The Methodology of Ibrahim عليه السلام - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

The Methodology of Ibrahim عليه السلام

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and ask His help and ask His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds.

Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He leads astray, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and you will not die except as Muslims.

O you people, fear your Lord, Who created you from a single soul, and created from it a wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah in Whom you ask for help and mercy. Indeed, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the right words. He will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great triumph.

As for the rest, the best speech is the speech of Allah. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

The Millah of Ibrahim — The Way of Practicing the Religion

My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, every single year during the days of Dhul Hijjah, we commemorate and we remind ourselves of the seerah of Sayyiduna Ibrahim Khalilullah, peace and blessings be upon him. Ibrahim Khalilullah, peace and blessings be upon him, is the prophet and the messenger of Allah, about whom Allah instructed our beloved Nabi Muhammadur Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, to follow his millah. We revealed to you, O Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, that you must follow the millah of Ibrahim.

The word millah has been mentioned in the Qur'an in many places. Altogether around 15 times Allah has made the mention of this particular word millah. And out of these 15, 8 times Allah mentioned the word millah for Ibrahim Khalilullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

Millah Ibrahim Hanifa, Millah Abikum Ibrahim — millah, again and again. In today's khutbah, I would like to shed some light on the meaning and the understanding of the word millah.

Millah is actually the way of practicing the religion. You have the religion of Allah, the chosen religion of Allah, the religion of Islam. Then how to practice the religion? How to put the religion in practice in your life? This must be done according to the way of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him.

And as we all know, the foundation of our religion, the religion of Islam, is the Tawheed of Allah — Iman Billah, believing in Allah. In order for you to have strong Iman in Allah, you have to follow the way of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him. If you are to truly believe in Allah, following the way Ibrahim believed in Allah, then every single thing in this world will become easy for you.

Reflection and Pondering on the Signs of Allah

One of the most important elements of the millah — the way of practicing the religion and demonstrating Iman Billah that Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, had — was his understanding of the Tawheed of Allah. And when we say understanding, it refers to the reflection and pondering on the signs of Allah in this universe.

Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, did not blindly follow his forefathers. He did not blindly follow them. Rather, he began his life with reflection and pondering on the signs of Allah, and Allah has made the mention of this in Surah Al-An'am. The purpose of this reflection was so that Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, could be certain and firm in his belief. Because when you blindly follow someone and you think that you have belief, but it is not actually belief — it is Taqleedul A'ma, this blind following — then there are many, many dangers in this.

There are many disadvantages in blindly following someone. Even when it comes to Iman Billah, you have to have evidences, you have to have proofs when it comes to believing in the Tawheed of Allah. And this is the reason that Allah in the Quran has made the mention of His signs in this universe and He has instructed us to reflect and ponder on the signs of Allah in this universe so that we can understand His oneness, His Tawheed, so that we can have firm and certain Iman and belief in Allah.

Allah says:

We showed Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, the kingdoms of the heavens and the earth. We showed him many signs — وَلِيَكُونَ مِنَ الْمُوقِنِينَ — so that he becomes from amongst those who have yaqeen and certainty. They do not simply blindly follow their saints, their Imams when it comes to aqeedah or Tawheed or Iman Billah. Rather they ponder on the signs of Allah so that they can have strong, firm, and certain belief in Allah.

And then in the following ayat, Allah has made the mention of the way that Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, reflected on the signs of Allah. When it was the time of night, Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, saw a star. He said:

"This might be my Lord." And then when the star disappeared by the next morning, he said he did not love that which disappears — because the star had vanished, and anyone who disappears cannot be his Lord.

Next, he looked at the moon, and when the moon disappeared during the day he said: because the moon has disappeared, and whatever disappears cannot deserve to be worshipped. And it is solely Allah that has guided me to ponder and reflect on His signs in order to understand His Tawheed.

And this is another point within the millah, within the way of understanding the Iman: in your quest, in your search of the Tawheed of Allah and your Iman, while you are pondering and reflecting on the signs of Allah, never ever think that you are the best in your intellect and in your understanding. There are people who know this universe better than you know, but Allah has deprived them from guidance and from hidayah. You ponder and reflect on the signs of Allah and then you must ask Allah for His guidance as well. And this is what Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, did.

The third day, Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, looked at the sun, and by the end of the day when the sun disappeared, he said: "O my people, I am free from what you associate as partners with Allah."

So the point for us, as Allah has instructed us in the Quran — follow the millah of Ibrahim — is: when it comes to practicing your religion and having your Iman and belief, follow the way of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him. And the way of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, was that he reflected and he pondered on the signs of Allah so that he had firm, certain yaqeen and Iman and belief in Allah.

Allah has instructed us in the Quran in many places. So when you have your Iman in this way — when you understand, you perceive, and then you practice your religion following the way of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him — then no one can lead you astray. No one can mislead you, because you have the evidences.

When it comes to the worship of Allah, when you worship Allah alone and you negate the worship of idols, you negate the worship of the graves, you negate the worship of the shrines, you negate the worship of the saints and the priests — when you negate all of them based on evidences from the Quran, based on the evidences in the Sunnah of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, then you cannot have any doubts.

And this is unfortunately one of the biggest problems that we face nowadays amongst our youth particularly. They incline towards atheism. Why? And they start having so many doubts. And the core reason for this is that they did not understand the oneness of Allah in the right way. They followed their cultural Islam. And when you follow cultural Islam, then you fight for your culture more than you fight for the religion of Allah. People think that they fight for the book of Allah, they fight for the Sunnah of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him — no, they actually fight for their culture, the culture that they believe is Islam. But if you were to follow the way of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, you will come to negate all these types of understandings.

So this is the first point, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam: when it comes to practicing the religion of Allah, you must have evidence for every single thing. And particularly when it comes to your Iman and your belief, you must have evidence, and your Iman and your belief must be certain and you must be firm in your belief.

Certainty of Heart — Ibrahim's Question to Allah

Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, believed in Allah. He believed in the decree of Allah. He believed in the Last Day. He believed in the books that Allah sent before him. He believed in the messengers that Allah sent before him. He believed in all of them. He believed that Allah will resurrect people on the Day of Judgment. Yet, in order to have firmness and certainty within his heart, he questioned Allah. Allah says in Surah Al-Baqarah:

When Ibrahim said: "O my Lord, show me how You are going to bring the dead ones to life." Obviously Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, believed that Allah will give life to the dead and Allah will definitely resurrect them. Allah said: "O Ibrahim, did you not believe in this?" He said: "Of course I do believe in this." Then he said: "But the purpose of my question is" — لِّيَطْمَئِنَّ قَلْبِي — "so that I can have peace and certainty and firmness within my heart." Then Allah showed him the way.

So when it comes to believing in Allah, believing in the prophets, believing in the decree of Allah, believing in the divine books, believing in all articles of faith and Iman, you must have evidence and proof. But if you do not have the evidences, rather you blindly follow the Mawlana, the Imam, and the Pir and the Saint, then anyone can misguide you and they can easily mislead you.

And unfortunately the vast majority of Muslims do not make any efforts to understand the Tawheed of Allah the way Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, understood. They do not try to understand the Iman and the belief the way Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, understood. Although Allah has instructed us:

O Believers, O Muslims — مِّلَّةَ أَبِيكُمْ إِبْرَاهِيمَ — follow the way of your forefather Ibrahim. Follow the way of understanding and practicing the religion of Allah the way Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, practiced.

Freeing Oneself from Blind Cultural Following

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, the benefit of practicing the religion in this way is, as I said, no one can mislead you in the first place. And secondly, it gives you enough courage to free yourself from the cultures and the understandings of your forefathers that completely go against the religion of Allah. And this is what happened with Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him — when he understood the Tawheed of Allah based on the evidences:

When Ibrahim said to his father and he said to his people — إِنَّنِي بَرَاءٌ مِّمَّا تَعْبُدُونَ — "I am free from what you worship, from all your idols, I am free." He did not blindly follow. Rather, in another place Allah mentioned that Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, questioned his people:

When Ibrahim said to his father and his people: "What do you worship?" They said: "We worship these idols and we are devoted to them and we will continue worshipping them." Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

"You tell me — do they hear when you call on them? Can they bring you any benefit? Can they harm you?" And what was the answer of his father and what was the answer of his nation, his people? All of them they said:

"We do not have any evidence for this worship, we do not have any evidence for this type of belief, we do not have any evidence for our practices — apart from one single evidence, and the evidence is: وَجَدْنَا آبَاءَنَا كَذَٰلِكَ يَفْعَلُونَ — we found and we saw and we experienced and we witnessed our forefathers doing the same."

Then Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, said:

"Listen carefully — you and your forefathers: they cannot benefit me of anything, they cannot harm me, they are truly my enemies. And I have my love and my faith in رَبُّ الْعَالَمِينَ."

And then he, peace and blessings be upon him, demonstrated his faith and his belief:

"The One who has created me — He guides me. The One who feeds me, the One who provides me to drink. Whenever I feel ill, He gives me shifa. He is the One who is going to cause me to die and He is the One who will bring me to life again. And He is the One I have hope in His mercy — that He will forgive my sins on the Day of Judgment."

So it gave Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, this courage and the guts to come out and free himself from the practices of his forefathers. And this can happen only if you have evidence-based Iman and faith and belief in Allah.

Complete Tawakkul and Submission to Allah

Another benefit of this is that you can have complete trust in Allah. When you have firm Iman and you truly understand the oneness of Allah based on evidences, that gives you tawakkul and trust and complete reliance on Allah. And one of the benefits of this type of faith and Iman is that you are always ready to submit yourself to Allah and you do not question when it comes to the matters of the religion.

Once you have understood the Tawheed of Allah, once you have truly believed in Allah the way Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, believed — then when comes the order of Allah to perform the five daily prayers, you will be ready to submit yourself to the commandment of Allah. When it comes to the commandment of paying zakat, you do not question why zakat, why do we have to pay zakat from our own money that we ourselves have earned. When it comes to fasting, you do not question yourself how come we have to fast and stay hungry and thirsty for 18 hours. You do not have these types of questions because you have understood your Lord, because you have understood your Allah the way Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, understood.

And when you reach this level of Iman, then Allah enables you to sacrifice anything and everything for His sake. This is what Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, did. He sacrificed his own family. He sacrificed his homeland. He sacrificed his wife and his infant child and he left them — based on the commandment of Allah — in a barren land where there was no water, no vegetation. And he was even ready to slaughter his own son based on the commandment of Allah, because every worldly thing became very little and so insignificant for him, because he truly understood Allah.

Allah says, when He made the mention of his sacrifice — when Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, was ready to sacrifice his own son:

When both of them — the father and the son — both of them submitted themselves completely to the commandment of Allah, Allah says: "We called out, We said: O Ibrahim, stop — you have fulfilled your dream. And this is the way We reward those who excel in practicing the religion of Allah."

The point is, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, that we need to practice the religion of Allah. We need to perceive, understand, and then practice the religion of Allah the way Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, did. And this is the reason that Allah has made the mention of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, in so many places in the Quran and He has made the mention of various aspects of the life of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him, so that we can take many, many lessons from his life.

We ask Allah to give us the ability and the will to follow the way and the methodology of practicing the religion of Allah of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him. We ask Allah to grant us firmness and certainty and steadfastness in our Iman, in our practice of the religion of Allah. We ask Allah to allow us to follow the way of Ibrahim, peace and blessings be upon him.

The Blessed Ten Days of Dhul Hijjah

Dear brothers and sisters in Islam, our Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, has said: there are no days more virtuous — or in which performing good deeds is more rewardable or better — than performing good deeds in these ten days of Dhul Hijjah.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 969)

By the grace of Allah, we have reached the 8th of this month — today is the 8th of Dhul Hijjah — and we have only 2 days left. We need to try our best to make the most of these days. They are the best days of the year, and Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, and his companions used to do a number of good deeds in these days.

1. The Takbirat

One of them would be to say the Takbirat, to glorify Allah and to constantly say Allahu Akbar. Sayyiduna Abu Hurairah and Abdullah ibn Umar, both of them used to go out in the market and they used to say these Takbirat out loud so the people would follow them, and they would also say Takbirat throughout all these 10 days. This is one of the forgotten Sunnahs of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and the companions.

We rarely hear any sound of Takbirat, and particularly from today until the last day of Ayyamul Tashreeq — which is the 13th of Dhul Hijjah — the 11th, 12th, and 13th of Dhul Hijjah are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Until the end of Wednesday, from today until then, these days are very, very important for us to say Takbirat.

Abdullah ibn Umar used to say Takbirat while in his house, while in the marketplace, while in his tent in Mina, and even after the prayers — after every single prayer he used to say Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar out loud and people would follow him. So we need to revive this Sunnah of the companions.

2. Fasting on the Day of Arafah

Another good deed that we need to concentrate and focus on in these days is the fasting of the Day of Arafah, which is tomorrow. It is very, very important. Whoever has the ability to fast, they must try their best to fast tomorrow, because this one single day — the fasting of this one single day — can expiate the sins of two years: the past year and the coming year.

And not only fasting on the Day of Arafah — rather we should spend the Day of Arafah the way our Nabi, peace and blessings be upon him, spent it. Although he, peace and blessings be upon him, was in Arafat, he spent many hours in making du'a. He combined Zuhr and Asr together, and then straight after that he, peace and blessings be upon him, started making du'a all the way up to sunset — at least 4–5 hours.

And this is not only for those who are performing the Hajj and they gather together in the plain of Arafat — rather this virtue is for us as well, for those who are not performing Hajj. We can also get the benefit of this day. So I would request and suggest every one of you: do not waste your time shopping tomorrow afternoon. Rather you should dedicate this time to worship Allah and particularly make du'a.

Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: the best du'a is the du'a that is made on the Day of Arafah. And if you were to dedicate this time to make du'a to Allah, you can truly find the fruits of this du'a and the benefits of this du'a in the following months, insha'Allah.

3. The Best Statement

And one of the great deeds that we need to do in these days is to say:

As the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, said: "The best of statements that I have ever uttered, and the prophets before me, is this statement: La ilaha illallah wahdahu la sharika lah, lahul mulku walahul hamd, wahuwa ala kulli shayin qadeer."

4. The Qurbani

And finally, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam, do not forget the sacrifice and the Qurbani on the day of Eid. The best day for the Qurbani is the day of Eid, although you can do it during the three following days of Tashreeq. But the best time for the Qurbani is the day of Eid.

And when you perform the Qurbani, do not forget the people around you — not only those who are in need of the meat, but also those who are not in need of the meat amongst your relatives, your neighbours, Muslims and non-Muslims as well. Give the meat of the Qurbani to them so that you can practice the Sunnah of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

Allah says in the Qur'an:

Eat from the meat of the Qurbani and the sacrifice — this is the Sunnah — and feed those who are distressed and those who are poor. And in another verse Allah said:

Feed those who do not beg — those who are in need, those who are poor but they do not ask, they do not question, they do not beg — and give to those who beg as well. So we need to revive all these Sunnahs of Rasulullah, peace and blessings be upon him, in the next 2, 3, 4 days.

We ask Allah to give us tawfiq and ability to understand and to practice and to act upon whatever we hear and whatever we say.