The Sweetness That You Must Taste Before You Die | Jumuah Khutbah | Ustadh Mohamad Baajour

We have Brother Yassin Patel and also Brother Fido Issa. They are both requesting a du'a for shifa. We ask Allah, the Great, the Lord of the Great Throne, to heal them.

We ask Allah, the Great, the Lord of the Great Throne, to heal them. O Allah, heal our sick and the sick of the Muslims. Also, we have Brother Sharjeel, who is a very active member.

Sharjeel Ahmed, his mother-in-law literally passed away right before the khutbah. We ask Allah, the Great, to permit her to jannah and forgive all her sins. May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.

I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Come to prayer.

Come to success. Come to success. Allah is the Greatest.

There is none worthy of worship except Allah. We praise Allah and ask for His help and forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds.

Whom Allah guides, no one can misguide him. Whom Allah misguides, no one can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah.

He is alone and has no partner. I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. In his noble book, Allah says, O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you who have believed, fear your Lord Who created you from one soul, and created from it its wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah in Whom you ask for help and mercy. Verily, Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak the truth. He will correct your deeds and forgive your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has truly attained a great success.

As for what follows, the Hadith of the Book of Allah is the truest. And the best gift is the gift of Muhammad, peace be upon him. And the worst of things are its innovations, and every innovation is a creation, and every creation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire.

Physical and Heart-Based Worship

As for what follows, there are two kinds of acts of worship. There are the physical ones, like Salat, Siyam, Zakat, Hajj, Umrah, reading Quran. And then there are the heart-based ones, like love of Allah, fear of Allah, Taqwa, piety, Khushu'a, Tawakkul.

All these are Ibadat of the heart. And the more a physical act of worship has of the heart-based Ibadah, the more rewarding is the physical act of worship. For example, Salat is a physical act of worship.

The more Khushu'a I have in it, the more rewarding is that Salat. And so on with every Ibadah. Our topic today is about the foundation of the heart-based Ibadat.

The Foundation of Heart-Based Worship: Iman

The foundation of the heart-based Ibadah. And that is the Ibadah of Iman, faith. What is, or what does the word Iman mean? Iman means to affirm the truth to something.

To affirm the truth to something. And it also has another linguistic meaning from the root letters Alif, Meem, Noon. Amina, which means secure.

So if you put both of them together, Iman is the faith that leads to security. Iman is composed of three parts. Speech by the tongue, acceptance in the heart, and action with the limbs.

For example, I say La ilaha illallah to become a Muslim. I have to believe in La ilaha illallah. And I have to implement La ilaha illallah.

It is all three together. Not one out of the two, choose one, choose two. All three together constitutes Iman.

All of them together. The bottom line is that Iman is the invisible secret of humanity's happiness. Why? For a few reasons.

Number One: Iman Has a Sweetness

Number one, Iman has a sweetness. Iman has a sweetness. The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 16)

There are three things in which we have found the sweetness of Iman. That Allah and His Messenger love each other more than anything else. That man loves only Allah. And that he is reluctant to return to disbelief after Allah has saved him from it, just as he is reluctant to be thrown into the fire.

Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, Three qualities, whomsoever have them, have tasted the sweetness of Iman. First, when Allah and His Messenger are more beloved to you than anyone and anything. You will taste the sweetness of Iman.

Second, when you love a person and you only love them for the sake of Allah, you have tasted the sweetness of Iman. And third, a person that hate to revert to kufr after Allah has saved him, just like he hates to be thrown in the fire.

My brothers and sisters, when Bilal, may Allah be pleased with him, was being tortured, and we all know his story, and he kept on screaming, أحد أحد. He was then asked, How were you able to handle that torture? Listen to what he said.

He said, The sweetness of Iman was mixed with the bitterness of torture. But then, the sweetness of Iman conquered the bitterness of torture, so I was patient. That is Halawatul Iman.

Halawatul Iman, the sweetness of Iman, have been tasted by Yusuf, peace be upon him, when he favored to be in jail than to commit adultery. That is the sweetness of Iman.

The sweetness of Iman, when Rasulullah, peace be upon him, stood up all night in tahajjud, praying tahajjud all night, Ya Rasulullah, did you oppress anyone? That's why you're praying so much.

Did you wrong anyone? What kind of major sin you have committed, Ya Rasulullah, in order to pray all night until your feet are swollen? We know that he didn't do any of the above, but because of the sweetness of Iman that kept him going, peace be upon him.

Number Two: Iman Emits a Light

The second thing about Iman, Iman emits a light. It puts a light in your heart.

Rasulullah, peace be upon him, said, Every heart has a cloud over it, like the clouds over the moon. When the moon shines bright, a cloud passes over it and darkens it. But then when it clears, it shines again.

You know how sometimes you see something very clearly, it is haram. You see it clearly and the guy is arguing with you. He does not see it and he's arguing, No, it's not.

Hijab is not a must. Allah did not say, حُرِّمَ عَلَيْكُمُ الْخَمْرِ. He said, اجْتَنِبُوا, stay away from it. And he wants to argue.

And you're saying to yourself, Subhanallah, it's so clear. Habibi, Allah, like this ayah said, Allah put iman in your heart. أَفَمَنْ شَرَحَ اللَّهُ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ فَهُوَ عَلَى نُورٍ - Allah gave you that nur and that brother was deprived from it.

That's why you see the haram and the halal very clear. And that because of the iman that you have. The iman puts a light in the heart.

So you start seeing the halal and the haram very clear. You can differentiate between the darkness and the light.

Number Three: Iman Generates Transformation

Third, iman generates transformation.

Listen carefully. Even though sometimes these topics are literally the ABC of Islam, but we need them so much. Iman generates transformation.

And the best example is the people of the cave. أَصْحَابِ الْكَهْفِ. They left mansions. Youth left mansions and very luxurious life.

And they found comfort and haven in a cave in the middle of nowhere. Why? Why would you leave like what we say now, the air-conditioned home and the 5-6 thousand feet space and all that. And you feel like you are not happy, you are miserable in such a place.

And you feel the comfort in a cave in the middle of nowhere that has nothing in it. That is when the iman enters the heart. Does not matter anymore the luxuries around you.

They were ready to give up everything because they saw shirk being committed. And that is not pleasing to Allah. And they were convinced that no matter where we are, it's better than being among the shirk.

The former rabbi, Abdullah ibn Salam, may Allah be pleased with him. He was telling his story of Islam. He said, When Rasulullah, peace be upon him, came to Medina, I went with the people who were welcoming him. I came among the people to see him.

And when I firmly observed his face, I knew that face was not the face of a liar. I knew that that face is not the face of a liar. And I took my shahada.

When he believed and he saw that the iman of Rasulullah, peace be upon him, was demonstrated in his face, immediately that iman that he had, that this is not a liar, transformed him. From dalal to huda. From darkness to light.

And he became one of the greatest sahaba.

Number Four: Iman Awakens Confidence

Number four, this is extremely important, ya akhwan. Iman awakens confidence.

Iman awakens in your heart confidence. The magicians of Fir'awn. The magicians of Fir'awn.

They went to Fir'awn after he asked them to come and compete with Musa, peace be upon him. They said, إِنَّ لَنَا أَجْرًا إِن كُنَّا نَحْنُ الْغَالِبِينَ - Are you gonna give us something if we beat him? If we are victorious? He said, Fir'awn said, قَالَ نَعَمْ وَإِنَّكُمْ لَمِنَ الْمُقَرَّبِينَ - Not only I'm going to reward you. I'm gonna make you my right hand men.

I'm gonna elevate your status. So they said, بِعِزَّةِ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّا لَنَحْنُ الْغَالِبُونَ. Listen carefully, ya akhwan. بِعِزَّةِ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّا لَنَحْنُ الْغَالِبُونَ - By the honor and the glory of Fir'awn, we are definitely going to be victorious.

Moments later, when they witnessed Musa's staff, Musa, peace be upon him's staff, exposing their magic, what happened? Iman ignited in them, the confidence in Allah. And they instantly declared, they instantly declared, آمَنَّا بِرَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ رَبِّ مُوسَىٰ وَهَارُونَ. Instantly, they said, we believe in the Rabb of Musa and Harun.

Fir'awn start threatening them, he's gonna crucify them, he's going to torture them.

What did they reply? فَاقْضِ مَا أَنتَ قَاضٍ ۖ إِنَّمَا تَقْضِي هَـٰذِهِ الْحَيَاةَ الدُّنْيَا - Make any decisions that you want, you are only making decisions that are only valid in this dunya.

Their iman transformed them from criminals siding with a tyrant to martyrs in their journey to Allah in moments, in minutes. How many jum'ahs did they attend? How many halaqas they witnessed? How many conferences they went to? How much Qur'an they memorized?

Us, decades in Islam, hundreds if not thousands of khutbahs, I cannot give up a sin or stop a bad habit.

Thousands of lectures, I cannot stop one bad habit. I cannot stop an illegal or impermissible relationship. And they just witnessed one ayah and instantly were transformed from criminals to shuhada.

They did not make one sajda. They did not pray any salat. What happened? What happened? Every time I read the story of the magicians of Fir'awn, it blows my mind.

How come from two seconds ago, we're gonna show you, ya Fir'awn, what you're gonna do to him. What's gonna happen to us if we win? All of a sudden, in a flash of a second, boom! They transformed all their life. What happened?

It is the iman, ya ikhwan. It is the iman, ya ikhwan. Let's face it, our iman is weak. That's why I'm struggling with that sin.

I cannot stop watching porn. I cannot stop smoking. Look at this small thing.

Smoking a cigarette, I cannot stop it for the sake of Allah. Even though I know that $10 a day, $300 a month is the salary for my brother in Yemen per month. I cannot stop.

The iman is weak. The iman needs to be rejuvenated.

Number Five: Iman Is the Main Comfort During Calamity

Iman, number five, is the main comfort when we are going through calamity.

No calamity takes place without the permission of Allah. And whosoever has strong iman, Allah will give him rest and patience and acceptance of that musiba. Because they believe.

The more I believe, the more I know that قُل لَّن يُصِيبَنَا إِلَّا مَا كَتَبَ اللَّهُ لَنَا. I believe nothing happens to me without Allah's permission. And I believe in the hadith that said, whatever is written to me, it's not going to miss me. And whatever missed me, it's not written for me.

But brothers and sisters, a human being without iman is like a feather tossed by the wind. Never settles and does not recognize any destination. It drifts aimlessly, subject to the whims of the breeze and rests only when the wind does.

The lack of iman is the main reason of misery in our life. And the main reason for entering the hellfire in the hereafter.

How to Strengthen Our Iman

Just quickly, how can we strengthen our iman? Increase the amount of physical ibadat that are accompanied with ibadat of the qalb.

Read a lot of Quran with tafsir. Surround yourself. Surround yourself with the righteous company.

Come to the masajid and listen and dedicate some time per week to improve your ilm. Read the biography of the sahaba, of the true men that were around Rasulullah, peace be upon him.

And finally, beg Allah to refresh. Rasulullah, peace be upon him, told us that the iman yabla. The iman wears out. Just like clothes wear out. So ask Allah to refresh the iman.

Ya Allah, refresh the iman in my heart.

And may Allah send His peace and blessings upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and companions all.