Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
As Salamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barkatuh!
FRIDAY KHUTBAH
Worshipping Allah
out of Love, Fear and Hope
Source: Ad-Dawah ilalLaah Magazine
One of the most beautiful things about the
concept of worship in Islaam is the truly unique way in which it
incorporates the feelings of love, fear and hope within the hearts of
the worshippers of Allah. Understanding how to combine these three
qualities into the worship ('ibaadah) of Allah is one of the most
essential things that every Muslim must grasp, not least because every
sect which has drifted from the Straight Path has strayed in this
aspect of worship.
The deviation of the other Religions in this regards
is clear for all to see: "God is Love! Jesus is Love!" say the
Christians, denying the fact that God should be feared too. As for the
Jews, then their hearts are filled only with hope - hope in the belief
that the Fire will not touch them since they are the "Promised People".
In Islaam however, no worship
is complete without the presence of all three qualities: LOVE of Allah,
Hope in His Mercy and FEAR of His Punishment. Contemplate the opening
Soorah of the Qur'aan - Sooratul Faatihah - and you will see for
yourself.
Aaayah 1: "All Praise [and Thanks] are for Allah, Rabb of all the worlds.."
In this opening aayah (verse)
of the Qur'aan, we have LOVE of Allah and every time we recite this
aayah we are testifying to our love for Allah.. How is that you ask? IT
is because in this aayah, we are acknowledging that Allah is our Rabb
and the Rabb of all the worlds. Rabb is usually translated as 'the
Lord', but this translation does not do justification to this name of
Allah and all the meanings that this name carries. In reality Rabb
means that Allah is the Creator of everything; He sustains and
nourishes everything; He gives life and death; anything good which we
have is from Him; everything is dependent on Him and nothing can happen
unless He wills it. Furthermore, for the Muslim He - the Rabb - is the
One who has guided us to the Truth and given us good morals and manners.
Thus when we testify that Allah
is our Rabb, then we are acknowledging that He is the One who has given
us so many blessings - so many that if we tried to enumerate His
blessings upon us, we could not count them. So how could we not love
Him? After all, we know that when someone gives us even a small gift or
shows even a small act of kindness towards us, then we develop so much
love for them on account of that - so imagine then the love we
should[1] have for our Rabb who has given us everything: nice families,
shelter, security, food, health, and above all, Guidance to Islaam and
the Sunnah. We should be overwhelming in our love for Him and thank Him
and say: "All Praises [and Thanks] are for Allah, Rabbil-'aalameen. "
Aayah 2: "The Rahman [Merciful] and the Raheem [Mercy-Giving] ."
In the first aayah of
Sooratul-Faatihah, Allah mentioned that He was ar-Rabb. In the next
aayah two more of His beautiful names are mentioned: ar-Rahmaan and
ar-Raheem. Ar-Rahman means that He is the Most Merciful, that is, His
Nature or His Essence is Merciful. Ar-Raheem means that He is the Giver
of Mercy, in other words, His actions are full of Mercy and He shows
Mercy to His creation.[2]
When we mention these two names
of Allah, then we have HOPE. Since He has described Himself as so full
of Mercy then we have hope that He will forgive out sins, and no matter
how numerous our sins may be, we should never lose this hope, because
Allah has told us: "O My slaves who have transgressed against
themselves! Despair not of the Mercy of Allah verily Allah forgives all
sins [except shirk]. Truly He is the Oft-Forgiving, the Mercy-Giving. "
[az-Zumar (39):53].
The need to have FEAR in our worship is shown by the next aayah of
Sooratul-Faatihah:
Aayah 3: "King/Master of the Day of Judgment."
When we recite this aayah we
are reminding ourselves of the Day of Judgment - that awful Day, when
we shall all stand before Allah, naked, uncircumcised and barefooted.
Some will be sweating so much that it will go seventy arm-length into
the earth. People will appear drunk though they are not. On this Day,
every person will stand before Allah and account for his sins, knowing
that not even the smallest action which he did is hidden from Allah:
"So whosoever does good equal
to the weight of an atom shall see it. And whosoever does evil equal to
the weight of an atom shall see it." [az-Zalzalah (99):7-8].
So when we recite this third
aayah of Sooratul-Faatihah, we remind ourselves of this Judgment and
accountability and that should bring about in us a sense of fear - that
maybe our evil actions will be too great and we will be responsible for
it - may Allah protect us from such a fate.
Then the next verse goes on to say:
"You alone we worship." i.e. we
single out Allah for our worship. And how do we worship Him? With LOVE,
HOPE and FEAR. And in order to achieve these qualities, we need Allah's
assistance, so we say then: "We seek Your Aid." [1:4].
STRIKING THE BALANCE
After understanding the need to
have love, fear and hope in our worship, the question that now arises
is: in what proportions should these qualities be present in our
worship? Again we turn to the Qur'aan for our answer.
"Call upon Him with Fear and Hope." [al-A'raff(7) :56].
And also:
"Their sides forsake their beds, to invoke their Lord in Fear and Hope."
[as-Sajdah(32) :16].
So both fear and hope should be
present in our hearts in equal proportions. Anas - radiAllaahu 'anhu -
reported that the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, entered upon
a young boy who was dying. The Prophet, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam,
asked: "How are you?" The boy replied: "O Messenger of Allah, I am
in-between hoping in Allah and fearing for my sins.." The Prophet,
sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, said: "The like of these two qualities
do not unite in the heart of a servant except that Allah gives him what
he hopes for and protects him from what he feared."[3]
Therefore, whenever we do a
good action, we should have hope that it has been accepted by Allah,
but at the same time we should also have fear that maybe it isn't
enough or that the good deed has not been worthy of acceptance.
Likewise when we sin, we should have hope that Allah will accept out
Repentance and forgive us, but we should also fear that we may be
accountable for it.
This balance should also be
reflected in our da'wah (which of course is also worship). So when we
invite others to the Truth, we should not give them the impression that
they have "nothing to worry about"; nor do we suggest that they are
doomed forever. Rather, we couple warnings with encouragement. We
inform them of the horrors of the Fire as well as telling them about
the bliss of Paradise. Just as we find Allah telling us in the Qur'aan:
"Verily your Lord is Quick in Punishment and verily He is Oft-Forgiving, the
Giver of Mercy." [al-A'raaf(7) :167].
And our Righteous Predecessors used to say:
"He who worships Allah with hope only is a
Murji'ee. He who worships Him in fear only is a Harooree [Khaarijee].
And he who worships Allah in love only is a Zindeeq [e.g. Soofees,
Christians]. But he who worships Allah in fear, love and hope is a
Muwahhid Mu'min [a believer upon Tawheed." [4]
The Murji'ah were a sect that
emerged within the first century of Islaam. The people of this sect
(known as murji'ees) believe that sins do not affect faith, i.e. no
matter what sins a person commits, his eemaan (faith) is complete and
perfect. They worship Allah only with hope because they believe that as
along as one believed and testified to Islaam, they would enter Paradise
regardless of their actions.
Unfortunately, all too often
nowadays we find a somewhat similar attitude amongst the Muslims today,
which is why we find that so often when we try to advise someone to
turn to the Deen and abandon sin, they just point to their hearts and
say, "Allah knows what's in my heart", or that "Allah forgives" or
something similar.
As for the Khawaarij, they
worshipped Allah in fear only because they held that anyone who
committed major sins was a disbeliever and would therefore dwell in
Hellfire forever. This, of course, is gross extremism and a straying
from the correct Path. The Prophe, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam, said:
"There were two men from Banoo Israa'eel who strove equally. One of
them committed sins and the other strove hard in worship. And the one
who strove in worship continued to see the other sin and kept saying to
him: 'Desist'. So one day, he found him committing a sin and so said to
him: 'Desist'. So he replied: "Leave me to my Lord; have you been sent
as a watcher over me?" He said: "By Allah, Allah will nor forgive you,
nor will Allah admit you to Paradise."
Then their souls were taken and they came together before the Lord of
the Worlds. So He said to the one who strove
in worship: "Did you have knowledge of Me, or did you have any power
over what was in my Hands?" And He said to the sinner: "Go and enter Paradise
through My Mercy." And He said to the other: "Take him to the Fire."
Aboo Hurairah said: "By Him is Whose Hand is my soul! He spoke a word
which destroyed this world and the Hereafter for him."[5]
Therefore, we should never say
of anyone that he or she is a 'lost cause' or 'doomed' or the like
since this is a great sin. However, we fear for those who commit major
sins because they have been threatened with punishment in the Qur'aan.
It is up to Allah whether He chooses to punish them or whether He will
forgive them.
The Zanaadiqah - or the
heretics - are groups, such as many of the Soofees who have become like
the Christians and reduced the religion to just 'love' and so all their
talk and all their mystical practices are centered around developing
more 'love'.
It is thus clear how imbalances
in any of the three qualities of worship can lead to major deviation
and straying from the True Guidance. Therefore, it is important for
every Muslim to inculcate all three things in his heart properly. As
was mentioned before, the fear and hope should be in equal proportions
[6] but as for love, then that should be uppermost, As Fudayl ibn
Iyyaad (d.187H) said: "The love is better than fear. The fear checks us
from sinning, and the love makes us to do what is prescribed with an
open heart."[7]
May Allah Subhaanahu wa Ta'aala grant us what we hope for and protect us from
what we fear. Aameen.
Footnotes
1
This is why the Prophet, sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam encouraged us to
give gifts to one another. He said: "Give gifts to one another, you
will come to love one another." [Hasan - Collected in al-Bukhaaree' s
al-Adabul-Mufrad & declared hasan by al-Albaanee in al-Irwaa(1601) .
2 As explained by Ibnul-Qayyim (d.751H) in Badaa'i-ul-Faawaa' id & others.
3 Hasan - Collected by at-Tirmidhee & Ibn Maajah. Authenticated by al-Albaanee
in Ahkaamul-Janaa' iz (no. 2).
4 Quoted by ibn Rajab in at-Takhweef minan-Naar as the saying of one of the
Salaf.
5
Saheeh - Reported by Aboo Hurairah & collected in Aboo Daawood
(eng. trans. vol.3 p.1365 no.4883). Authenticatd by al-Albaanee in
Saheehul-Jaami (4455).
6
This was the opinion of most of the Salaf. Al-Fudayl ibn 'Iyyaad said
that when one is healthy and well, then fear should predominate, but
when terminally ill then hope should predominate - so that one should
strive to do good when well and not despair of Allah's Mercy when
terminally ill. [At-Takhweef minan-Naar].
7
Reported in at-Takhweef minan-Naar of Ibn Rajab.. Note that some
scholars hold that fear is better than love. Allah knows best.
www.abdurrahman.org
The
Prophet (salla Allahu alihi wa sallam) said, "Nothing that happens to
the believer, no difficulty nor harm nor sadness, even the thorn that
pierces his skin, but Allah will forgive him his sins because of
them." [Al-Bukhari & Muslim].
The
Messenger of Allah (salla Allahu alihi wa sallam) said, "Nothing that
happens to the believer, a thorn and worse, but Allah will raise him a
grade because of it and will erase one of his sins." [Muslim].
"A
believer is not beset by any hardship or fatigue or illness or grief or
even worry except that Allah will expiate thereby his sins." (Agreed upon).
Allah said: " - and give glad tidings to the patient ones. Who, when
afflicted with calamity, say: ' Truly! To Allah we belong and truly, to Him we
shall return'. They are those on whom are the Salawat (i.e. blessings etc.)
(i.e.
who are blessed and will be forgiven) from their Lord, and (they are
those who) receive His Mercy, and it is they who are the guided ones."
(2:155-157)
Courtesy: Sister Umm Yusuf
***
Alahumma infa`ni bima `allamtani
wa `allamni ma yanfa`uni!
OH ALLAH! Make useful for me what You taught me
and teach me knowledge that will be useful to me!
(Aameen)
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