Increasing our Faith through Love of Allah
| Khatib : | Arif Shaikh |
| Khutbah No: | 134 |
| Khutbah Date: | 01/28/05 |
- Importance of going back to basics in today's troubled times – turn to Allah, develop a love for him, and increase your Iman
- Salah as a means of developing love of Allah
- Tawbah
- Become good Muslims
- Sahabah used to gather around each other and say “ Let us increase our faith. Let us remember Allah at this time .”
- At every moment, Allah is remembered, faith is increased.
- When Believers gather to remember Allah, Allah boasts about them to Jibril (as).
- When Allah loves an individual, He calls out to Jibril (as) and says, “I love so and so, so love him too.” Jibril then proclaims to the heavens that Allah ha loved so and so.”
- Think about this: Allah loving you!
- What is love? Everyone has experienced it…it overtakes you completely. Shakespere – ‘love is like the north star.”
- Prayer – Salah as a means to establish love for Allah
Khurram Murad explains:
Once you are praying to Him, you are in front of him, you are near to Him, you are talking to Him, you are responding to Him in gratitude and you are asking for His forgiveness. Prayer is not just a ritual in which you go through certain postures. The soul has to surrender itself exclusively to Allah and love Him. This love is like a seed which, as it grows, envelops the entire personality.
Abi Talhah al-Ansari; a companion of Prophet (pbuh), saw bird eating during prayer, lost track of how many raka‘ahs…came crying to the Prophet (pbuh)…he said he wanted to give away his garden…he didn't want to possess something that distracted him from Allah.
We constantly want to upgrade everything in our lives…apartment to townhome to home, etc…how often do we have a desire to upgrade, to improve our relationship with Allah?
When was the last time you were in sujud, and you didn't want to get back up out of love for Allah? When was the last time you cried in prayer because you didn't want it to end? Compare to how we really are.
“Those who love iman, love Allah more than anything else.” (al-Baqarah 2:165)
“Verily Allah loves those who constantly turn to Him in repentance, and those who purify themselves.”
- Think about “Truly Allah loves” Who are these people? One would think they are people of piety, people of worship, people of prayer. Although this is true of course, Allah proclaims that he loves those who repent.
- Not “ta'ibin,” but rather, “tawwabin” – an extreme form in Arabic. Those who are constantly turning to Him in repentance. It can be assumed that a sin preceded the repenting. This is true even of major sins – known as kaba'ir. Allah is praising, and proclaiming His love for those who have sinned, and then followed the sin with turning to Him in repentance.
- Hadith: “If a servant commits a sin, his heart gets a black dot. If he does nothing about it, his entire heart becomes black. If he repents, the black dot is taken away.
- At the moment that a sin is committed, a person is not a Believer – iman is stripped from his heart at that point. This is a very serious thing – if iman is stripped away, its possible that it will never come back. Imagine if death came upon a person at this point. So, repent; rectify through tazkiyah/self-purification and reconnect to the Compassionate All-Merciful Creator.