Acquiring Paradise - Mufti Minhajuddin Ahmed

Acquiring Paradise

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ، الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَىٰ وَسَلَامٌ عَلَىٰ عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَىٰ، أَمَّا بَعْدُ

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, respected elders and young students, assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

The Kalima of Salvation

Indeed, as you all know, the kalima of najah — the statement of testification for the oneness of Allah that is necessary for our salvation — is none other than:

If a person has the proper belief in this kalima, then that person will attain salvation in the hereafter — for sure — no matter how great in number, quantity, and quality his sins might be. The one who dies with this kalima لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ مُحَمَّدٌ رَّسُولُ اللَّهِ — his final destination for eternity will be Jannah.

And when I say regardless of how many sins he might commit, what this means is that the final destination will be Jannah — either he will have a direct flight to Jannah without any stops, without any places as a transit stop, or a person might have to go via Jahannam. There are two options.

As Allah says: if Allah wishes, He may forgive those sins a person may have committed and grant him direct entrance into Jannah. Or if Allah wishes — and He is the being who has the right to make His decision; no one can question Allah, He is the one who questions everyone else — He can decide that a person will burn in the fire of Jahannam. For how long? For as long as Allah decrees, as an expiation, as a kafara for all of the sins a person committed. And then eventually that person will also enter Jannah. Every single person will enter Jannah who dies with the kalima لَا إِلَٰهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ. And how long will they remain in Jannah? They will remain therein forever.

The Intercession of the Prophet on the Day of Judgment

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam will intercede on behalf of many sinners directly on the Day of Judgment, and they will enter into Jannah directly. Many will skip the hisab and the reckoning. Many will cross over the Sirat at the speed of lightning. There are different levels of the intercession and shafa'a of the muznibin — of the sinners — done by Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Then he will ask Allah: "O Allah, there are people who still have iman in Jahannam. O Allah, can I intercede on their behalf?" He will go and bring them out from Jahannam. Then he will go a second time and he will bring more out. Then he will say: "O Allah, there are still some more of my followers who have recited the kalima and died on the kalima. Can I intercede on their behalf?" And he will go on their behalf as well — he will be granted permission to intercede on their behalf — and he will go and bring them out from the fire of Jahannam.

Finally the situation will come that the person who had just a flicker of iman, of belief — and he has not a single good deed to his credit; he never did a single good amal; his entire life he followed his desires and committed all sorts of crimes and sins; he did not do a single good deed; he barely had any iman, but he had iman — he will also come out from the fire of Jahannam.

The Last Person to Enter Jannah

A rigorously authenticated narration of Sahih Muslim itself describes the condition of the last person to leave the fire of Jahannam and enter into Jannah. This is the ultimate last person — there is no one after him who will enter Jannah.

On one side is the first person who enters Jannah, and we know that to be Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said:

"Verily Jannah is haram upon all of the Prophets to enter until I enter it — meaning it is impossible, it is haram, it is forbidden for any of the Prophets to enter into Jannah until Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam enters — and Jannah is haram upon all the nations until my nation, my Ummah, enters it."

So the first person who will enter Jannah is Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said:

"The key of Jannah will be in my hands on the Day of Judgment." He is the first — awwalu man yadkhulu al-Jannah. And as for aakhiru man yadkhulu al-Jannah — the last person who will enter Jannah — this is the person mentioned in Sahih Muslim.

He was burning in the fire of Jahannam. For how long? Allah alone knows — years and years and years in the bottom of the fire of Jahannam, burning and under tortures. Many people who were in the fire of Jahannam prior to him were already taken out and sent to Jannah — different groups and groups of people were taken out and sent to Jannah — but he was so bad he did not qualify for those groups. He continued to remain, continued to remain. And now he is the last person who will come out.

Allah will tell him to come out. Then He will take him to the Hawd of Kawthar and ask him to take a bath. And when he takes a bath in the Hawd of Kawthar, his entire body will become fresh and strong — his body will be renewed. Then he will be brought to his Jannah. When he is brought to his Jannah, he will stand there, frozen with happiness, just staring at the blessings, looking and looking and looking, taking in the sight. Such beautiful sights that will please the eye.

As Allah says — therein We have prepared for you such beautiful blessings that your hearts will enjoy, your bodies will enjoy, and your eyes will enjoy as well. Just taking in that sight.

So he will be standing and staring. A whole hour — he is just standing, he is not moving. Second hour, third hour, 24 hours he did not move. And then another 24 hours — 48 hours, 2 days. And then 3 days, 72 hours. And a whole week, he did not move — he is just looking. He cannot believe that he is actually deserving of this Jannah. And a whole month. And a whole year.

And this hadith — that's why I mentioned before — because this seems like an exaggeration. It sounds like: wow, this is beautiful, but it's probably made up by somebody just to put the children to sleep at night. But this is Sahih Muslim. Forty years he will be enjoying the sight — 40 years he is looking. And at last, after 40 years, an angel will come and ask him: "Why are you standing here?" He says: "I cannot believe that this whole Jannah belongs to me." Then the angel will say: "Which whole Jannah?" He says: "This entire Jannah I am looking at — this all is mine, I am deserving of this." The angel will say: "You are standing outside the door. You have not even entered your Jannah. You are still — imagine — you are so entranced by the door of your Jannah. Why don't you open the door and go inside?"

The Importance of Dying Upon the Kalima

This is very beautiful — this is not even my main topic. But what I was talking about is the kalima. This kalima is so important that if we die with this kalima, then we have najah — either direct or indirect.

No one really puts it like this — why don't people really stress on this point? If you die with the kalima — who has the kalima? Everyone sitting here has the kalima, has belief in the kalima. That's why you are here on Jummah. Tomorrow is the open house for those who do not have the kalima — at 12 o'clock there is an open house for non-Muslims to come to this masjid. That's a real announcement. And today — this is not an open house for non-Muslims. This is a Jummah salah for Muslims. "O those who believe, come for Jummah" — not "O people." We didn't invite all the non-Muslims to come for Jummah; we invited them on Saturday at 12 o'clock for the open house. So this is for Muslims — these are those who have the kalima. So you have the kalima. That's why you are here, right?

So if you have the kalima, you are going to Jannah — for sure, either directly or indirectly. So if that is so easy, then why don't we just relax? No. The point is: we have to ensure we die with the kalima. And death is unknown. The possibility of having the kalima now does not necessarily mean we will die with the kalima, because the possibility of the kalima leaving a person is very real — very, very real.

That's why we have been taught to make the du'a:

"O Allah, do not allow our hearts to go astray after You have guided us." Meaning, the possibility of misguidance after guidance is a very real possibility. That's why we have been taught to seek refuge from that. If it was not possible, then we would not have been taught to seek refuge from something which is impossible.

So it is very possible. Al-i'tibaru bil khawatim — what counts is the ending. Do we die with the kalima or not? And also — going via Jahannam is easy for me to say and even easier for you to listen. But for the one who is bearing it — even this person, we just heard his happy ending, how beautiful the ending is. But how long was his torture? Is that something we want to go through? No way. No one wants to even pass by Jahannam, much less be inside of it for years. So we have to make an effort for entering Jannah directly.

Entering Jannah Through the Fadl of Allah

How are we going to enter Jannah directly? Through the fadl of Allah — not through our own a'mal. We have these discussions with the Christians sometimes from a theological perspective. They say: "You have a very arrogant perspective. You feel you will enter Paradise based on your own actions. And we are so humble — we say that Jesus is our Savior, we cannot enter Paradise based on our own actions. Who are we? What actions do we have? Such a humble, beautiful approach. That's why God sent His only begotten son into the world — he died on the cross, whoever believes he is his Savior will enter Paradise. Whereas you believe that your own actions will save you."

So if any of your co-workers or classmates at college, university, or at work object like this — "Don't you as Muslims believe your own actions will save you?" — we will say: no. We also have a Savior. Who is our Savior? Our Savior is Allah Himself. And we cannot enter Jannah based on our own actions — we enter Jannah based on the grace of Allah, the grace of God Himself. We cannot enter Paradise based on our own actions.

And is this some new-fangled interpretation suited as a response to the Christians in interfaith debates? Or does this have any substantiation from the Quran and Hadith? It has a direct dalil and evidence from the hadith itself. When Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that no one will be able to enter into Jannah based on their own actions until they have the grace of Allah. The purpose of the actions is so that we become deserving of the grace of Allah.

Then the Sahaba asked: "Even you? Can you enter Jannah based on your own actions?" He said: "No. I cannot enter Jannah based on my own actions until I am completely enshrouded and covered by the mercy of Allah. I also need the mercy of Allah."

So all our efforts are so that we become deserving of that blessing and mercy of Allah. We need Allah to be our Savior. So we have to have the correct understanding of this kalima. We have to have the correct aqeedah.

The Correct Aqeedah — Nothing Less Than 100%

The topic today actually is that we have to make an effort on correcting our aqeedah. Because when it comes to aqeedah — in belief — nothing less than 100% is acceptable. And this is markedly different from our amal, our practice, because no matter how much amal we do it will never be 100%. No matter how perfect your ibadah is, it will never be 100%. And no matter how beautiful your aqeedah is, it's never acceptable unless it's 100%.

You see the difference? Unless it's 100%, your aqeedah has no value — it's not acceptable in the court of Allah. And the practice can never be 100%. Let us give an explanation of both.

Why Our Amal Can Never Be 100%

When we come to amal — practice — when I say it will never be 100%, I mean quality wise. The quality of the ibadah can never be 100%. Take salah for example. Salah is the best form of worship, is it not? It is the pillar of our deen. Whoever establishes it, establishes the deen. Whoever destroys it has destroyed the deen. It is the first thing that will be asked about on the Day of Judgment.

So this salah — how are we trying to perfect it? What is the pinnacle of salah? The best salah, the pinnacle of salah, is the salah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. His salah is the model. As Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

"Perform salah the way you see me performing salah" — externally and internally. From the external way the salah is performed to the internal condition of his heart. Our salah, the more it mirrors and is similar to the salah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, the more perfect it is. So the pinnacle of salah is the salah of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

And what did Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself say about his salah? Did he say this salah is 100%? He actually negated it. He said: "O Allah, I have not worshipped You the way it is Your right to be worshipped." Meaning, the pinnacle that we are trying to reach cannot fulfill the haqq of Allah. For the very simple reason that we are hadith makhluq — we are finite, created individuals. Allah is infinite — infinite in His Dhat and His Sifat. How can we as finite creation ever fulfill the haqq in the right of the Infinite? It's impossible.

So we have to try our best. This is not to depress anyone — to say "Oh, I can never be 100%, so therefore I give up." No. Don't give up. We have to try our best to come close to that. And that's what we are mukallaf of and responsible for.

Why Aqeedah Must Be 100%

And when I said in regards to aqeedah nothing less than 100% is acceptable, it means that the reality of iman — the conviction in the heart, the reality of tasdiq and conviction of the heart — is that it does not have within it the possibility of doubt. If there's no possibility of doubt, of shaqq, then there's no possibility of takdhib — of rejection — for sure. So there is no possibility of doubt, no possibility of rejection within the reality of faith.

So that means a person has to have complete conviction — 100% from the bottom of his heart — in the entirety of the message conveyed to him by Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Those matters he mentioned in brief, you believe in brief. Those matters he mentioned in detail, you believe in detail — recognizing him to be the Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, without adopting any signs of disbelief. And this has to be 100%.

If a person says, "I believe in 99% of the Quran," then that person is not a believer. There was one individual — may Allah forgive him or guide him, and now he's gone — who used to say this. He didn't believe in trinity or shirk; he believed in one God. Allah is one. But he said regarding Surah Al-Ikhlas:

The word qul means "say." Allah is one. He is the being who is independent of His creation and the entire creation is dependent on Him — both meanings of samad. He has no children, nor is He begotten by parents. None of His creation is like unto Him. So this whole surah is there. But he said this qul part is not applicable anymore — that was for a particular time, Allah was addressing Muhammad. Now, what do we say? We should just say, "Allah is one, Allah is independent." This person was Muammar Gaddafi himself, who wrote that you should remove the qul.

So by rejecting two letters of the Quran — the qaf and the lam — it is equivalent to rejecting the whole Quran. A person who rejects one letter of the Quran or the whole Quran — the one who says, "This is a book of lies, I don't believe it, it's not the revealed word of God," and the one who says, "I believe in tawheed, I believe in Muhammad, I believe in everything, but I just don't believe in this qul" — it is the same. So that's why iman wise, aqeedah wise, we have to believe in the entirety of the message.

Our iman and the iman of Rasulullah Muhammad ibn Abdullah, and the iman of Abu Bakr and Umar al-Farooq and Uthman Ghani and Ali karramallahu wajhah — is the same. Kaman, not kayfan. In quantity — what they believe in, we believe in the same. The quality of their belief and the quality of our belief — that's very different.

The Level of Yaqeen of the Companions

The strength of the conviction they had — yaqinan sadiqan — the conviction they had is at a stronger level. But that's why one is quantity and one is quality. We have to believe in 100% of the same things they believed in. If I say, "I believe in everything Abu Bakr believed in, except for 1%," that would be a statement of kufr. I have to believe in 100% what Abu Bakr believed in 100%, what Umar believed in 100%, what Rasulullah believed — 100% of the message of Islam.

Now the strength of my belief — one example is Abdullah ibn Rawaha radiallahu anhu, the poet of the Messenger, sha'ir al-Rasul sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who said in his qasida:

"Our beloved Prophet showed us the path of guidance when we were lost, we were blinded. Now our hearts — fa qulubuna bihi muqinatun annama qala waqi'u — our hearts are now 100% convinced that everything that he has mentioned to us will certainly come to pass. We have no doubt."

So the level of yaqeen they had was at a stronger level. Like Ali radiallahu anhu said: if jannah with all its hur and qusur and palaces and blessings, and jahannam with its tortures and adhab, were brought right physically in front of my eyes and I saw it with my own eyes — the level of conviction I have regarding the reality of Jannah and the reality of Jahannam would not increase in the slightest.

A further explanation of that — as Allah says:

"Then you will see it with the eye of certainty" — ayna al-yaqeen. But I have, beyond that, yaqeen in the reality of Jannah and Jahannam beyond what I would see with my own eyes. Because my eye is fallible — it can commit a mistake, it could be an optical illusion. As Allah says:

"Those who are disbelievers — their actions are like a mirage." Not mi'raj — a mirage, which is an optical illusion. The person travelling in the desert sees a pool of water. This is an illusion due to the heat rays and the way the heat is reflected — different densities of the atmosphere reflect the rays in a particular manner so that it seems like there is a pool of water. You see a pool of water — you see for sure with your eyes there is a pool of water. Hatta idha ja'ahu — you run towards the pool of water to drink water and quench your thirst. Lam yajidhu shay'a — you find there is nothing there.

So my eyes could see wrong. My ears could hear wrong. My mind could think wrong. My tongue could taste wrong. My fingers could feel wrong. But Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam can never be wrong. Al-mukhbir al-sadiq — the truthful narrator has seen and reported to us what he saw. Therefore I believe in the message of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam more than what I see with my own eyes. Therefore if Jannah and Jahannam were brought in front of my eyes, my iman would not increase. And he was not doing any mubalaghah or exaggeration when he made that statement.

So that is the level of their yaqeen. And one is the level of our yaqeen — very, very weak indeed. But quantity wise, what they believe in and what we believe in must be the same. They might know more details of it; we might not know.

Iman Mujmal and the Scope of Belief

One is iman mujmal — like you say, "I believe in Allah the way He is." How He is, I don't even know. The way He is — with all His beautiful names, all His beautiful attributes — and I accept all of His ahkam. How many am I practicing? Don't ask. How many injunctions am I fulfilling and how many prohibitions am I abstaining from — or how many injunctions am I violating and how many prohibitions am I undertaking? Don't even ask that. I have accepted all of His injunctions. I believe riba is haram — I am involved in riba. I believe salah is fard — I am not performing salah. So that person is still a believer, still has the correct aqeedah. So that person will still, insha'Allah, have najah.

Refuting the Khariji Ideology

We are not like the Khawarij, who say that murtakib al-kabira mukhalad fil nar — the one who committed a major sin is now expelled from Islam. This sounds like a very strict interpretation — a person commits a major sin, you expel him from Islam. But this is not a strict interpretation, as one of our students mentioned at the retreat: extremism is not more sunnah. It is a deviation from the sunnah. "More sunnah, more sunnah, more sunnah — now you are extreme." No. Extremism is deviation from the sunnah.

This is an extremist ideology — a deviation from the correct ideology. The person who commits a major sin is now out of the fold of Islam? These people, you might think they are very pious, but these are the most bloodthirsty people. Because they didn't just stop and say, "The person who commits a major sin is out of the fold of Islam." They say he is a murtad — a renegade, an apostate. So what do you do with renegades and apostates? You kill them. Therefore all these people who committed sins — you can declare them mubah, permissible to kill. Therefore killing them is an obligation. Therefore we are the only ones on truth; everyone else is on batil and falsehood; and all of them are renegades and apostates and murtads. And therefore killing them is not only permissible, it is an obligation.

And then they start spilling the blood of Muslims. These were the Khawarij of old, and this is ISIS of today. ISIS is killing all these Muslims — not only Bashar al-Assad's government, they are killing other jihadi groups. They are killing Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham, all these other jihadi organizations. They are killing the population. They are killing the Kurds. What type of ideology is this? The Kurds — kill them. Jabhat al-Nusra — kill them. Ahrar al-Sham — kill them. Bashar Assad's Alawi — kill them. Kill everyone. How can you kill combatants and civilians and everyone?

This is the khariji philosophy — that these people all did not take bay'ah to the khalifa, i.e., Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Therefore they have committed a major sin. Therefore they are out of the fold of Islam. Therefore killing them is an obligation. This is something that we do not believe in.

We believe that a person who commits a major sin — he dies in a drunken stupor, intoxicated on drugs while committing zina — we still say that person, if he believed it to be haram, is still a Muslim. We do not expel him from the millah. We do not make ikhraj — expel that person from the fold of Islam. Rather, we expel a person from the fold of Islam not based on practice, but based on belief — based on aqeedah. Does that person regard wine to be haram? Swine to be haram? Zina to be haram? He regards it as haram, he considers himself a sinner — therefore that person is a Muslim. He is a fasiq — a sinning Muslim.

Allah said that Allah will never forgive shirk — and we understand from other ayat, kufr as well will never be forgiven. And besides shirk, all sins Allah can forgive. So this ISIS ideology — which is also the khariji ideology — is wrong. We do not believe in that.

The Take-Home Lesson: Study and Correct Your Aqeedah

But what is important for us to remember is not only that they are wrong — that's good to know that they are wrong — but also we have to remember that we have to have the correct aqeedah ourselves. If there is any deficiency in our own aqeedah, if we do not have the correct belief, then our own najah may be in doubt.

So it is high time that the take-home lesson from today is: we all need to study our aqeedah. We need to have the correct aqeedah. We need to make an effort to learn — whatever age we may be at — to learn the correct aqeedah and to teach it to our children. With an emphasis — not only is one sufficient, both efforts are required:

To establish what is the true aqeedah, and also to learn what is wrong with the false ideologies — the false aqeedahs — those that are coming as openly non-Islamic ideologies, and those that are coming as wolves in sheep's clothing: those who are portraying themselves as Muslim ideologies but are also deviant from the truth. We have to be able to identify those, know those, and be able to teach our children to be aware of them as well.

May Allah give us all the correct aqeedah, allow us to live as true Muslims on the correct belief, and die with that iman which is sufficient for our salvation. Insha'Allah.