“Bismillah. Infinite glory and gratitude be to Allahu Taala who bestowed upon us all kinds of favors and honored us by making us Muslims and valued us by making us the Umma of Muhammad (sall-Allahu Taala alaihi wa sallam), which is the highest blessing.
We should meditate and realize that Allahu Taala alone sends every favor upon everybody. He alone creates everything. He alone is the One who keeps every being in existence every moment. Superior and good qualities of men are all His blessings and favors. Our life, reason, knowledge, strength, senses of seeing and hearing and speech are all from Him. He always is the One who sends innumerable blessings and favors. He is the One who rescues human beings from trouble and distress, Who accepts prayers and keeps away grief and disaster. Only He creates all nourishment and causes them to reach us. Allahu Taala’s blessing is so bountiful that He does not cut off the nourishment of those who commit sins. His covering sins is so great that He does not disgrace, degrade nor tear off the honesty veil of those who disobey the commands or abstain from the prohibitions. Being so forgiving, so merciful, He does not hurry in punishing those who deserve punishment and torture (adhab). Allahu Taala spreads blessings and favors both upon those whom are liked and those who are enemies, nothing is spared from anybody. The highest, the most valuable of benefaction is His showing us the right path to happiness and salvation, encouraging us not to go astray but rather to go to Paradise. Allahu Taala commands us to adapt ourselves to our beloved Prophet (sall-Allahu Taala alaihi wa sallam) in order that we may attain all the infinite blessings, endless and inexhaustible pleasures in Paradise, and to attain His grace and love. So, His blessings are as obvious as the sun. The favors which come from others, in fact, come from Him. Allahu Taala, again, is the One who makes others intermediaries and gives wish, power and strength to do favors. For this reason, He is always the One Who sends all blessings that come through all places and through all people. To expect favors from anybody except Allahu Taala is like asking for something from the custodian or asking for alms from the poor. The ignorant as well as the educated, blockheads as well as the intelligent and those that are keen will know that what we say here is right and to the point, for, the things said are obvious facts and it is not necessary even to think them over.
It is a human duty for everyone to thank –as much as one can– Allahu Taala, Who bestowed these favors. It is a debt, a duty which wisdom commands. But it is not easy to carry out this thanksgiving due to Him, because men, having been originally created out of nothing, are weak, indigent, faulty and defective. Allahu Taala always and eternally exists, and is far from defectiveness. Every kind of superiority belongs to Him. Men have by no means, any similarity or proximity to Him. Can men, who are so inferior, thank such a high being as Allahu Taala in a manner worthy of His Dignity? There are so many things that men consider beautiful and valuable, but He knows that they are evil and dislikes them. Things which we consider to be reverence or gratitude may be common things not liked at all. For this reason, men, with their own defective mind and short sight, cannot discern the things that express gratitude and veneration to Allahu Taala. Unless the ways of thanking and respecting are shown by Him, acts that are considered as praising may be slanderous.
So, the debt of gratitude and human duties to be performed and believed by human beings towards Allahu Taala with the heart, tongue and body were defined by Allahu Taala and communicated by His beloved Prophet (sall-Allahu Taala alaihi wa sallam)! The human duties which Allahu Taala showed and ordered are called Islam. One thanks Him by following the way His Prophet taught. Allahu Taala does not accept or like any thanks, any worship incompatible with or outside this way, because there are many things which men consider good or beautiful but which Islam disapproves of and regards as ugly.
Hence, in thanking Allahu Taala, people who have reasoning should adapt themselves to Hazrat Muhammad (alaihi-salam). His way is called Islam. A person following Muhammad (alaihi-salam) is called a Muslim. Thanking Allahu Taala, that is, following
Muhammad (alaihi-salam), is called ibada (worship). Islamic teachings are of two parts: religious and scientific. Religious teachings are also of two parts:
1) Teachings that must be believed by heart, called usul ad-din or teachings of iman. In short, iman means to believe the six tenets taught by Muhammad (alaihi-salam), to accept Islam and to avoid saying and using signs of disbelief (kufr). Every Muslim must learn the signs of disbelief and avoid using them. A person with iman is called a Muslim.
2) Teachings of ritual practices that must be performed, and those things that must not be done, by body and by heart. Teachings that have to be performed are called fard, and those things which are ordered to be avoided are called haram. These teachings are called furu ad-din or al-ahkam al-Islamiyya or Islamic teachings.
[What is initially necessary for every person to do is to say the kalimat at-tawhid and to believe its meaning. The kalimat at- tawhid is: “La ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadun Rasulullah,” and it means: “Allahu Taala exists and is One. Muhammad (alaihi- salam) is His Prophet.” To believe this fact means to “have iman,” and to “become a Muslim.” A person who has iman is called a ‘Mumin (Believer)’ and a ‘Muslim’. Iman has to be continuous. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid doing acts that cause disbelief and using things that symbolize disbelief.
The Quran al-Karim is the Kalam al-Ilahi (Divine Speech, Word of Allahu Taala). Allahu Taala sent the Quran al-Karim to Muhammad (alaihi-salam) through an angel named Jebrail (Gabriel, alaihi-salam). The words in the Quran al-Karim are in the Arabic language, and they descended in ayats (verses), letters and words arranged together by Allahu Taala. The meanings carried by these letters and words convey the Kalam al-Ilahi. These letters and words are called the Quran al-Karim. The meanings that disclose the Kalam al-Ilahi are the Quran al-Karim as well. This Quran al-Karim which is the Kalam al-Ilahi is not a creature. It is eternal and everlasting, like the other Attributes of Allahu Taala. Once every year Jebrail (alaihi-salam) would visit to recite, in the same order as they had been recorded in the Lawh al- mahfudh (where all matters have been inscribed, in Paradise), the part of the Quran al-Karim that had already been revealed, and our Prophet would repeat it. In the year when he was about to honor the Hereafter, Jebrail (alaihi-salam) visited twice, reciting the entire Quran al-Karim. Our blessed Prophet and most of the Sahaba had memorized the Quran al-Karim wholly. In the year when he honored the Hereafter with his blessed being, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, the Caliph, brought together those who had memorized the Quran al-Karim and having gathered those parts that had already been written, had a committee write down the entire Quran al-Karim. Thus a written copy called the mus’haf came about. Thirty-three thousand Sahabis reached a consensus that every letter of that copy of the mus’haf was in its right place.
Utterances of Muhammad (alaihi-salam) are called the hadith sharif. Those with meanings by Allahu Taala but with words by Muhammad (alaihi-salam) are termed hadith qudsi. There are many books of the Hadith. Al-Bukhari and Muslim are most widely known. Of the injunctions of Allahu Taala, teachings that are to be believed are called iman, those which must be performed are termed fard, and prohibitions are termed haram. Fard and haram are called the ahkam al-Islamiyya. A person who does not believe in even one of the Islamic teachings is called a kafir (One with disbelief, denial of the Truth of Islam).
The second necessary thing for a person to do is to purify their heart. The word ‘heart’ has two meanings. The piece of flesh in our chest is called ‘heart’ by almost all people. Heart in this sense exists in animals as well. The second ‘heart’ is the invisible heart staying in the material heart. This second heart is called spiritual ‘heart’. It is this heart that is written in religious books. This heart is the place of Islamic teachings. It is this heart, again, which believes or disbelieves. A heart that believes is pure. A heart that disbelieves is dirty and is ‘dead’. It is our first duty to purify the heart by striving hard. Worship, especially performing salat and saying any of the prayers called istighfar, purifies the heart. Committing harams dirties the heart. Our Prophet stated: “Say the istighfar frequently! If one continues saying the prayer of istighfar, Allahu Taala protects one against all illnesses and disasters. He sends nourishment from places that one does not expect at all.” Istighfar means to say, “Estaghfirullah” (May Allahu Taala forgive me!). In order for the prayers to be accepted, the supplicant must be a Muslim, repent for one’s sins and say the prayer, knowing its meaning and believing it. Prayers said with a darkened heart will not be accepted. Also, if a person says “Estaghfirullah” three times after performing the five daily required salats, their heart will become pure and the heart itself will start saying the prayer. A prayer said only with the mouth, but without the heart, will be of no use.
The religious teachings declared by the Islamic religion are the teachings written in the books of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunna. One becomes a disbeliever (kafir) if one does not believe, among the teachings of iman (beliefs) and Islam (rituals) conveyed by the scholars of Ahl as-Sunna, in any of the nass (the Quranic verses –ayat- and the hadith sharif) with open meanings. One will be called a munafiq if one hides one’s disbelief. One is called a zindiq if one both hides one’s disbelief and pretends to be a Muslim and thereby tries to deceive Muslims. To misbelieve, resulting from misinterpretation of the nass with unclear meaning does not cause a person to become a kafir. But, because one deviates from the true way of Ahl as-Sunna, one will go to Hell. Owing to belief in the nasses with open meanings, that person shall not stay eternally in torture; that person shall be rescued from Hell and shall be taken into Paradise. People of this sort are called heretics (ahl al- bida) or groups of heresy (dalala). 72 heretical groups have appeared. None of the acts of worship or the favors or services to humanity performed by these people or by disbelievers or renegades will be acceptable or will do them any good in the Hereafter. Muslims with correct belief are called Ahl as-Sunnat wa ’l-jamaa or Sunni. Muslims have differed in four madhhabs (see pp 57-58) in respect to performing their acts of worship. Followers of any one of the four madhhabs also know that the followers of the other three madhhabs also belong to Ahl as-Sunna, and they love one another.
A person who is not in any of these four madhhabs is not a Sunni Muslim. A person who is not Ahl as-Sunnah is either a disbeliever (kafir) or a heretic (holder of bid’at).
If a person who performs acts of worship according to one of the four madhhabs, repents upon committing sins or upon making any mistakes in those acts of worship, that person will be forgiven. If one does not repent, Allahu Taala might, if He wills, forgive and might never put that person into Hell. If Allahu Taala wills, He will torture that person as much as the committed sins of that person require but later that person will be released from torture. One who does not believe even one of the clear teachings that are known to be essentially believed in Islam, that is, that which is known even by those that are ignorant, will be subjected to eternal torture in Hell. That person is called a ‘‘kafir’’ (disbeliever) or a ‘‘murtadd’’ (apostate).
There are two types of kafirs: The kafir with a (revealed) heavenly book, and the one without a heavenly book. If a person with Muslim parents later abandons Islam and becomes a kafir, that person is called a “murtadd”. Ibn Abidin (rahimahullahu Taala) wrote in the subject about ‘those whose marriage is forbidden because of shirk (deification or worship of anyone or anything besides Allahu Taala): ‘‘Murtadds, mulhids (see footnote, p.29), zindiqs, fire-worshippers, idolaters, ancient Greek philosophers, munafiqs, those followers of the seventy-two heretical groups in Islam whose heresy changed into disbelief, (Brahmins, Buddhists), Batinis, Ibahatis and Durzis (Druses) are all disbelievers without heavenly books.” Communists and freemasons also are disbelievers without heavenly books. Those Jews and Christians who believe in the books the Torah and the Bible, the revealed heavenly books which were later changed and spoiled, are disbelievers with books. Those with books that deify a certain creature become mushriks (those who attribute a partner or partners to Allahu Taala). Allahu Taala’s Attributes of Sifat ath-Thubutiyya and Sifat adh-Dhatiyya are called the Attributes of Divinity (Uluhiyya).
If a disbeliever, with a heavenly book or without one, embraces Islam, that person will escape from going to Hell. That person becomes a pure Muslim with no sin. But that person has to become a Sunni Muslim. To become a Sunni Muslim means to read and learn a book written by one of the scholars of Ahl as-Sunna and adapt iman, acts and words to what that person learns from that book. In the world it is understood from a person’s clear words said and actions done without darura (strong necessity or compulsion) if a person is a Muslim or not. It becomes definite at this person’s last breath if they have gone to the next world with iman. If a Muslim with grave sins repents with pure heart, his or her sins will surely be forgiven, becoming sinless and pure.”
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