بِسْم الله الرحمن الرحيم
12-3-1438H
In Surah An-Nisa [4:136]:
"O you who believe! Believe in Allah, and His Messenger (Muhammad ﷺ), and the Book (the Quran) which He has sent down to His Messenger, and the Scripture which He sent down to those before (him), and whosoever disbelieves in Allah, His Angels, His Books, His Messengers, and the Last Day, then indeed he has strayed far away."
"يأيها الذين ءامنوا ءامنوا" - "O you who believe! Believe"
Allah is commanding the believers to believe. This means that if you have faith in Allah and all the articles of faith, you need to do more. You need to do more than just believing generally. You need to take care of increasing the faith you already have, purify your intentions, make your state better than it already is. Do not be satisfied with what you have of knowledge and faith. Increase it, because your faith will be weighed on the Day of Judgement, and we need strong faith to save us from the trials of the grave and the punishment on the Day of Judgement.
Abu Dardaa said,
إن من فِقه المرء أن يعرِف إيمانه هل هو فى نقص ام زيادة
"It is from the understanding of a person to know if his faith has increased or decreased."
You would know if your faith has increased or decreased through looking at the impacts of it in your life. From the impacts, as As-Sa'di رحمه الله mentioned, are:
1) The Wilayah of Allah
2) The Pleasure of Allah
3) Salvation from the Hellfire
4) Allah defends the believers
5) A Good Life
6) Faith and Sincerity are what determine the potency and correctness of actions
7) Allah will Guide the Person to the Straight Path
In the beginning, you will find that there are many ways, and all of them look similar. Everyone tells you to follow their way, that it is the right way, and you are confused as to which to follow. If you increase your faith, Allah will show you which way to take; the way which ends with meeting Allah.
So many people are confused in life; they do not know what to do, say, or how to please Allah. When the person increases in faith, Allah will help him adopt the Straight Path. Ibn AlQayyim mentioned many impacts of saying "اهدنا الصراط المستقيم". From the impacts is that Allah will enable you to take actions on the Straight Path;- because there are instances where we may know, but are lazy to act or have low resolutions. Another impact is being kept firm on the straight path until one meets Allah.
The issue of guidance is very important. We need it nowadays especially, because there is Fitnah wherever you go. We are surrounded by trials of different kinds at home, in the streets, when we travel, at work. What will save us from them, so that we act in the way pleasing to Allah? Increasing your faith.
And increasing our faith is something obligatory upon us, because Allah commanded us to in the aforementioned verse. If we do not take care of increasing it, our faith will slowly decrease until it completely diminishes. Faith never will increase unless you take the means of increasing it.
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This is what we need in our lives. No one can avoid calamities, because Allah wrote the calamity before the creation of the heavens and the earth, however, strong faith will comfort and lessen the effect of the calamity on the heart of the person.
The fruit that is found by the persons whose faith is strong when calamity befalls him, is increased hope in the reward of Allah. He immediately thinks of the reward in the hereafter, and this is the result of his strong faith. Not everyone who is afflicted thinks of the reward with Allah. This is why the believer says 'الحمد لله على كل حال' (All Praise is due to Allah in All States). The calamities are written and unavoidable, but the believers belief comforts him.
When any calamity befalls the believer, he thinks of three things:
1) He believes that this affliction is a means of attaining reward with His Lord in the Hereafter. Allah says in Surah Zumar [39:10]:
"...Only those who are patient shall receive their rewards in full, without reckoning..."
This is like a blank cheque - but only for those who are afflicted and showed patience, regardless of what kind of affliction befell them.
2) At the same time, he hopes that Allah will soon remove this calamity and distress from him.
In other words: This believer never despairs of Allah's Mercy. On the contrary, he has hope in Allah. And he says to himself: This world is a vanishing world, it is going to come to an end, and the reward with Allah is خير و ابقى (better and lasting). Why should I care about this world and the calamities in it? Moreover, he says to himself: The afflictions on the Day of Judgement are far more serious and grievous than the distresses in this life. الحمد لله Allah afflicted me now, whilst I am in this Dunya, to expiate my sins;- that is far better than being distressed on the Day of Judgement. He consoles himself with the Qur'an and Sunnah; with the knowledge that he has.
He knows that on the Day of Judgement people will be raised from their graves. Some will be carrying their sins on their shoulders, and there will be others whom Allah will send Angels to receive as delegates. He says to himself: This calamity will take some of my sins off my shoulders so I do not raise from my grave having them, and I hope that I will be amongst those whom the Angels receive, give them the glad tidings, and present to Allah.
As soon as the calamity befalls him, the believer with strong faith thinks of the hereafter. And this comforts his heart. Contrary to the persons whose faith is weak, who thinks of the Dunya. As soon as he is afflicted he thinks about what will happen to him and his family, what the people will say about them, what shall he do, etc. This makes the problem even worse. And on top of that the Shaytan will come and say: There is no relief from your difficulty, there is no way out, there is no cure for your sickness, you are a hopeless case.
So this person completely despairs of the Mercy of Allah; He has no hope in Allah. Therefore, be careful. We do not want to reach to the state, where desperation creeps into our hearts and we think evil of Allah. We should be the person whose faith is strong, who has hope in Allah, and says to himself: "ان مع العسر يسرا" (Verily with every difficulty there is ease) - Allah promised that there will be relief. I do not know how, but I know there will be relief. Because Allah is الصادق (The Truthful). Sheikh Abdur-Razzaq Al-Badr mentioned this as a Name of Allah from the verse: "و إنَّا لصادقون"
Allah is Truthful, but we need to wait, be patient, have hope. And إنتظار الفرج (Waiting for the Relief) is an act of worship. Meaning, that every day you are suffering from the calamity, regardless if it is a sickness or loss, and you have patience and hope on Allah, the Angel is writing continuously in your record of good deeds. If you are patient for two months, one year, two years, just imagine how much reward is being recorded for you. With every moment, minute, day, that passes, while you are patient and hoping for relief, you will be receiving reward until Allah relieves you. This is a blessing from Allah. But who looks at the calamities and difficulties in this way? Only the strong believer. And it is only he who will receive this reward for the suffering and pain he goes through.
3) He believes that Allah is الحكيم (All-Wise) and اللطيف (The Subtle, Kind)
He knows Allah, Al-Hakeem, chose that calamity for him and there is something good behind it. And he believes that Allah is Al-Lateef; Allah is able to bring him out of the distress in a very kind, subtle, hidden way; in a way that he cannot even imagine.
E.g. A person is going through a financial problem. He sits with his paper and pen calculating all his expenses, thinking about this and that person he can borrow from, etc. He does this with his limited mind, not knowing that Allah is Planning to bring him out of his difficulty in a way he never even perceived. He needs strong faith in order for his heart to be comforted.
If the person is a strong believer, Allah will be his eyes with which he sees and his ears with which he hears. This person will see what Allah wants him to see. He looks at this affliction as a gate of increasing in faith, increasing in reward, a means to come closer to Allah. He looks at the calamities in a way pleasing to Allah. The more he puts his trust in Allah, the more Allah makes him see the wisdom behind the calamity he is suffering.
So whenever the Shaytan whispers and tells you that there is no way out, no cure, repel his whispers by saying that there is, and it will come sooner or later, because Allah promised it will.
Look at the Prophet ﷺ and how much suffering and calamities he went through in his life; far more than any one of us. You wonder how he faced all these calamities. He was expelled from the most beloved land to his heart. When he had to emigrate, he said:
"وَاللَّهِ إِنَّكِ لَخَيْرُ أَرْضِ اللَّهِ وَأَحَبُّ أَرْضِ اللَّهِ إِلَيَّ وَاللَّهِ لَوْلاَ أَنِّي أُخْرِجْتُ مِنْكِ مَا خَرَجْتُ " .
"By Allah, you are the best land of Allah, and the dearest of the land of Allah to me. By Allah, had I not been expelled from you I would never have left.’” [Ibn Majah]
Then, while he was in the Cave of Thawr, he said as Allah mentioned in Surah Tawbah [9:40]:
"If you help him (Muhammad ﷺ) not (it does not matter), for Allah did indeed help him when the disbelievers drove him out, the second of two, when they (Muhammad ﷺ and Abu Bakr) were in the cave, and he (ﷺ) said to his companion (Abu Bakr): "Be not sad (or afraid), surely Allah is with us." Then Allah sent down His Sakinah (calmness, tranquillity, peace, etc.) upon him, and strengthened him with forces (angels) which you saw not, and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowermost, while it was the Word of Allah that became the uppermost, and Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise."
"لا تحزن إن الله معنا" - "Be not sad, surely Allah is with us."
They were being chased by the believers who wanted to kill them, and yet the Prophet ﷺ said this. Compare our distresses with the distress of the Prophet ﷺ. We need to tell ourselves what he told us. If you see your husband in a calamity, tell him not to grieve; Allah is with us. As long as you are a believer, are patient, and have hope, Allah will be with you.
After this, Allah gave the Prophet ﷺ and his companions authority over the land, after they were unsafe and chased by disbelievers. Allah gave them the dominion on earth because of the faith they had. Faith in the heart helps the person overcome the difficulties in his life and makes him taste the sweetness of reward. Faith has great effect on the thoughts of a person.
People differ in their thoughts towards the calamity. You hope for the reward from Allah, and the disbelievers do not have any hope in Allah or the reward on the Day of Judgement. This explains why and how a man, due to his weak faith, goes through depression and commits suicide. He reached that state because he has no hope in the hereafter; all his hopes were limited to this life. And this is the state of most of the Muslims nowadays. All their thoughts and hopes revolve around this Dunya, and they have no hope in the hereafter, which is why they go through depression and may even commit suicide.
Strong faith makes a person have great hope in Allah and weak faith makes a person despair of Allah's Mercy. The person who knows the reality of this life knows that the most important thing in it is his religion. He says: الحمد لله the calamity is in my house, job, and not in my religion.
As Ibn Othaimeen رحمه الله mentioned, calamities are of different kinds. A person could be afflicted in his health, children, wealth, and he could be afflicted in his Religion. And the worst affliction is when a person is afflicted in his Religion - where a person apostates after believing, or becomes a hypocrite after being a believer, or has doubts, or is not helped to worship Allah. This is a (مصيبة) calamity in the religion. Loss of money or jobs is nothing in comparison to loss of Religion. And this is how the believer looks at the calamity.
Strong faith makes him have hope and makes him see that Allah is All-Wise and that this Dunya has no value. He sees the hereafter and the reward. Who makes him see this? Allah, because of his strong faith. He can analyze and explain everything correctly. This it impact of having faith. But if the person has no faith, he will look everything according to the criteria of Dunya.
This makes the Awliyaa of Allah strong in their hope. They know Allah and the know that most important thing is meeting Him, so they have tranquility in their heart, and are pleased and content with their Lord.
Faith affects a person inwardly and outwardly at the time of calamity. i.e. His heart inwardly and his behaviour outwardly.
E.g. A person is afflicted with impatience or short temperedness. Two people have this same character - one is strong in faith and one is weak. The one whose faith is weak says: This is how Allah created me, accept me for who I am, I cannot change myself.
The one whose faith is strong looks at his calamity and says Allah afflicted me with characteristic. This is a opportunity of receiving reward by making Jihad and struggling against myself, preventing myself from behaving wrongly, etc. And Allah will reward me for my struggle against myself.
Calamities are not limited to loss of children, job, health. It could be in your character.
So your faith affects you inwardly and outwardly. The person who looks at the Qur'an as a speech and blessing from Allah is not like the person who looks at it as any other book. It is their faith that makes them see it differently.
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