Fortify Your Faith with Love

Fortify Your Faith with Love

Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening Praise and Testimony

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَتُوبُ إِلَيْهِ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ سَيِّدَنَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ عَلَى عَبْدِهِ الْكِتَابَ وَلَمْ يَجْعَلْ لَهُ عِوَجًا. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي هَدَانَا لِهَذَا وَمَا كُنَّا لِنَهْتَدِيَ لَوْلَا أَنْ هَدَانَا اللَّهُ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

Our praise is due to Allah who has guided us to this way, who has blessed us with Islam, who has strengthened and fortified us with Iman, and who has beautified us with Ihsan. All praise is due to Allah who has blessed us to gather this day in safety and security. May Allah perpetuate and preserve the state of safety and security that we enjoy, alhamdulillah.

The Foundation of Faith: Love Beyond Rationality

Our religion and the faith that it brings to us is founded not on rationality. If you will, there are rational proofs for Islam, there are rational proofs for the existence of Allah, but that's not the foundation of faith. One of the greatest foundations of faith is love. One of the greatest foundations of faith is love, and love is something associated with the qualities of the heart that are unseen.

So the foundation of love, just as the reality of Allah in terms of His essence, all of these are from the unseen world realm. And so we have no immediate rational proof for the existence of these things, but we know they're real.

Belief in the Unseen

Allah at the very beginning of the Quran informs us that our faith and aspect of our faith is to believe in the unseen realm. In fact, this is the first description of the believers in the Quran where Allah mentions:

This is the scripture, there is no doubt concerning it. It is guidance for those who are aware of their Lord للمتقين هدی. And then those متقين the first description Allah gives of them: الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ - they believe in the unseen. وَيُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ وَمِمَّا رَزَقْنَاهُمْ يُنفِقُونَ - and they establish regular prayer and they spend from what We have bestowed upon them. But the first thing: الَّذِينَ يُؤْمِنُونَ بِالْغَيْبِ - they believe in the unseen.

The Believers' Intense Love for Allah

Allah mentions in the Quran:

And [yet], among the people are those who take besides Allah [false] deities, loving them as they should [only] love Allah. But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah.

Amongst the people there are those who take equals that they love as they should love Allah. In other words, those things that some people take and they set them up and they love them as they should love Allah - the believers are more intense in their love of Allah than their love for those things.

The Proper Place of Worldly Possessions

Some people take money and they love money as they should love Allah. Now there's nothing wrong with loving money in and of itself, especially if one loves money so they can use that money (فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ). That's one of the people we can envy - two people we can envy. You can envy the person who has much money and they spend it (فِي سَبِيلِ اللهِ). We can envy the person that has much knowledge and they share it with people.

Allah says He's made money beloved to us:

What is meant for people is the love of forbidden desires, women, children, hoarded treasures of gold and silver, fine horses, livestock and tilled land. All that is merely the enjoyment of worldly life. And with Allah is the best destination.

What's mentioned here is women for men, and men for women. And children, and heaped up hoards of gold and silver, (الْخَيْلِ الْمُسَوَّمَةِ, وَالْأَنْعَامِ وَالْحَرْثِ) - and cultivated fields. That's been made endeared to people.

Love Allah More Than Everything

But the believers love Allah more. So they're not going to murder someone to get their farm because they love the cultivated fields, because they love Allah more, and they know Allah has sanctified human life and forbidden murder. They're not going to go into interest just to be able to buy a house - they love Allah more, the believers. They love their spouses, but they're not going to put alcohol in their store because their wife wants the income to go up, so she can stop shopping at Walmart and she can start shopping at Nordstrom's or Saks Fifth Avenue or Macy's. "Tired of shopping at Walmart, just sell the alcohol, we'll get more money, I can shop at Nordstrom's." Say, "I think I need a new wife."

وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ - those who believe are more intense in their love for Allah than their love for women or men.

The Crisis of Apostasy

Wallahi, every day you receive news: this one has left Islam, this one took off hijab. Why? She doesn't think she can get married wearing hijab. So you love the guys more than you love Allah? Or you think you have the power to bring yourself a wife or a husband? So if I make more money, even though it's haram, I'll get a real trophy wife. You know, the kind of wife you walk into the place and everyone turns their head. "I'll get one of those kind of wives."

You've already dehumanized her. She's a trophy, she's not someone to help you to get to the akhirah. She's not someone to cook you good wholesome food. She's not someone who'll be a good mother for your children. She's just someone that looks good.

You can save yourself the trouble. Just get some scissors, cut out a picture of the most beautiful woman. You can go to FedEx Kinko now, just get a picture of a supermodel, and then paint a hijab on her, and then go to Kinko's, get it blown up, cut it off, and paste her onto your arm. That's all she is. She has no human qualities that you value. She's just a trophy. Go to Acme Awards and say, "I want a trophy shaped like a beautiful woman, and then put velcro on it so I can stick it onto my arm and walk around with it."

The Delusion of Self-Sufficiency

So you love her more than you love Allah. You love the guy more than you love Allah. You think that if you get your income up into another higher tax bracket, you're going to attract that beautiful woman. You think if you take your hijab off, you're going to attract that beautiful guy. You bring it to you, not Allah. It's jahl on top of jahl - (جهل مركب) compound ignorance. Ignorance of Allah, ignorance of the religion, compounded ignorance.

Not for you, [O Muhammad, but for Allah] is the decision whether He should turn to them [in forgiveness] or punish them, for indeed, they are wrongdoers.

Allah tells us in the Quran: you have nothing to do with anything.

And you do not will except that Allah wills - Lord of the worlds.

Your will is only effective if it's consistent with what Allah has willed. If it's inconsistent with what Allah has willed, it's not going to happen. That's how reality works.

Reliance on Deeds Versus Reliance on Allah

So love Allah, please Allah, and then pray to Allah with sincerity, and then see what happens. Otherwise, people are setting themselves up for failure, and they're setting themselves up for frustration.

Ibn Ata'illah, the very first aphorism he mentions in his collection, Al-Hikam Al-Ata'iyyah:

From the indications of reliance on one's deeds is the diminishing of hope when you experience a setback. "I studied hard for the test and I flunked, so where was Allah?" Allah was there the whole time. For wisdom, He didn't decree that you pass. So where's your faith? Where's your love for Allah?

The Constancy of True Love

If you love someone and they say, "Wait for me here," and they don't show up, you'll keep waiting if you love them. "She's coming." You know she says she's coming at 5 o'clock. "Astaghfirullah, I'm out." So you'll wait until midnight in zero degree weather. If you really love her, you'll wait until the next day. "Maybe she meant 5 o'clock tomorrow." Camp out, have a sleeping bag.

People love the 49ers, right? For a playoff ticket they'll sleep in the parking lot. They'll spend the night in the parking lot. They'll set a little pup tent up to get a playoff ticket to the 49ers game because they love the 49ers. They'll wait for two or three days standing in line for the 49ers. But as soon as what we expect Allah should have done for us because we did what we think will affect something in Allah's creation - bam, we give up.

The Linguistic Meaning of Love

One of the qualities of love, one of the linguistic meanings of love in Arabic - (الحب والمحبة يعني اللزوم) - is constancy. Even in English we have that meaning. If someone, we know they're gonna be in love for two weeks, you say, "You're not in love, you're infatuated. This will be gone in two weeks."

So your 13-year-old comes: "Abu, mommy, I love the teacher." "Okay, this will be over as soon as you get your first test result back." You say, "No, you're not in love, you're just infatuated."

Love is deep, love is permanent, love is permanent - (لزوم. من معاني المحبة والحب اللزوم، العرب يقولون بعير محب، البعير المحب يعني لازم مكان واحد) - so a camel that's muhibb stays in one place.

Faith That Cannot Be Shaken

So if we love Allah, we're not going anywhere. Our faith isn't going anywhere. Our commitment to Islam isn't going anywhere. We're going to be consistent.

I'm amazed. Every day someone apostatized. "What happened?" "Well, they went to philosophy class and they read a book." One book and you gave up your faith?

I'm not even going to start thinking about it until I read an encyclopedia and then read the response to that. You read the argument and you didn't even bother to read the counter argument. Where's your faith? Where's your love? Didn't even bother to read the counter argument to the argument that puts you out of Islam. That means you were never fully in Islam in the first place.

Because if you were in, it would take someone putting a gun up to your head to have you fake like you're leaving. "Just don't shoot." "Okay, I'm not one of them." Put the gun down on these suckers. How is that cheap? Your faith is that cheap? You give it up for one little pamphlet written by some wretched, miserable kafir?

You go look at the lives of these people. Look at their lives. There's no joy, there's no love, there's no mercy, there's no fulfillment. In many cases, there's no family, meaningful family relationships. And all of that frustration and bitterness and hatred and anger is coming out in that literature.

وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَشَدُّ حُبًّا لِلَّهِ - those who believe are more intense in their love for Allah. This is part of our religion: love. Love of Allah, love of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.

Love of the Prophet ﷺ

(Sahih Bukhari 15, Sahih Muslim 44)

None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his son, and all of humanity. This is the foundation of faith. There has to be love, there has to be love.

The Shari Definition of Love

الحب والمحبة شرعاً: ميل النفس إلى ما تظنه خيراً

The shari definition of love: the soul inclining towards that which it knows to be good, which it knows to be good.

We love Allah. Look at the good Allah has done for us. Then there'll be a skeptic: "Well, God hasn't been good to me. I lost my job, I lost my family, I lost my brother in a car accident. I lost this, I didn't have that, I was denied this, I failed at that."

طيب - and what do you get from Allah if you patiently persevere through all of that life, all of that loss? Permanent bliss for the rest of eternity.

Life Beyond This World

Our life isn't confined to this world. So if I lose in this world, I'm a loser? If I'm denied in this world, then I'm deprived? This world, as one of the early sayings: this world is just a fleeting moment. Fill this moment with the obedience of Allah. We're not living for this world.

This is one of the great deceptions. Our minds have been so steeped in the materialistic reality that surrounds us, we can't see beyond this material world. And so if I'm denied in this world - "I never got the car I wanted, I never got the job I wanted, I never got the spouse I wanted, I never got the kids I wanted, I never got this or that or the other that I wanted" - that's half of the problem right there: "I."

But besides the point, so what? Do you want Jannah, or do you want all of your aspirations confined to this world?

The Prophetic Prayer

Our Prophet ﷺ taught us to pray in our dua:

Allahumma la taj'al al-dunya akbara hammina wa la mablagha ilmina.

Don't make this world - this is a prayer - ya Allah, Allahumma, O Allah, la taj'al al-dunya, don't make this world akbara hammina, our greatest concern, wa la mablagha ilmina, nor the extent of our knowledge.

Don't make this world our greatest concern, nor the extent of our knowledge. We should be far more concerned about Jannah than we are about this world, because this world passes.

The Fleeting Nature of This World

Look how quickly. Some of you have grey hair now. You remember the last time? It's like yesterday you looked in the mirror, it was all black. It was like yesterday you looked in the mirror. Mashallah, tabarakallah, it's all black. No henna, naturally black. Now you look and it's grey. Then it's gonna start falling out. It's gonna get patchy. And then we're gone.

Then what? All you thought about was this world. All you worked for was this world. All your passions and obsessions were connected with this world. Now this world is going. No one can deny it. Then what? Then what?