بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
"And (O Muhammad) recite to them the story of the two sons of Adam [Habil (Abel) and Qabil (Cain)] in truth; when each offered a sacrifice (to Allah), it was accepted from the one but not from the other. The latter said to the former: "I will surely kill you." The former said: "Verily, Allah accepts only from those who are Al-Muttaqun"
"Verily, the Muttaqun will be in the midst of Gardens and Springs (in the Paradise)"
"And to Dawud (David) We gave Sulaiman (Solomon). How excellent (a) slave! Verily, he was ever oft-returning in repentance (to Us)!"
"And he said: "Alas! I did love the good (these horses) instead of remembering my Lord (in my 'Asr prayer)" till the time was over, and (the sun) had hidden in the veil (of night)."
"Then he said "Bring them (horses) back to me." Then he began to pass his hand over their legs and their necks (till the end of the display)."
"Verily, the Muttaqun will be in Gardens (Paradise), and Delight."
"Enjoying in that which their Lord has bestowed on them, and (the fact that) their Lord saved them from the torment of the blazing Fire."
"Verily, the Muttaqun shall be amidst shades and springs."
"O you who believe! Fear Allah (by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. [Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always], and die not except in a state of Islam (as Muslims) with complete submission to Allah."
In [2:183]:
"O you who believe! Observing As-Saum (the fasting) is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqun"
Allah ordained fasting in order that we attain Taqwa.
What does Taqwa mean? الإصلاح between you and Allah. There's a battle within you between your knowledge and self. And then your outer actions will be beautiful.
Where is the place of Taqwa? The heart
What is the opposite of Taqwa? الهواء - The Desires. A person either practices Taqwa or follow his desires.
Taqwa comprises of two factors:
1) العلم - Knowledge
2) العمل - Actions
The battle inside is a fight between knowledge and your desires. And in order for this fight to be valid, the knowledge should be based on the Qur'an and Sunnah. The outcome of it will be العمل.
Both factors are contained in the following دعاء:
العلم
You will not attain Taqwa without knowledge. And Allah won't hold you accountable until He teaches you. In [9:115]:
"And Allah will never lead a people astray after He has guided them until He makes clear to them as to what they should avoid. Verily, Allah is the All-Knower of everything."
العمل
If your act of worship is based on Taqwa, Allah will accept it. If it's based on desires, it won't be accepted.
In [5:27]:
Allah accepted the actions of one brother and not the other, although they were both performing the same action outwardly.
E.g. You are jealous of a person. Jealousy is in the heart. Your knowledge tells you, "لا تحسدوا" and your desires say "Why her...". If you don't fight it, and pretend you like the person outwardly, while you're boiling inside, you haven't practiced Taqwa. You're just being a hypocrite here.
Taqwa is fighting this feeling and rectifying your heart with the evidences from the Qur'an and Sunnah.
E.g. You are oppressed. The one who oppressed you has the upper hand over you. He is eloquent and you aren't. On the outside, it appears like you're a patient person, but inside you may not have fought to be patient. You have to fight inside which produces an action on the outside. And you need knowledge for the fight.
Continuation:
In [51:15-16]:
"Accepting what their Lord has given them. Indeed, they were before that doers of good."
What did Allah give us?
1) الشرع
a) الأوامر - Commandments
-> The Liked Commandments
You need to fight to renew your intention. Allah gave us good characteristics within us, which are not difficult to practice at all.
قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم لأشج عبد القيس: “إن فيك خصلتين يحبهما الله: الحلم والأناة”.
Ibn 'Abbas (May Allah be pleased with them) reported: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to Ashaj Abdul-Qais (May Allah be pleased with him), "You possess two qualities that Allah loves. These are clemency and tolerance."
[Muslim].
The Prophet ﷺ reminded him of the virtues of forebearance and tolerance. When you have this knowledge, you have to fight against yourself and do it for the sake of Allah. Then your good deed will be accepted.
There was a disbeliever known for his generosity. Once he had a guest and didn't have any food, so he slaughtered his horse. (That's the equivalent of selling your car to feed your neighbours). But he's in hell, because it wasn't based on Taqwa, it was based on his nature.
E.g. Smiling. It's in some peoples nature to naturally smile. It won't be written in your record as a good deed until you do it for the sake of Allah. So you remind yourself of the Hadith:
"كُلُّ مَعْرُوفٍ صَدَقَةٌ وَإِنَّ مِنَ الْمَعْرُوفِ أَنْ تَلْقَى أَخَاكَ بِوَجْهٍ طَلْقٍ..."
"Every good is charity. Indeed among the good is to meet your brother with a smiling face..." [Tirmithi]
-> The Disliked Commandments
You need to fight yourself to submit. You need to feed your system with قال الله and قال الرسول; which will remind you to practice Taqwa. And Allah will accept it from you, even if the action is not proper.
E.g. You're an impatient, hasty person. You try to suppress and control yourself, but you say something. But you're still considered practicing Taqwa, because before, without Taqwa, you used to say 100 words.
b) النواهي - Prohibitions
These are apparent evils; wrong which you know is wrong. It is of two kinds:
i) غير ملازم
This is like the tree in the Story of Adam عليه السلام. You don't need to eat from the tree, there are so many other trees.
What do you need to do? ابتعد عنه. Don't come close to it.
E.g. There's a party and you know people backbite in these gatherings. Don't go.
ii) ملازم
These are sins in your house which you can't avoid. You have to jump over them.
E.g. Your mother backbites people. Try to ignore her, change the subject, advise her, etc.
2) الأقدار - The Decrees
In [21:35]:
"Everyone is going to taste death, and We shall make a trial of you with evil and with good, and to Us you will be returned."
In [4:79]:
"...Whatever of good reaches you, is from Allah, but whatever of evil befalls you, is from yourself..."
The decrees are divided into:
i) خير - Good
How do you practice Taqwa in this situation? You need to attribute it to Allah.
You aren't practicing Taqwa when you think you're lucky, feel good about yourself, etc.
You need to fight yourself. Desires tell you that you're a good person, Knowledge will remind you everything is a test. It's a fight between what you want, and what the verses tell you to do. The more verses and Hadiths you know, the more you can practice Taqwa.
And the outcome of Taqwa in this situation is: شكر (Gratitude)
ii) شر - Evil
There are فنتة, difficulties, bad people, etc.
The outcome of Taqwa in this situation is: صبر (Patience)
The Prophet ﷺ said:
عَجَبًا لأَمْرِ الْمُؤْمِنِ إِنَّ أَمْرَهُ كُلَّهُ خَيْرٌ ، وَلَيْسَ ذَاكَ لأَحَدٍ إِلا لِلْمُؤْمِنِ ، إِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ سَرَّاءُ شَكَرَ فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ ، وَإِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ ضَرَّاءُ صَبَرَ فَكَانَ خَيْرًا لَهُ
"How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affairs are all good, and this applies to no one but the believer. If something good happens to him, he is thankful for it and that is good for him. If something bad happens to him, he bears it with patience and that is good for him.” [Muslim #2999]
The above are the essentials. But there's an even higher level of practicing Taqwa:
3) المباحات - The Permissible
E.g. Sleeping, Eating, etc.
What question does the person practicing Taqwa in this area ask himself?
هل يقربني إلى الله أو يبعدني؟
Will this bring me closer or further away from Allah?
And we find Sulayman عليه السلام practicing this with the horses. In [38:30-33]:
"When there were displayed before him, in the afternoon, well trained horses of the highest breed [for Jihad (holy fighting in Allah's Cause)]."
Something might start off good, but can go off track as time passes.
E.g. You might have good neighbours and invite each other home to memorize and study the Qur'an. This is something good. As time goes by, and you get to know her better, and start chatting more and more and eating, you'll come and not end up memorizing Qur'an at all.
E.g. Similarly, love can start purely for the sake of Allah when you don't know the person well. After you get to know them, you'll start loving them out of desire. This is why we always need to renew our intentions, because it can change with time.
Indulging in the permissible can distract you. Sulayman عليه السلام killed his horses. If something takes you far away from Allah, discipline yourself by staying away from it, taking a break, reducing the amount - whether it's food, drinks, shopping, people, sleeping. We've been spoilt by the permissible matters.
This gives you so much strength. You don't give your self whatever you want. And this is what fasting teaches us - to abstain from the permissible.
Umar Ibn AbdulAziz was asked who the Muttaqi is. He said:
التَّقِيُّ مُلَجَّمٌ لَا يَفْعَلُ كُلَّ مَا يُرِيدُ
He restrains himself, just like the mask on the horse, and doesn't do whatever he wants. He does acts of worship for Allah, abstains from sins for Allah, is patient and grateful for Allah. If something makes him closer to Allah, he does it, and if it takes him far away from Allah, he abstains. He doesn't follow his desires.
-> One of the companions used to pray in congregational prayer. Then he left saying he was going to pray alone and ordered the people to pray alone.
Why? Because while he was praying in front of them, he felt like he was better than everyone else.
-> Another time, the people saw a Khateeb washing the bathrooms. They asked him why. He said because he felt proud while he was giving the speech.
-> One of the Tabi'een, who had every Dua he made accepted. One he was in a town, in a Masjid, and there was no rain. He mad Dua, and it rained. There was a person at the back of the Masjid who followed him to his house, because it's treasure to have someone like this. The next day the man came, and the Tabi'i had left the country, afraid that people would come to him.
We don't know what everyones struggle is. If the Muttaqi doesn't follow his own desires, then he will never follow other peoples desires. Because he's afraid.
The Prophet ﷺ said, "A person will not reach the level of the Muttaqeen until he leaves something in which there is no harm out of fear that it may contain some harm" [Tirmithi]
E.g. Food and Drink is something normally. But it can lead a person to Haraam, when you excessively think about the food. Look what's happening nowadays, everyone's taking pictures of their food and posting it everywhere. These are distractions. We need to put boundaries.
Children don't struggle within themselves before producing an action. They want to try any idea that comes to them. The Muttaqi isn't like this. He doesn't do everything he wants.
The Benefits of Taqwa
In [52:17-19]:
"Eat and drink with happiness because of what you used to do."
This is suitable to what they did in life. Everything is unlimited in Paradise.
And later in the Surah, you see them socializing, and talking. Look at what they say. In [52:25-28]:
"And some of them draw near to others, questioning."
"Saying: "Aforetime, we were afraid with our families (from the punishment of Allah)."
"But Allah has been gracious to us, and has saved us from the torment of the Fire."
"Verily, We used to invoke Him (Alone and none else) before. Verily, He is Al-Barr (the Most Subtle, Kind, Courteous, and Generous), the Most Merciful."
Socializing in this world is permissible, but can lead a person to gossiping, backbiting, etc.
In [77:41-44]:
"And fruits, such as they desire."
"Eat and drink comfortably for that which you used to do."
"Verily, thus We reward the Muhsinun (good-doers)."
In [44:51-57]:
"Verily! The Muttaqun will be in place of Security (Paradise)."
"Among Gardens and Springs"
"Dressed in fine silk and (also) in thick silk, facing each other"
"So (it will be), and We shall marry them to Houris (female fair ones) with wide, lovely eyes."
"They will call therein for every kind of fruit in peace and security;"
"
They will never taste death therein except the first death (of this world), and He will save them from the torment of the blazing Fire,"
"As a Bounty from your Lord! That will be the supreme success!"
In [43:67]:
"Friends on that Day will be foes one to another except Al-Muttaqun"
On the Day of Judgement, all close friends in the Dunya will be enemies to one another. They had no Taqwa, and were friends merely based on desires.
But the Muttaqeen won't be enemies on the Day of Judgement. They were friends in this world, fighting within themselves not to love each other for the sake of their desires, but for the sake of Allah. You need to practice more Taqwa with a person you love than a person you don't. This is so difficult, that's why those who love each other for the sake of Allah have huge rewards.
You love based on the Hadith:
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِتَحَابُّوا أَوَلَا أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَى شَيْءٍ إِذَا فَعَلْتُمُوهُ تَحَابَبْتُمْ وَسَلَّمَ لَا تَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ حَتَّى تُؤْمِنُوا وَلَا تُؤْمِنُوا حَتَّى أَفْشُوا السَّلَامَ بَيْنَكُمْ
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “You will not enter Paradise until you believe and you will not believe until you love each other. Shall I show you something that, if you did, you would love each other? Spread peace between yourselves.” [Muslim]
*******
The Perfect Level of Taqwa
In [3:102]:
Practicing Taqwa is comprised of العلم (Knowledge) + العمل (Taqwa). You'll know if you fulfilled Taqwa through the action. Sometimes there is a struggle inside, but the outcome and outer actions aren't always perfect.
How do you know you've practiced حق التقوى?
From the interpretation of the above verse, it's three things together:
1) أن يذكر الله و لا ينسى
To remember Allah and not forget
2) أن يشكر فلا يكفر
To be grateful; never ungrateful
3) أن يطاع فلا يعصى
To obey; never disobey
الذكر + الشكر + الطاعة
This should be the outcome after the struggle within. It's easy to forget Allah during trials, but the Muttaqi remembers Allah, not so-and-so. When you remember Allah, your heart will be filled with gratitude, even in difficult times. And gratitude leads a person to obedience.
And there's a Dua which combines the three:
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