| 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
So this Muslim who sticks to Deen when he comes to o*ne of these settings or is invited to a Walimah or Aqeeqah or whatever he finds all types of Munkaraat- all types of evil matters and he finds conversation taking place about matters of Dunya. Either about trading or 'Thijaarah", buying and selling or about a person's 'wadiwa' - particular business or position that they have in the business world or about wealth or about the acquiring of properties or money or whatever. And the problems of the Dunya and others in that until it is a matter of placing into the heart based upon the conversations, based upon what people are talking about -- a deep love of Dunya in the heart. A deep love of Dunya in the heart !! So therefore the heart becomes hard, and a person backs up o*n their sticking to the Deen of Allaah. They back up from being righteous. If this person like this has been oppressed by his environment to this degree, mixing, just mere mixing in this way affects him, if you add to that, that he's also been tested with some wealth, he has got some money to spend, and if you add to that he may be also tested with a wife, or if it is a sister or a brother who has weak eemaan, or children that are like their father, if his weak in his eemaan, or like their mother if she is weak in eemaan, then he will not be able to be fixed and firm upon his Deen and he will leave those matters and leave being righteous and leave being upright. Then if you find that if he mixes with his kith and kin, (he is referring to the Muslim families) then what about the Kuffar, if his family members are Kuffar? And if he mixes with his kith and kin, his neighbours and his peers, he finds words that are distasteful and mockery, open mockery or hidden mockery. And he finds people who try to advise him to be balanced, that you're going to the extreme, your thobe is too far above your ankle, why do u have to let your beard grow that much? See, the type of naseehah he is given. Yes, the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said adDeen anNaseehah - but not this type of naseehah. This is the type of naseehah he is given to backup from what he is o*n. Many of them, or many individuals are tested like this -- backup, fall short and in the end it is possible for that person to lose the Dunya and the Akhira -- to lose this world and the Hereafter. So this is a cause also. And that is why the first issue of being around people who are 'Saalih' – who are righteous and environments that are righteous is of utmost importance because we begin to mix with those who don't mind smoking cigarettes even though it is Haraam, they like to say Makrouh. It is what you hear all the time.
As one student of knowledge told one of these individuals, who was smoking, he was looking at him and he said "Don't smoke". The smoking individual, then inhaled a big amounts into his mouth and brought it out of his nose and said, "its makrouh yaani." Is it Makhrou? This is the type of mentality that you are dealing with. It is not makrouh it is Haraam. So when you mix with these type of individuals it can be dangerous.
Another issue or reason that people go from being correct or upright to corruption, from being righteous to becoming unrighteous or from being strong in their belief to becoming weak in their belief is Daahf al tarbiyyah Azzaatiyyah' -- their personal tarbiyyah is weak. Their personal education islamically of themselves and cultivation of themselves is weak. Because the Muslims doesn't make sure to watch himself and guard himself and make sure that he cultivates himself and strives against himself, he will fall back upon his heels. There must be times throughout the hours of the day where it is just him and Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala. There must be times where he takes a "Time out" to be by himself focused o*n Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala, making Dua, making Ibadah, making Tasbih, Tahmeem, wa tahleel, reflecting upon the names and qualities of Allaah and calling upon Allaah. He must have those times throughout the day, where in those times he judges himself, calls himself to account as Umar Ibn Al Khattab (Amirul Mu'mineen), the Farouq of this ummah used to say "call yourself to account before you are called to account".
So the believer takes some time out of the day to look at what he has done of benefit to himself of good deeds and righteousness and whatever and what has he done that is harmful to himself. And therefore make Istighfar - ask Allaah for forgiveness and make Tawbah – repent to Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala. He must also have some time throughout the day, and this something that o*ne of the students of knowledge Sheikh Abu Abdurrahman Hisham Arif Hafidahullah who teaches Tawhid, Sunnah and the Manhaj of the Salaf-us-Saalih at Masjid Baithul Maqdis - Masjidul Aqsa asked the brothers at the last convention of the Qura'an and Sunnah Society : "How many hours do you read a day, some book of knowledge?" and he said 'you must also in your reading also take notes, you must get into the habit of writing. For this is keeping in accordance with the Sunnah that the Prophet Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam established when he said "Keep knowledge through writing - Qayyid ul Ilm fil Kitaab."
So actually physically writing down, and you find that the scholars of the past had books that they called Fawaid - benefits, a daftar if you will (a notebook) for benefit. When you hear something that is beneficial, it does not have to be under any specific title or anything else you write down the benefit. Who said this, who did this, what was this statement, what was that Umar Ibn Al Khattab said what? Wa kaza, wa kaza wa kaza -- you write it down. So there must be that type of Shirh saalih al ilm and even if it was for a small period of time (half an hour of the day) what is done continuously you will see benefit. You will see benefit, you will see yourself grow and reach a level that you didn't think that you were going to reach.
Because as they say 'a journey of a thousand, million miles begins with a footstep'. And little tiny footsteps, you look up and you say how did I get way down here or how did I get way up here? And this is the case with knowledge. So there must be times where an individual uses lil tahseelil ilm wash-shar 'ee to achieve Islaamic knowledge and to teach it and to review it and to present before himself issues that he my not have learnt or knew before -- to learn something new. It is incorrect to be upon the same level of Deen and knowledge that o*ne was 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 years ago. That you find that the brother has not made o*ne move or the sister has not made o*ne move, not learnt o*ne ayah more of Qura'an, not learnt o*ne more hadith, not learnt o*ne more story of the Sahabah. Still can't tell you about the Seerah – the life of the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) from his birth to his death, they cant tell you that. They don't know the battles that the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) took part in, don't know who his wife and children, sons and daughters were, don't know who his uncles, aunts and wet-nurses were. What is this? Yet this is Muhammed (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) who is the person we say that we follow and we don't know, (these basic things about him). As a matter of fact it gets worse than that since many individuals may know more about an athletic individual who is into athletics, football and basketball, or maybe even worse than that, who is an entertainer, a singer, an actress or an actor. They many know what these guys like from A-Z, know where they were born, where they went to school, what their achievements up o*n a football field, or a basketball court, but they wouldn't know anything about Muhammed ibn Abdullah (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam)? And if you asked them about the Prophet's Kunya, they wouldn't know.
I was surprised, I was amazed and we live in a time of amazement. I was amazed, we went to the Masjid and I gave a Khutbah called "Be like Mustafa" (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam). Be like Mustafa, walk like Mustafa, talk like Mustafa, dress like Mustafa, act like Mustafa. After the Khutbah, after salah, there were a young group of children saying "Who is Mustafa". Not knowing who is Mustafa? It is o*ne of the names of the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and that was about whom I was referring to. But if you ask them about Michael Jordan, or you ask them about Pokemon, or you ask them about any of the filth that has come out of the minds of the Kuffar that they have constructed and placed, they know about them.
Where is the Tarbiyyah? There is no Tarbiyyah at all in the majority of cases. Let's not fool ourselves. If your child wants to be more like that Mushrik, like that Kafir, dress like him, talk like him, walk like him, be like him and does not know anything about those that you say are the best generations and you make intisaad or connect yourself to the salaf-us saalih, there is no Tarbiyyah whatsoever. You can't claim to say Tarbiyyah. He should want to wear his thobe to the calf because Ibn Umar wore it that way, to the shin of the leg, because Abdul Masood was like that; he should want to die o*n a battlefield and be killed because Sa'ad Ibn Abi Waqas was like that; Abu Bar Ibn Jarar was like that, because most of the salafs were like that. He should want to leave home and seek knowledge because Imaam Shafi was like that, Imaam Ahmed was like that. If this is not happening, if there is not a connection, an emotional tie o*n the level of the Salaf, and want to follow the salaf, -- there is no Tarbiyah. It is not a matter that we need more Tarbiyyah but we need to establish some Tarbiyyah .
When it becomes a situation where in the hearts there is a love for the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and his companions, and you know when someone loves someone. For when someone loves someone they want to follow him, especially among the youth, when they like someone they want to dress like him. Look at the Fitnah that took place when that Kafir, May Allah guide him to Islam, that feminine individual called Michael Jackson his effect, the ideas o*n those who are living in Saudia. I've seen it myself, can you imagine someone in the city of Muhammed (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) Medina, can you imagine someone who is living in Haramain, wants to move his hands, and wear his hair and have a jacket o*n like Michael Jackson. This is the absence of Tarbiyyah and we don't have to go that far. We can come to our own neighbourhoods, we can look in our own Masjids -- to the right, to the left and look to how individuals act and we can see whether or not if there is any importance placed o*n following the way of the Salafus Saalih -- in reality not just in talk. So it is important that there be this matter of obtaining knowledge and a reflection and of learning new matters and of review and there should be a times where we use the Tabliqi bidhi term 'sacrifice for dawah.' But the True Dawah not the innovative Dawah, the Dawah tul Kitab us-Sunnah, the Dawahtud Tawhid, there must be times where we have an individual effort of trying to give somebody Dawah -- of the good that Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala has given us. Knowing the hadith of the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) when he said : 'if Allaah guides upon your hands o*ne individual, it is better for you than the red camels.' – which was the most expensive property amongst the Arabs.
There should be dawah and there should be times for the remembrance of Allaah. Yes, times for the remembrance of Allaah, like recitation of Quraan. All of these for what? So that o*ne can guide o*neself and preserve o*neself, and make sure o*ne is sticking to the Deen of Allaah tabarak wa ta'ala.
Another reason for "al-khawr ba'dil kawr" - misguidance after having guidance, decrease after having increase, unrighteousness after having being righteous, belittling the sins – they look at sins as light, istihaadat az zunoob -- (they try to figure out if it is a Major sin 'Kabair' or a minor sin 'as-Saghaair')?
The salafs used to say : 'don't look whether the sins are major or minor but look at the greatness of the o*ne who you are disobeying.' Don't look at whether the sin is major or minor when they split that into that Major or Minor it wasn't for the purpose for an individual to take it lightly, just like when they slit Bid'ah up into Mukaffarah – (Bi'dah that makes you a Disbeliever) or Bid'ah Mufasikah – (Bi'dah that makes you a Faasiq); it wasn't for the point that it is easy. Qullu Bid'ahthin Dalaalah - every Bid'ah is going astray. Similarly, all Haraam actions must be avoided. As a matter of fact it is understood that many fires are lit by the smallest pieces of wood and that pebble after pebble after pebble you have a mountain there, and the believer sees sin as related by Mujaahid in Bukhari : "As if a mountain was ready to fall upon him and a Hypocrite sees this sin as a fly all he has to do is use his hand to shoosh it away".
Looking at matters as seemingly light is another reason why people backup after they were going forward becoming unrighteousness after having being righteous. Abdallah Ibn Mubarak (the great Imam from the Aimma of the Salaf) used to say in a piece of poetry "I saw that sins kill the heart" and the person who commits sins inherits humiliation if he continues upon those sins. And that leaving sins gives life to the heart. And the best thing that you can do for yourself is to disobey it. The best thing that you can do for yourself is to disobey yourself.
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