling you you're doing something wrong, it won't decrease the love that you have for that individual. And if he goes out of his way and gets you a gift, it does not dramatically increase your love for that individual. That's a sign that you truly love him for the sake of Allah. How many of us have such relationships in our lives? And we should endeavor towards creating and entertaining more such relationships. This is the second quality.

The Third Quality: Abhorring Sin and Disbelief

The last quality Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned:

That a person dislikes falling into disbelief — or for us, an act of disbelief — just as much as he would hate falling into the fire. In other words, he would rather fall into a fire than commit that treacherous act or go back to that bad habit which Allah has protected him from, which Allah has saved him from.

Summary of the Three Qualities

So these are the three qualities:

One: Loving Allah and His Rasul ﷺ and granting them priority over everyone and everything else.

Two: Loving others solely for the sake of Allah.

Three: Abhorring sin. This is the lowest level of iman, as we have heard. Many different lecturers have mentioned this — particularly last week, Mufti ibn Hajj, hafidhahullah, I believe, gave the example. He said, Rasulullah ﷺ said: at the bare minimum, if you see something which you don't have the ability to physically change, and you don't have the ability to speak against it, at the very bare minimum, feel that it is wrong in your heart.

And subhanAllah, our state — many of us are walking past various different things. The culture of America is live and let live, such that we don't even care what's happening around us. At the bare minimum, we should dislike what is going on. We should develop a hatred for the sake of Allah. And we should feel bad for the others — subhanAllah, Allah has blessed us with such deen and these people are so deprived. And we should have that desire to also bring others to this deen.

May Allah grant us all the ability to implement all of these three characteristics. May Allah grant us the ability to all experience and maintain the halawah of iman. Alhamdulillahi rabbil 'alamin.

Announcements

All the brothers can stand up please and fill in all of the gaps. All of the gaps that you see in front of you — especially when the brothers are moving forward, you'll find in the two wings of the back of the masjid there'll be a lot of space. So if all the brothers can kindly continue moving forward, do not stop until every single spot in front of you is full. Constantly move forward inshallah, and then you can perform your sunnah. Jazakumullah khairan.

Alhamdulillah, our Tafheem weekend programs have already started. Enrollment for Fall 2024 is still open — it began August 17th. If anyone would like to enroll, you can do so online.

We also have our maktab after-school programs. Registration is now open for boys age 7 and above, as well as girls age 6 and above. You can enroll your kids online at masjidds.org/quranwithtajweed.

Alhamdulillah, our curriculum night today is from Asr to Maghrib Salah. Generally we wonder what is taught over a period of 7 years in this institution and other such institutions where a person becomes an 'alim. So inshallah, if you are interested and would like to know truly what is taught and what takes so long to master — what there is to learn about the deen of Islam — then that's a good opportunity today from Asr Salah to Maghrib Salah.

Alhamdulillah, we also have weekly programs. Team Fajr will resume tomorrow — Fajr iqamah is at 5:30. Tuesday Tafsir will also continue after Maghrib Salah inshallah, with Surah Ghafir. We also have a weekly Urdu Sirah program, which has recently started, every Thursday after Maghrib Salah.

Additionally, please save the date for our Sirah Conference, which will inshallah be on Friday, September 13th and Saturday, September 14th. The subject matter is Rasulullah ﷺ and his family. This is not commonly spoken about from the Sunni perspective, so all brothers and sisters are humbly requested to join and participate.

In line with what we just recently spoke about, there is a summary of a hadith where a Bedouin once came to Rasulullah ﷺ and asked: when is the Day of Judgment? Rasulullah ﷺ asked him: what have you prepared for the Day of Judgment? And he thought to himself — he said, I haven't really prepared much. Not many extra voluntary prayers. But if there is one thing I have prepared, it is love for Allah and His Rasul ﷺ. Rasulullah ﷺ told him: don't worry — الْمَرْءُ مَعَ مَنْ أَحَبَّ — you will be with those who you truly love. After this, Anas radiallahu anhu and others said there was no day which was more beloved to them, and a more joyous occasion, than that day — because every one of them truly loved Rasulullah ﷺ. (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6170; Sahih Muslim, Book 45, Hadith 2640)

We should ask ourselves — when we look at the lives of other great scholars who sacrificed their whole lives for Allah and His Rasul ﷺ, who have been teaching for over 60 years, and they passed such statements as: Ya Allah, I have not prepared anything truly for that day — then where do you and I stand? And can we even say that we truly have love for Allah and His Rasul ﷺ?

So these opportunities and seminars should definitely be attended. We should mark this on our calendar and make it a point to come. This is a way to reignite our love for Allah and His Rasul ﷺ — for those whose candle has burnt out, and inshallah for every single one of us whose light may be a little bit dim, it's a time to further enhance those flames inshallah.

We also have our annual benefit dinner, which will be at Shalimar Braidwood on Saturday, October 5th, 2024, with our guest speaker, Sheikh Hussein Sattar, hafidhahullah. Tickets can be purchased by scanning the QR codes on the flyers displayed outside.

Also, save the date for the 7th Annual Winter Intensive, which will be starting Saturday, December 21st through Tuesday, December 24th.

Masjid al-Bayt al-Huda, Evanston needs $200,000 by September 23rd to purchase the masjid. Please join their fundraising dinner on Friday, September 13th. That individual who supports the cause of building a house for the sake of Allah — as the Prophet ﷺ said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 450; Sahih Muslim, Book 4, Hadith 1084)

Allah will build a mansion for them in Jannah. Imagine how long it takes to secure a house for ourselves in this world — some of us pass away without even doing so. But this is the opportunity to attain a house in Jannah.

The students' gathering will also be on Friday, August 30th at Dar es Salaam — that is next week — immediately after Asr Salah.

There is also a du'a request for many individuals, particularly for our brothers and sisters who are suffering throughout the world — in Palestine, in Bangladesh, and many other places. Please make du'a for Azhar Farooqi, who has undergone liver surgery, and also for his mother. Please make du'a for Sister Noor Farooqi for her health. Sister Rubina Mohsin will also have open heart surgery — please make du'a for her shifa and a successful surgery. And also pray for the health and safety of Adiba Shirin and Afnan.

May Allah grant all those who are sick and all those who are ailing, shifa. Ameen.