Abdul Rahman Chao - The ease of the Religion of Islam

As-salāmu ʿalaykum wa raḥmatu Llāhi wa barakātuh. Inna al-ḥamdu liLlāhi naḥmaduHu wa nasta'īnuHu wa nastaghfiruHu. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him.

And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that there is no partner for Him. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and His Messenger. O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared.

And do not die except as Muslims. O you people, fear your Lord Who created you from one soul, and created from it its wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah in Whom you ask for mercy.

Verily, Allah is ever watching over you. O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the righteous word. He will amend for you your deeds and forgive you your sins.

And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great triumph. As for what follows, the truth of the hadith is the word of Allah. And the best gift is the gift of Muhammad ﷺ.

All praise is due to Allah. We thank Him, and we seek His assistance, and we seek His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil that is from within our souls, and from the evil that results from our sins. Whomsoever Allah guides, then none shall misguide.

And whomsoever Allah allows to be led astray, then none shall bring them back to the straight path. I bear witness that there is no God worthy of worship except Allah. And I also bear witness that Muhammad ﷺ is His messenger and prophet.

Allah tells us in the Qur'an, O you who believe, be God-conscious, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims. Allah also tells us, O mankind, be God-conscious, fear Him, for He has created you from one soul, and from it its mate, and from it many men and many women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another of your rights, and by the wombs that gave birth to you, verily Allah is ever watchful over you.

Allah also tells us in the Qur'an, O you who believe, fear Allah, be God-conscious, speak the truth, for He will render your deeds righteous, and He will forgive your sins, and whoever obeys Allah and His messenger has indeed achieved a great victory. Verily the best speech is the speech of Allah, and verily the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ﷺ, and the worst affairs are those that are of heresy, for those are all innovations, and all innovations are misguidance, all misguidance lead to the hellfire.

The Story of the Bedouin

A man came to the Prophet ﷺ from the desert, a Bedouin came to the Prophet ﷺ, and he came and asked, and he was a little unkempt, a little disorganized in his appearance, and he came and he asked the Prophet ﷺ, what has Allah written for me? What has He prescribed upon me in the salawat? The Prophet ﷺ says, five prayers in the day and at night, total five salawat, except if you want to increase, you want to add extra naafilah prayer.

Then he said, what about fasting? He said, that you fast Ramadan, except if you want to do a little bit extra more fasting. He said, okay, what about zakah? He says, what Allah has written for you, except if you would like to give more. Then the man got up and he said, I will not do anything more and nor will I do anything less.

(Sahih al-Bukhari)

And then the Prophet ﷺ remarked to the companions around him, after this man left, and he says, He will succeed if he is honest. And in other narrations, دَخَلَ الْجَنَّةَ He will enter paradise.

The Religion of Ease

This hadith, brothers and sisters, reminds us and echoes the simplicity of the message of Islam, as you know in the famous hadith of Hadith Jibreel, where Jibreel came in the form of a man, and he asked the Prophet ﷺ, what is Islam? What is al-iman? What is al-ihsan? What are the signs of the Day of Judgment? So on and so forth.

And so, the concept that al-Islam is indeed a religion of ease, this is something that we find throughout the tradition, and throughout the books and the narratives, that we find in the Qur'an, as well as in the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ. We see that the Prophet ﷺ remarked about this, and he said:

The Prophet ﷺ says, that the most beloved religion to Allah is the religion of Hanifiyyah. And we will explain that, and al-Samha.

Understanding Hanifiyyah

What does this word al-Hanifiyyah mean? Al-Hanifiyyah, notice the fact I didn't say Hanifiyyah, because Hanifiyyah, some of you might think, oh, the water faucet.

Al-Hanifiyyah comes from the word Hanf. It means to turn towards something. So when you say someone is Hanif, it means they are turning away from something.

مَالَعَنْ شَيْءٍ They are turning away from something. And in this specific context, turning away from shirk, turning away from sin. And in Arabic, when you say رَجُلٌ أَحْنَفُ Someone who is Ahnaf, it means that their feet are actually kind of facing inwards.

So Allah describes the religion of Islam as Hanif. Why? Because it's an imagery of we as Muslims turning away from shirk, turning away from tawaghit, false idols, turning away from injustice, turning away from all of these evil. مُقْبِلًا عَلَى طَاعَةِ اللَّهِ Turning towards Allah in worship.

And the word سَمْحَ means something of ease. So Allah likes that you would have this religion of ease, of constantly turning towards Allah.

And if you look at this concept of Hanif as well as ease, you see it in the imagery that you find in the Qur'an, where Allah says, And every time you look at, for example, the name of Prophet Ibrahim, you always connect the word of Ibrahim, Al-Hanif, right? Why? Because Ibrahim ﷺ was the best example of the person who turned away from all the idolatry in his time. So Allah says here, in Surah Al-Hajj, the last verse of Surah Al-Hajj, after talking about this very great ibadah, of performing the pilgrimage, where there are so many difficult tasks at hand, what did He say? And strive in the way of Allah as one should, in its right way.

هُوَ اجْتَبَاكُمْ Allah chose you. وَمَا جَعَلَ عَلَيْكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ مِنْ حَرَجٍ And He has not placed difficulty upon you in the religion. مِلَّةَ أَبِيكُمْ إِبْرَاهِيم It is the way, it is the path of Ibrahim, the one who named you Muslimin, the ones who submit to Allah.

What Does "Islam is Easy" Mean?

So when we say, الإِسْلَامُ دِينٌ يُسْرٌ Islam is an easy religion. What do we mean by that? There are a couple of connotations I want to go over. Number one, Islam is easy in comparison to the other religions that came in the past that Allah has sent down to the other prophets and messengers.

And when we say the word Islam was brought from the very beginning of time, we are talking about Islam with a lowercase i. I'm not talking about Islam with an uppercase i that came to Muhammad. As you know Islam came from Adam all the way until now. And the message is the same.

Worship Allah. Submit to Allah. The inner finer details and rulings that change with every specific group or tribe or nation that preceded the Ummah of Muhammad, that's different.

And Allah tells us in the Qur'an, the Prophet that is unlettered, the Messenger, meaning Muhammad ﷺ, the one that they find in their books in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, referring to Muhammad ﷺ. What is he described as? The one who commands them to do good and forbids them from doing evil, and makes halal what is good, and forbids those that are repugnant. وَيَضَعُ عَنْهُمْ إِصْرَهُمْ وَالْأَغْلَالَ الَّتِي كَانَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ And that he would relieve them of the shackles of the heavy laws that were placed upon them in the message that came before them during the time of Isa, and during the Davidic and Mosaic laws that came before them.

So Muhammad ﷺ himself, he describes himself as a prophet of ease. He says, Allah did not send me to be harsh. And the second word he used, متعنِّت, it means to pick out the flaws of people.

But instead, he sent me as a prophet, a teacher who is easy. So that's the first concept, that Islam in and of itself is an easy religion. Number two, we have to understand that, use some logic here, use some common sense.

Allah would not make fard upon you, all of these things, to set you up for failure. Allah set these things out for you, and the Prophet ﷺ showed you what is obligatory and what is not obligatory, because it is possible for you to do it. Allah would not legislate a religion that is impossible.

And therefore, it leads us to this point that is, Islam, unlike any other religion, has a right to define itself, has a right to set out its own rules. It is quite childish or impossible for someone to say, well, Islam isn't easy for me, therefore Islam is difficult. No.

It is not in your perspective. It is in the grand scheme of everything. Do not fault the religion, but fault oneself when it comes to weakness.

Examples of Islam's Ease

So let us look at some of the examples of how Islam came down in an easy form. A few quick examples. Number one, the fact that Allah did not send down the entire message and its rules in one shot.

Aisha رضي الله عنها, she says, that if Allah has sent down the entire message from the beginning to the end in one shot, no one would have followed it. She said that at the very beginning, it was short surahs that encouraged people to come back to the religion. And then over time, the longer surahs would come through.

And she said, if from the very beginning Allah says, لا تشربوا الخمر, don't drink wine, then everyone will say, لا نترك, we'll never leave it. And if from the very beginning Allah says, لا تزنوا, they will say, لا نترك الزنا. If from the very beginning they said, you cannot drink, or you cannot commit zina, the people would have said, no, we will never leave this, we will continue.

In other words, Islam understood the trajectory and the development of the human enterprise. And that is, humans require time to get used to certain things. Additionally, you look at the Qur'an, sent down in multiple, verified, authentic recitation forms.

Why? Because the different tribes among the Arabs, whether it's Al-Hudayl, or people from Yemen, etc., they have different pronunciations. And Allah says in the Qur'an:

And we have made the Qur'an easy for remembrance, so is there anyone that is going to remember it? I'll give you an example, مالك يوم الدين, مَلِكِ يوم الدين. For example, the most common one is the همزة القطع.

In Arabic, the hard hamza. That hamza which comes at the beginning of certain words. So for example, الأنبياء.

The prophets. In many Arabic dialects, they cannot say الأنبياء. They say الأنبياء.

And so when they read the Qur'an, when the Qur'an was brought down, it was to accommodate these recitations, to accommodate these pronunciations, so as to make it easy, so as to make it accessible for us to understand. Additionally, as you know very well, Al-Islam came down, understanding that individuals have certain difficulties, that they have certain limitations, physical limitations.

For example, we all know without going to details, that Allah made it easy for those who are traveling, that they can shorten and combine the prayers. Allah made it easy for those who are ill, that if they cannot fast Ramadan, that they can either pay if it's an ongoing chronic illness, or if it's a short term, that they can make up their fasting at another date.

When People Make Islam Difficult

What are some of the reasons, brothers and sisters, where people accidentally make Islam into a difficult religion? And the first thing is ignorance. When people are ignorant about the laws of Allah, and they only know one way, they only know one verifiable opinion.

And now, of course, I'm not saying, we have to go to the other extreme, where some people will say, Brother, كل شيء فيه اختلاف، كل شيء فيه قول. In fact, there was a joke one time, there was a person, whenever he asked, when they ever asked him, how many, كم قول في هذه المسألة؟ قال، هنالك قولان. في من قال بالجواز وفي من قال بعدم جواز.

We're not going to the other extreme, where everything has an opinion. You hear that very often now. Brother, it's just a difference of opinion.

No, certain things have legitimate difference of opinion. But in this example that I want to tell you, رضي الله عنه, he narrates a story of companions, who had gone out on a war expedition. And a man had been severely injured with a rock hit his head, and it actually cracked open his head.

And so that evening, he became in a state of janabah, in a state of major impurity that required ghusl, that required a bath. And it was a very extreme cold night. So in the morning he got up, he said, Well, I'm in janabah, I'm in impurity.

And so, do I need, do I have to take the ghusl? Because in Islam, when there is extreme cold, and you do not have access to hot water, you can actually kill yourself from that cold, from hypothermia, etc. So some of these companions, they didn't know about the hukum of tayammum. They just said, No, you have to take this bath.

And so he took this bath, and then he got sick, and he passed away. When they went back to the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ condemned them. And he said, قَتَلُوهُ قَتَلَهُمَ اللَّهُ Basically, their actions and their ignorance ended up condemning this poor man to death.

So therefore Allah condemns them. And he even says, فَإِنَّمَا شِفَاءُ الْعِيِّ السُّؤَالُ What is the cure to ignorance? To go and seek knowledge. So a lot of times when we are faced with what we consider perceived difficulty, sometimes it requires us to go seek more knowledge to find out, well, is this the only opinion, valid opinion that is out there? Or is there other ways that the Prophet ﷺ had shown us?

Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we make it difficult for ourselves because we think lowly of ourselves. And you know the famous story, where three men came to the wives of the Prophet ﷺ and they asked about his ibadah. And after they heard about his modus operandi and how he worshipped Allah, the hadith says, تَقَالُّوهُ In other words, they kind of felt less about themselves. They said, if this is the way of the Prophet ﷺ, so where are we?

So one person said, I shall never get married. Another person said, he made a vow of celibacy. And another one said, I shall continue fasting, non-stop all the way through. And then another person says, I will continue praying every single night, all night, qiyam al-layl.

When the Prophet ﷺ came back and they informed him of this story, he completely repudiated and rejected their actions. This form of extremism. And he said, فَمَنْ رَغِبَ عَنْ سُنَّتِي فَلَيْسَ مِنِّي And so whoever turns away from my sunnah, is not from me.

For verily, I sleep a portion of the night, and I get up and pray, and I also marry women, and I also fast, and I break my fast. There is an interesting story of the third example I want to give you, and that is sometimes people overestimate their ability.

And that is, we have a story of كَهْمَس الْحِلَالِ Kahmas was this companion who came to the Prophet ﷺ at his very onset of Islam. And he announced to the Prophet ﷺ of his Islam, and the Prophet ﷺ affirmed him. And then he left for one whole year. And then later on he came back.

And he had, how should I put it, he had obligated on himself an extreme level of piety and difficulty that caused him to weaken physically and his entire countenance and appearance and physical frailty was so apparent. When he came the next year, he came to the Prophet ﷺ, and he stood in front of the Prophet ﷺ, and then the Prophet ﷺ looked at him and didn't recognize him.

And so he says, do you not know who I am? The Prophet ﷺ says, no, I don't know who you are. He says, I am Kahmas. And the Prophet ﷺ says, what has changed? Why do you look like this? Why do you look so weak and emaciated, and weak and famished, etc? Who commanded you to do this? Who commanded you to do this?

What did he say? He said, Messenger of Allah, since last year I left you, I have not stopped in my fasting and in my daily night prayers. And the Prophet ﷺ told him, no. Fast the month of Sabr. In other words, Ramadan. And one day out of the month.

He said, no, I can do more. He said, fine. Then two days out of the month. He said, I can do more. He said, okay, fine. Then do three days out of the month.

Finally, brothers and sisters, before we conclude for the second khutbah, what Islam wants is for you to strive. And sometimes we think that by increasing the difficulty, by going through some sort of suffering, that that shows sincerity. And that could not be further from the truth.

During the time of the Prophet ﷺ, the Prophet ﷺ was one time giving a khutbah. He was standing up. And he saw this man standing outside, far away, in the hot sun.

So he said, who is this person? They said, his name is Abu Israel. And he says, that's his kunya, that's his nickname. But his real name is Yusair. وَهُوَ الرَّجُلٌ مِنَ الْأَنصَارِ He was a man from the Ansar of Medina. نَذَرَ أَن يَقُومَ فِي الشَّمْسِ وَلَا يَقْعُدْ وَلَا يَسْتَظِلْ وَلَا يَتَكَلِّمْ وَيَصُومُ Look at the extra suffering he's trying to increase on himself. He made a vow that he will stand in the sun, refuse to sit, and he will not seek shade, and he will vow silence.

He will take on silence and never speak while he is fasting and punishing himself. And the Prophet ﷺ says, مُرُوهُ فَلْيَتَكَلَّمْ وَلْيَسْتَظِلْ وَلْيَقْعُدْ وَلْيُتِمَّ صَوْمَةُ Command him to speak. Command him to seek shade, and to sit down, and to continue his fast.

أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على أشرف الأنبياء المرسلين نبينا محمد وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين وبعد

Practical Application

Brothers and sisters, now that we have heard all about this concept of Islam is a religion of ease, how do we put it into our daily life and practice? Number one, as we've said, Islam as a religion of ease requires a person to put in their utmost effort when it comes to the obligations. I mean a person that says Oh brother, I swear by the Fajr prayer, it's really difficult, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful. You know, Fajr prayer is difficult, Allah is forgiving, forget it.

No, you have to put your effort in. When it comes to the obligatory act, put in your effort as much as you can. Number two, when it comes to, for example, I was talking to this revert the other day and they were saying I have so much to learn, I don't know where to start.

I'm so overwhelmed. And it's true. Especially when it's like convert, they become like the targets for a lot of Muslims. Everyone coming to them, telling them what to do. Everyone comes and, no brother, you need to do this. Sister, you need to do that.

Brother, maybe you need to focus on this. Brother, you need to go do that. Completely inundated.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7288)

The Prophet ﷺ, he gave us some yardstick, a yardstick on where do we start. He says, ﷺ, What I have forbidden you from doing, stay away from it. That's the first thing.

You wanna work on yourself? Focus on removing the major sins that you are committing in your life. And whatever I have commanded you to do, then do it to the best of your ability.

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 39)

Additionally, brothers and sisters, the crux of this entire topic, the Prophet ﷺ tells us, he says, This religion is easy. And there is no one that is going to try to overpower this deen by over-exerting themselves, except that they will be defeated. فَسَدِّدُوا وَقَارِبُوا means take your aim, strive for excellence. And if you cannot strive, if you cannot get to that, قَارِبُوا, approximate to excellence.

وَأَبْشِرُوا and be positive, rejoice. وَاسْتَعِينُوا بِالْغَدْوَةِ وَالرَّوْحَةِ وَشَيْءٍ مِّنَ الدُّلْجَةِ And seek comfort, worship Allah Beginning of the day, end of the day, throughout the night, and you pace yourself.

And that is why brothers and sisters, in another narration, the Prophet ﷺ tells us, he says, Verily, this religion is mateen. In other words, it is a very strong religion. So take it easy. And you take it easy upon yourselves.

Do not make the worship of Allah something that you detest. Right? One of the most beautiful things that the Prophet ﷺ said. He says, فَإِنَّ الْمُنْبَتَّ Al-Munbat is the person who is a traveler.

If this person rides his horse and keeps traveling and does not take rest and does not give rest to his horse, not only will he fail to reach his destination, nor will his ride and his mount be able to continue. So take it easy. Ask yourself.

Apply yourself. That whatever Allah has made fard, put all of your effort in it. Focus on the fard. And when it comes to the sunan, the non-obligatory, take it easy. Take it one step at a time.

Oh Allah, give us what is the best in this world and give us what is the best in the next life and protect us from the hellfire.

Oh Allah, show us the truth as truth and give us the ability to follow it and show us falsehood as falsehood and give us the strength to stay away from it

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