| LI Oldskool
Status: Offline Posts: 5,149 Join Date: Jan 2005 Gender:  Way of Life: Muslim |  Re: The Decrease After the Increase Of Eemaan -
11-08-2007
When o*ne reflects upon the greatness of Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala, we realize that if He willed and He wanted, he could make the air that we breathe, unbreathable, so impossible for us to breathe, or the water that we drink undrinkable, so that we cannot benefit from it and so o*n and so forth. Thinking about the greatness of Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala and the sheer strength and power of Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala brings about al-khawf - fear of Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala.
"Wat-Tawbah minazzunoob" another means of getting away from the illness of weakness of eemaan is making tawbah - returning back to Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala, repenting to Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala, asking Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala for forgiveness, asking Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala to forgive 'tawbah' from zunoob wal Ma'aasi - from sins and ill behaviour and disobedience to Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala and 'wal Khawf min sooril Khaathima" - the fearing of an evil end and to think about death. Yes, to think about death and the Hereafter. Reflection of death changes o*ne's whole world. Reflection of death takes something that seems difficult and makes it easy. Reflection of death makes o*ne watch o*ne's talk, watch o*ne's hands, watch o*ne's step and watch o*ne's movement and behavior when o*ne reflects upon death. That death would come to each and every o*ne of us, there is no doubt about that -- that o*ne day the soul is going to reach the throat and the blood is going to run cold and the heart is going to stop beating and the light that is in the eyes that gives us the ability to have sight is going to be removed and that there is nothing that we can do and when that time approaches and when it happens there is no delay in it, we can't say, 'wait a minute, give me time to say something to my family, give me a moment to straighten up my affairs.' Know, that o*nce the process starts it ends with us, the soul being removed from our body and the occurrence therefore of that is death.
Death, thinking about death and thinking about the Akhira, the Last Day and all that will happen in the Last Day -- from the punishment of the grave and before the punishment of the grave, the tightness of the grave and the darkness of the grave and the answer or questioning test of the two angels and coming out of the grave and being barefooted, naked and uncircumcised and being o*n the Day of Judgment where all the multitudes will be gathered until there is no room to move. You can't go forward, you can't go backwards, you can't go to the left and you can't go to the right and some people will be upon their faces and the punishment of Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala will be severe. You will see the children's hair turning grey and the women who will have their load dropping their load, you will think that people are drunk but it is not drunkenness but rather the punishment of Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala. Thinking about the Akhira the Hereafter is a means of dealing with weakness of faith.
Another reason why people fall into unrighteousness after they were righteous, weak eemaan after having strong eemaan, misguidance after having being guided is 'al Ittiaad' - being far removed from the atmosphere of eeman. o*ne has to make o*neself in 'al-ajwa'ah' or 'al jawil al eemaani' - the atmosphere, the environment of eemaan. o*ne has to make o*neself be in an environment of eemaan. Those who are faraway from the environment of eemaan, from 'Majaaris al ilm' - sitting to get knowledge, 'wal masjid'- coming to the Masjid, 'wal Qura'an' - reciting Qura'an, sitting and reciting Qura'an and good companionship or righteous companionship, were good example; 'Al-Qudwa' - righteous examples for individuals, that o*ne can see who are striving for the Hereafter and striving to be righteous; 'Wa Qiyaamul layl' - making Salaah at night, 'Wal Adhkaar' - remembrance of Allaah and other than that when people remove themselves from the environment of eemaan it leads to backing up, it leads to going upon o*ne's heels, falling back upon o*ne's heels, it leads to an individual going in the wrong direction and turning away from what is right. So when a person, Muslim Man, woman or child is removed from righteous brothers or righteous companions or righteous sisters for sisters for a very long period of time for instance traveling or because of their job or something of this nature, they lose the environment of eemaan. And when they lose the environment of eemaan it weakens them. It weakens them and when they are weakened they turn away from that in which they were o*n or they become weak in their sticking – to what they used to stick to of Deen and if this is not caught by the person it can be a matter or a means of destruction for that individual.
The great Imaam of the Sunnah Al-Hasan al Basree (Rahimahullah) used to say 'Ikhwaanina'- Our Brothers, Aghlaa indanaa min ahlinaa - are more precious and expensive to us than our families, and the wife and the children. Our brothers are 'aghlaa' more precious, more expensive, more dear to us than our family because our family remind us of Dunya – 'We want this, we need this, let's go here, lets go there, well what about this, well what about that' reminding us of Dunya. But our brothers remind us of the Akhira. As we find brothers who are upon the Qura'an & Sunnah, the way of the salafus saalih, who fear Allah tabarak wa ta'ala and the Last Day, hope with the meeting of Allah tabarak wa ta'ala, they remind you of what? Al-Akhira - the Last Day. So upon the Muslim is to guard himself and to make sure that he or she strives against the desires of his self, to make sure that they place themselves in atmospheres of eemaan and this is something that we have the opportunity to do.
First, we have to make the house - a house of eemaan. Make the Baith – Baith Muslim, make the house, the house of a Muslim. This is a very important factor that I heard over 50 years ago, (from Sheik Abu Bakr Jaabir al Jazairi hafidahullah), the man who had been teaching tawhid and tafseer in the Masjid of the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) for well over 40 years or more in a series of lectures he did upon the corruption of the society, where he dealt with this issue that the house of a Muslim MUST be the house of a Muslim. The house of a Muslim is not a 'mal ab'- not a playground. The house of a Muslim is not a disco, the house of a Muslim is not a cinema. The house of a Muslim is where you find Qura'an and he used to say Haafidhahullah that what is this zero want by others to hear the voices of those who sing and so o*n so forth, music and all of this when you have some of the greatest reciters of Qura'an, the likes of, we are talking about their recitation not necessarily their Aqeedah or their Manhaj. When an individual he wants to listen to something, was concerned about the Manhaj he wouldn't listen to anything that had any connection with music - which is the Qura'an of Shaitan. He said we have the best reciters (the likes of Tablaawi, the likes of Abdul Baasit, the likes of Husri). We can go further to those whom we know in the present day other than al-Mishaawi, but al-Hudhaifi and the ai'imma of the various masaajid and others.
The house of the Muslim should have that playing, listening to the recitation of Qura'an. In this Qura'an, the house of the Muslim has in it the Qura'an, has in it the remembrance of Allaah, has in it Sajdah and Rukou, has in it serenity and peace, has in it talking of good. The Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said that the o*ne who Allaah wants good for, this is from the families -- the husband, wife and children, whom Allaah wants good for, he places between them Rahma. He places between them Mercy - that if there is good in them, they have between them Rahma or Mercy, so that the house becomes after the Masjid a refuge from Fitnah, a refuge from confusion, a refuge from the call to desires, a refuge from that. The house of a Muslim becomes the house of a Muslim. So who is it that comes in our house and say: bring in a television so that you can witness the Kuffar and learn how to act from the Kuffar and learn how to dress from the Kuffar and learn the ill, sick diseases of the Kuffar? Who is it that puts a gun to our head and said bring to your houses those magazines that impress you about the Kuffar.? Who is it that brings any of this and forces us to look down upon the Qura'an and let it collect dust o*n the shelf, and forces us not to teach our children or take 15 minutes or half an hour of the day to teach them the book of Allaah or the Sunnah of the messenger Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam, or some wisdom of the salafus saalih? I don't think any o*ne is forced. And if you go further who is it that has us hooked up to our houses with these issues such as Satellite dishes and cable and so o*n and so forth and to witness things that may be even Shaitan would be ashamed of! Who is it?. No o*ne!! So upon the believer is to make, to build, to construct environments of eemaan. This is a very important matter.
The third cause for those who had righteousness then becoming unrighteous, who had a difficulty falling into sins and sins with the exception and then therefore after that their sins become a rule and becomes a habit. And those who had strong eemaan and now they have weak eemaan what is referred to as "al-khawr ba'dil kawr" - another reason is the oppressiveness of the society that we live in. This is not just the societies in the countries of the Kuffar but even in the societies of Muslim countries. Even though the oppression is less, no doubt, but what he refers to here is, he means in general.
First and Foremost he is referring to the Muslims. When I read these words you will understand that. So, if that is the case with Muslims in Muslim circles, then what about the o*ne who is surrounded by the oppressive society? What is meant by 'oppressive', is the push of the society upon an individual who is sticking to his Deen. What about that? The influence of the Kuffar, the influence of those who are evil upon this type of individual. These are the type of societies that we live in; the Muslim who is trying to stick his Deen is that he mixes with individuals who are not concerned whether or not they disobey Allah. In our case, we mix with people who are around people who are not concerned by whether or not they commit Shirk and Kufr, so what about disobedience? In the sense after Kufr and Shirk everything else is light. So you can see that he is referring to the Muslim countries first, but we have to focus also and know that if this is the case there then our condition here is even worse and so we should pay attention to that. So we mix with individuals who are not concerned with the commission of sins :
1) Singing the songs;
2) listening and calling to music;
3) Smoking cigarettes or whatever;
4) Reading dirty magazines or magazines that have no benefit;
5) one whose tongue is not safe from Gheebah - backbiting, cursing, swearing and making fun and mockery of the believers.
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