Having Faith in Allah (SWT)

Having Faith in Allah

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ، الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ، الحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ وَكَفَى، وَسَلَامٌ عَلَى عِبَادِهِ الَّذِينَ اصْطَفَى

Amma Ba'd. My dear respected brothers and sisters in Islam, Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.

Allah Brings Both Laughter and Tears

Indeed, amongst the Sifat of Allah — the attributes that Allah mentions regarding Himself in Surah An-Najm — He mentions:

That Allah is the one who brings sometimes conditions that make us laugh — هُوَ أَضْحَكَ, He makes us laugh — هُوَ أَبْكَى, and sometimes He brings conditions that make us cry. These are two different stages that we go through in life. Sometimes we are laughing and sometimes we are crying. And this is a natural phenomenon that all human beings go through.

The Anbiya (peace be upon them) went through these conditions. The righteous ones, the Saliheen, as well as others. Sometimes we are very happy and excited and sometimes we are sad and depressed. This fact is the same. But what causes us happiness and what causes us sadness — what makes us happy and what makes us sad — the factors behind are very different indeed.

For the Anbiya, the Prophets of Allah, the Saliheen, the righteous ones, the Sahaba — what pleased them, what excited them, what made them happy is very different from that which makes us happy. And what made them sad is very different from what makes us sad. The criteria for happiness and sadness has changed, and this is something that we need to examine.

The Four Conditions

If you look in the history of the Sahaba and the Prophets of Allah and the righteous ones as mentioned in the Quran, we will find what are those conditions in which the Sahaba and the Anbiya were very, very happy, and what are those conditions in which they expressed sadness. We will find that when they fulfilled the order of Allah, when they complied with the order of Allah, when they pleased Allah — this was the greatest source of happiness for them.

And on the other hand, if any mistake occurred, any form of disobedience of Allah occurred — intentionally or unintentionally — they ended up missing a Sunnah of Rasulullah, missing an order of Allah — this brought the greatest amount of sadness and regret and remorse for the Sahaba. So an increase in Deen brought happiness and a decrease in Deen brought sadness.

On the other hand, we find that increase in material things of this world — increase in the Dunya — was no cause of happiness or enjoyment or excitement for them. Likewise, loss of material, loss of the Dunya, did not bring any sadness or grief for them.

So there are four conditions: increase in the Deen, decrease in the Deen, increase in Dunya, and decrease in Dunya. And if you look at the same four conditions as they apply to ourselves today — our present behavior is that if there is increase in Dunya, this is the greatest moment of happiness and enjoyment we ever have. If there is any loss in our Dunya, in our material wealth, then that is a cause of great sadness. Any increase in the Deen either doesn't really affect us, or in some scenarios — unfortunately — it might even bring sadness. And if there is a loss of the Deen, a decrease in our Deen, then it also does not warrant any particular attention — and in some cases, there is even excitement and happiness about it.

So the situation has become reversed. Let us first examine the condition of the righteous ones in all four scenarios.

Condition 1: Increase in the Deen Brings Happiness

We begin with an increase in the Deen. What examples can we find in the Seerah of the righteous ones showing that they expressed happiness in the increase of the Deen? There are so many examples — if you just mentioned one, the time may end in that.

If you take Salah — the commandment of Salah: when the order of Salah came from Allah, this was a new obligation. Up until then — this is in the Makkan period — there was no set obligation; you could perform Salah whenever you wanted, however much you wanted. When the order from Allah came that you must perform Salah five times a day — five Salat made Fard — this was a moment of great rejoicement and excitement amongst the Sahabah. That Allah has now given us the permission to come into His court and present our needs in front of Him, and communicate with Him, and talk to Him, pour out our heart unto Him — five times a day. SubhanAllah. So this was something that actually caused them happiness.

And this is the condition of a believer. That is why in Surah An-Nur, in the Tafsir of the ayah when Allah speaks about the houses of worship, the Masajid:

Allah has given permission that they should be erected, and that His name is mentioned in these houses in the mornings and evenings. The word أَذِنَ — that He has given permission — is a very unique choice of word for this occasion. Because this is a command from Allah that Masajid be built and erected. So instead of saying Allah has commanded that they be erected, Allah says أَذِنَ — He has given permission. What does this connotation give us? It gives us a background feeling as if the believers are already seeking permission, already asking and begging: "We want to worship You, we want to build houses for Your remembrance, to commemorate You — O Allah, give us permission, allow us." So they are already looking forward to pleasing Allah, and then Allah says: "Ok, now I give you permission — أَذِنَ."

This is the condition of a believer. This is what Rasulullah summed up in a very brief and well-known hadith:

"When your good deed makes you very, very happy, and your sin makes you sad and remorseful — if this is the condition of your heart, then you know and realize you are a true believer." The true believer is the one whose good deed makes him happy — he has actual enjoyment in his heart, his heart feels the pleasure of worshiping Allah. Your good deed makes you happy. And your sin makes you sad — you feel regret, you feel remorse.

Allah says about the believers:

When they commit a sin, the believers are those who remember Allah and then repent from their sin — "Who else is there to forgive sins besides Allah?" — and then they do not continue and persist in that sin either.

So when they were told to perform Salah, they got happy. What is harder than Salah is to give your life for the sake of Allah. And Allah says in Surah Ali Imran:

When it was said to them, "People have gathered against you — fear them," their faith increased and they said: "Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best representative." When they were told your enemy has gathered against you in large numbers, be afraid of them — they said, "Oh, we are happy to meet the enemy of Allah!" Their faith increased. They said, "Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best one to take care of our affairs." So instead of being frightened, they were actually pleased to take on the next challenge. May Allah make us like them.

Condition 2: Decrease in the Deen Brings Sadness

And if there is any decrease in the Deen — if you miss out on something — then there is sadness. An example of that is the Jaysh al-Usrah — the campaign of great difficulty. This is known as the Ghazwat Tabuk, the Battle of Tabuk, and it was very difficult from many perspectives.

It was very, very hot — severe heat at that time. Allah mentions in Surah At-Tawbah that the Munafiqoon and the hypocrites were saying: "Don't go out in the heat." Allah says:

Tell them: the fire of Jahannam is more severe in heat. It is a fire that was red, burning for a thousand years, then it became white, then it burned for another thousand years, then it became black — it is a black fire of Jahannam. The fuel is stones and men. It is much hotter than the heat of the Arabian desert in the summer. So they said: "Don't go out."

It was very hot. There had been a drought previously and a decrease in fruits, and people did not have dates and food. And then finally, it was now a time of harvest. If you leave everything and go out in this campaign, all the dates that are ready to be harvested will be lost — an entire season's earnings gone. Not only additional earnings for savings, but what you need to sustain your life and your family — potentially losing all of that.

Then on top of that, the journey's distance is also very long — this is against the Roman Empire. Not only is the distance long, but the enemy itself is a very, very strong enemy. This is not fighting against some Arabian tribe. This is against the entire Roman Empire, which was a superpower at the time — Heraclius and his forces. Great enemy, superpower, very far away, time of drought, leaving your food behind, missing out on the whole harvest, extreme heat — all of these factors put together. That is why it is known as the campaign of difficulty — a very big test upon the believers.

On this occasion, 30,000 Sahaba participated. There were not enough animals for rides, so there were ten people per animal, taking turns. And there were some Sahaba who were poor — they did not have a ride, nor did they get a chance to get a ride on any other animal. So they came to Rasulullah and said: "We are ready to enlist and join you in this campaign." Rasulullah waited for the instruction from Allah.

Then Allah revealed the ayat in the Quran. Allah first commanded everyone to participate:

Whether you are heavy or light, come out in the path of Allah in this campaign. And then Allah made an exception:

Those who are physically weak, incapable — they are exempted. And those people who do not have money to spend and cannot afford their own ride — they are exempted. They do not need to participate. They can stay at home with their families. Don't have to go out in the heat, don't have to face the enemy.

What is the condition Allah reveals of their state of Iman? When they came to you to seek a ride — to carpool with someone — and you told them, "Sorry, I don't have any ride for you," what was their condition? Were they happy? Imagine how happy you would have been — the Prophet is saying: "Go home, you are exempted, you don't have to join." But their condition was very different indeed.

Allah says they turned away in such a condition of so much regret, so much remorse, so much sadness, that they were crying profusely. The scholars of Balaghah say that when you cry, the tears flow out of your eyes — your eyes don't flow down your cheeks, the eyes remain in the socket. But Allah says they were crying so much, crying so much, that Allah says their eyes themselves were flowing down — so much water was coming down, pouring down. So much sadness — they were so full of grief: "We wish we had money so that we could join."

They were not missing out on any picnic, any excursion or vacation, my dear friends — they were missing out on a campaign, a very difficult campaign. But this is the condition of the heart of a believer: that if he misses out on an opportunity to participate in something worthy, in something good, he feels sadness.

Condition 3: Increase in the Dunya Does Not Bring Happiness

What about the Dunya? The coming of the Dunya not bringing any happiness — this is illustrated when Mada'in, the capital of the Persian Empire, was conquered. The treasures that had been hoarded up by the Sasanian dynasty for centuries — unjustly taxing the population, keeping them in slavery and servitude — those hoarded riches poured in.

Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him), the conqueror of Iran — as mentioned in Futuh al-Iraq by al-Waqidi (may Allah have mercy on him) — they found not chests filled with jewels, but rooms, whole chambers filled with jewels. The whole room is filled with emeralds, with rubies, with gold, with silver. With guards — front guard and rear guard — a whole caravan loaded with unbelievable, unimaginable treasures. No one in Arabia had ever dreamt of it. It poured into Madinah and came into the courtyard of Masjid al-Nabawi in a huge heap. They had never had such a huge heap even of dates or wheat — now they had that of gold and silver.

So when Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) saw that, instead of becoming happy, he started crying and breaking out, crying very loudly. They asked him: "Why are you crying? This is a great victory Allah has granted us." Then he said: "I remember those days in the time of Rasulullah — one time Rasulullah turned back when he heard a loud sound, and half of the row had fallen down." It was not an earthquake — why had they fallen down? From extreme starvation and malnutrition; they were not physically able to stand and they fell down from not having enough food. This is the level of starvation at that time.

So Rasulullah consoled the Sahaba and he said:

"Don't worry — you feel that you are in starvation, you are literally falling down. I am not worried about poverty. I am actually worried about wealth — if the wealth will be opened up upon you like it was given to those prior to you, then you will fight with one another over the wealth like the people prior to you fought over it. Then the wealth will destroy you like it destroyed the people prior to you."

So Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) said: "Is not Rasulullah of a loftier status than I? Is not Abu Bakr greater and better than I? If this was a good thing, it would have come in the era of the better people. It is I, who am so bad, that this thing came in my time." This was his interpretation and outlook on the Dunya coming in. Instead of becoming happy, he was sad — and he was apprehensive of the associated tests and trials that come with wealth.

Condition 4: Loss of the Dunya Does Not Bring Sadness

And as an example of loss of the Dunya not bringing sadness — we mentioned in the beginning that we are talking about four conditions. Now we come to the fourth: loss of the Dunya not bringing sadness. The example here is Suhaib ar-Rumi.

As his name suggests — Rumi — many people think that Suhaib ar-Rumi was Roman because of his name. But he was Arab, from the northern Arabian tribes — not from the Quraysh. He was captured as a slave and lived with the Romans for an extended period of time as a Roman slave, and then he escaped and came to Makkah. Since he lived with the Romans of the Eastern Roman Empire, that is why he is known as Rumi.

This was a diverse Ummah — Salman al-Farsi was Persian, actually born in Persia with a very long story of how he ended up in Madinah. Bilal al-Habashi was originally Ethiopian, but born in Makkah, a former slave freed by Abu Bakr. And Suhaib ar-Rumi was Arab but an outsider — not from the Quraysh. He came as an immigrant into Makkah, worked really hard, was very smart, and became very rich. People used to be jealous of him — that this outsider has come, made so much profit, amassed such a great enterprise and business, and has so many treasures. Particularly since he was not from the Quraysh, this xenophobia and fear of immigrants and outsiders was there in Jahiliyyah too — which is still present today.

He accepted Islam. And when the commandment came from Allah to make Hijrah, he migrated towards Madinatul Munawwarah to fulfill the order of Allah. But this was the time when the Meccans were not allowing anyone to leave. When they heard that Suhaib ar-Rumi (may Allah be pleased with him) had left Makkah, they set out in hot pursuit to catch him and detain him.

As he was traveling, he heard that people were coming behind him. He turned to face the group that had come to attack him and told them: "Stop. Do you see that I have so many arrows in my quiver, and I am an expert marksman? From the distance I will start shooting you — as many arrows as I have, that is how many will be killed amongst your group. Then when you come near to me, I have my spear — I will throw that, and another person will die. Then when you come closer, I have my sword — I will continue to fight to defend myself until many are killed, wounded, until I die perhaps, or you may overpower me. That is one option."

"The second option is: everyone knows how wealthy and rich I am — Allah gave me so much barakah in my business. All of my treasures and my life savings — the different places I have deposited them, buried them, and kept them in safe keeping — I will give you the detailed addresses and locations of all of that money. You can just turn around right where you are, go back, and take all the money. It is yours. So these are two options — which one do you choose?"

This was a no-brainer — they went for the Dunya. What is also significant to note here is that they never for a moment hesitated — it did not even cross their minds that perhaps he could be bluffing or lying. They knew — not about whether he had the money, but about where he had the money — that a believer does not lie. That was not even something to doubt. It was not even on the table. A believer would certainly be speaking the truth.

So he told them all the places, they went to take the money, and he came towards Madinah. When he entered, the Prophet saw him and said: "Peace be upon you, O Suhaib! You have won — O Suhaib, you have done an amazing bargain! You have earned a great, great profit." He said: "O Prophet, what are you talking about?" He said: "I am referring to the great profit in the deal you made in the desert with those who were pursuing you from the Mushrikeen — and how you gave all the Dunya for the sake of the pleasure of Allah."

Allah had revealed an ayah — that we recite until today — in Surah Al-Baqarah:

Amongst the people are those who ransom themselves — giving all their life savings — for the pleasure of Allah. And Allah is the one who is most compassionate with His slaves. So Suhaib gave his whole Dunya and he was actually pleased by that — and Rasulullah is congratulating him: "You have done a great deal, and you have made a huge profit."

Our Condition Today

And the time is up. But if you look at our condition today: we commit a sin, we disobey Allah, and sometimes we are happy — we say, "Oh, I deceived him, I made a great profit, I lied to that person and I got a good deal." The hadith of the Prophet says: "The one who deceives us is not amongst us" — but that does not cross us. So we commit a sin and we are happy.

Our son starts growing his beard, our daughter starts wearing the hijab, they are coming close to the Deen — instead of being happy, sometimes parents are sad. "What's happening? This is a difficult era and we cannot be so physically visible with our Deen." There is an increase in the Deen and instead of it bringing happiness, there is sadness. And of course, loss of the Dunya brings sadness, and an increase in promotions and raises in salary brings happiness.

So our situation in all four aspects has become reversed. There is a great need of effort — to set our priorities straight and to come onto the reality of Iman. When your good deed makes you happy and when your sin makes you sad — now you are a true believer. This is what our Prophet has said.

May Allah make us true believers.