The Essence of Imaan | Mufti Abdul Rahman Waheed | Miftaah Banquet 2022

The Essence of Imaan

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ، نَحْمَدُهُ، وَنُصَلِّي عَلَى رَسُولِهِ الْكَرِيمِ، وَمَا بَعْدُ.

Dear brothers and sisters, there was a great scholar, his name was Yahya bin Mu'adh al-Razi رَحِمَهُ اللَّهُ, and he summarized knowledge in four statements. These four statements are mentioned in a book called Shu'ab al-Iman.

I want to share what he deemed to be something that we must have — a knowledge that we must have. These four things are the most important pieces of information a person can acquire.

The Four Pillars of Knowledge

First: Everything Is From Allah

The first thing he says:

First of all, they understand, they know, they recognize that every single thing they have is from Allah. Nothing they have came from their own experience, their expertise. Nothing they have came because they deserved it.

They understand that everything came from Allah. Everything will happen because of Allah. If something did not happen, it happened because Allah did not want it to happen.

When Ubadah bin Samit رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ was on his deathbed, and his son came to him, his son said, "Dad, give me a parting advice." And his dad said to him:

(Reported by Imam Ahmad in his Musnad and referenced in various collections of the narrations of the Companions)

"Oh my son, if you want to reach the essence of imaan, you cannot reach it until you understand that what happened to you could not have escaped you, and what escaped you could never have happened to you." This is from Allah.

November 8th is my youngest brother's birthday. He was going to be 24 years old a few days ago, but he is with Allah. He passed away two years ago as a shaheed, رَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ.

I remember a month before that, Sheikh Abdullah was telling me that we have to buy our brother a bigger car, a truck or an SUV — it's not safe in Michigan, the roads. And I said, yeah, we should, it's a good idea. But you know how we always stall things. One week went by, two weeks went by, then he said it again: "We should buy him a better car. His car is not good. We need to give him a better car."

Little did we know that a month later, he was driving a car that had no safety features. It was a Chevy HHR — it doesn't belong on the road. It was only built for two, three years, and after that they stopped making this car. And in this car, he was driving on a low-speed road. There was a front-end impact, and he passed away on the spot, رَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ. The person who hit him was driving an SUV, a bigger car. Nothing happened to that person. Nothing happened to the car. But my younger brother رَحْمَةُ اللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ was driving this small car, because of which he passed away instantly.

Now, after that happened, it comes to your mind — people speak and say, "How about if he was driving a bigger car? How about if he had bought a big SUV before? Maybe this would not have happened." But we understand, because we have faith in Allah, that even if he had a tank that day, that was a moment he had to leave this world, and that is the place he had to leave this world. Nothing could have saved him from that.

The first piece of knowledge is:

All of us who are sitting here right now, we know what we have at home — our possessions, our time. Now change our mindset about that: everything is from Allah.

Second: Return Everything Back to Allah

Now they recognize that everything they have, they take it all and give it back to Allah. Whatever resource they have, whatever money they have, whatever time they have — they take it all and they run back to Allah.

Third: Seek Everything Only From Allah

The third thing: now they only seek from Allah. Everything that they want, they take it only from Allah. Iqbal says: it is possible that from your du'as, your destiny won't change — but it is also very likely that the more du'a you make, you yourself will change.

Now they seek everything only from Allah.

Fourth: Attribute All Good Back to Allah

The fourth piece of knowledge: anything good that happens in their life, they don't attribute it to themselves — they attribute it to Allah. That Allah gave me tawfiq for this.

Now we take these four things today: the money that we have, the time that we have — if we understand it's not mine anyway, then what we give to Allah will be more cherished.

Our Response to Four States of Life

Allah does not look at us in the situation — Allah looks at us at our response to the situation. Human beings are usually in four situations.

1. Prosperity — Respond with Shukr

The first situation is times of prosperity. Allah gives prosperity to everybody, but He judges us by our response to it. He gave money to Qarun, Fir'awn, and Haman — but He also gave money to Dawud عَلَيْهِ السَّلَام, Sulayman عَلَيْهِ السَّلَام, and Abdurrahman ibn Auf رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ, likewise. He doesn't look at us in that situation, but He looks at our response to it. So what is the response to prosperity? It is shukr.

2. Adversity — Respond with Sabr

The second situation is adversity. Everyone goes through adversity, but Allah judges us by our response to adversity. And the response to adversity is being patient — sabr.

3. Obedience — Respond with Acknowledgement of Allah's Tawfiq

The third situation that we find ourselves in is obedience. Right now we are in the obedience of Allah. Now Allah is going to look at us — not that we are here, but what is our response to being given the chance to be here?

Have you ever thought about this: in the adhan, every single time the mu'adhin says something, we respond with the same words — Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. Ashhadu an la ilaha illallah, Ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasulullah. The only time we don't respond with the same words is at Hayya 'alas salah, Hayya 'alal falah.

What do we say at Hayya 'alas salah?

From this we are saying to Allah: La hawla — hawl means raja'a — "Oh Allah, even though I am standing right here in the masjid, there is no power, no being in the world that can give me the opportunity to go from the state of negligence to obedience, other than You."

So in the state of obedience, our response is the acknowledgement of the tawfiq of Allah. We acknowledge it. We couldn't have done it on our own. We couldn't have been here on our own. We acknowledge the tawfiq of Allah.

4. Disobedience — Respond with Tawbah

The fourth state is disobedience, and we know the response to disobedience, which is tawbah. So may Allah make us among those who respond in every situation the way Allah wants us to respond.

We Are Ambassadors, Not Tourists

Understand that Allah put us here — we are not tourists in this world, rather we are ambassadors. We have not come here on our own; we have been sent here. And an ambassador has to answer to the country that sends him when he goes back. We are not just here to go around sightseeing, but Allah has sent us to this world for a purpose, and Allah will ask us: "I gave you all these things — how did you respond to them?"

Jazakallah khair. Assalamu'alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.