Purification of the Soul between Sunnah and Innovation: Muhammad alShareef – Part 2

Part 1: 5 Symptoms of the Weakness of Eeman

Purification of the Soul between Sunnah and Innovation
Part 2
Transcribed from a lecture by Muhammad AlShareef and Ali At Tamimi
The following is Part 2:Muhammad AlShareef

Now we want to speake a little bit about the reasons or the causes for the weakness of eeman.

5 Causes or reasons for the weakness of eeman

1. Distance oneself from an atmosphere your eeman doesn’t increase

One of the weaknesses for the decrease of eeman is the atmosphere in which you are or the people you are around. For example, you know the difference between sitting in a halaqa and sitting in a food court in the mall. Just the fact that you are in a different atmosphere has a direct effect on your eeman. Allah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala) says in the Quran,

أَلَمْ يَأْنِ لِلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا أَن تَخْشَعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ لِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ وَمَا نَزَلَ مِنَ الْحَقِّ

“Isn’t it time for the believers that their hearts surrenders in humilty and engage in the remembrance of Allah.” (Suratul Hadeed (57) V. 17)

In the beginning we mentioned about this khashya being thrown at you, Allah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala) mentions about you making your heart having this khashya, Allah is telling us to throw our hearts in kashya towards Allah in remembrance. And Allah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala) continues,

وَلَا يَكُونُوا كَالَّذِينَ أُوتُوا الْكِتَابَ مِن قَبْلُ فَطَالَ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَمَدُ

“Be not like those people who received the book, and a long time passed and they weren’t doing anything” (Suratul Hadeed (57) V. 17)

What was the result of this being idle and not doing what they were supposed to do,

فَقَسَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ فَاسِقُونَ

“Their hearts become hardened. And they were rebellious transgressors.” (Suratul Hadeed (57) V. 17)

Just for not doing what they were supposed to be doing like being in the sate of remembrance, and they themselves become rebellious transgressors for not doing this.

 

2. Distancing oneself from studying Islam

This means distancing ourselves form reading books and learning form the scholars about things that could actually help build our eeman can cause our eeman to go down. I remember once our teacher told us that when you are writing a letter, or now you can say writing an email, don’t ever write it when you are angry. What happens when you are angry and you are writing an email is that no matter what you do, it will show in your email that you were angry. You’ll notice it when someone who is angry writes an email even when he is trying to be nice, you will definitely notice it.

In opposition to that, if you are reading some book for instance, like Ibn Al Qayyim, he begins writing his books on the first page with “InnalHamdulillah….” and as he continues you can feel it. You can feel his eeman coming out in his writing. You can feel the state of increase in eeman from the writing.

 

3. To be drowned in the material world

The Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam) said, “The slave of the dirham and slave of the dinaar are perished” Very often when it comes to da’wah things, we might give it the extra time that we have, you know the leisure time that we have, we might dedicate it for da’wah. But in the past it was the opposite, the people’s main purpose in life was the ibaada and the da’wah to Allah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala), and the extra time that they had they would use for their businesses and whatever they had to do. They wouldn’t be drowned in the dunya but they were drowned in the worship of Allah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala) and all the things that it encompasses.

 

4. Having excessive hope for the future

Having thoughts like I am going to live for another seven years and I am going to retire and get a house in Florida. Allah (Subhaanahu wa Ta’ala) says in the Qur’an,

ذَرْهُمْ يَأْكُلُواْ وَيَتَمَتَّعُواْ وَيُلْهِهِمُ الأَمَلُ فَسَوْفَ يَعْلَمُونَ

“Leave them to their worldly play and be deceived by their excessive hope” (Suratul Hijr (15) V.3)

Once the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam) drew these lines in the sand and made a box. And the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam) pointed to these lines and said this is how long he is going to live and this is his qadar. And then the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam) drew a line beyond these and said this is his hope. Meaning that the person’s hope for this life goes beyond what life intends for him.

 

5. Our excessiveness in trying to entertain ourselves

This culture is the entertainment culture. This culture is all about entertaining ourselves, with things like the sports games that are going on. You even see knowledgeable brothers sitting down and watching games and they say like “Oh this is just a basketball game”.

I remember in Egypt there would be a soccer game going on and I would stand in the balcony, I could care less about a soccer game. I would stand on the 7^th floor and suddenly I would hear the entire city of Iskandaria erupt. I would then step into the room and ask “Did someone score a goal?” and they would be like, “Yea, Argentina or whoever is up by one goal.” Right then I realized that the entire Muslim nation is watching this on their television. Its not just you that is watching this but it’s the entire country watching this on television. They usually have these ratings, if there are less than 30 million people watching this show they cancel the show. And I was thinking if Muslims have control of the advertising on these shows, then imagine what could be done. Imagine the da’wah if at least 30 million people are watching a show. Not everyone has access to that though. They have infomercials and what not. They have some of the most worthless things on the television at 2 A.M. in the morning and these people make millions. Its 2 A.M. in the morning and people start watching about these magic pills and we all know those one or two infomercials that are mentioned in the masjids that everyone has seen. Imagine how much of this is amongst the kuffar. And then we have those computer games and arcades that take up so much time. They just take up hours and hours of our time and the chat rooms and chat lines as well. All this leads to a person’s eeman going down.

That is why the Prophet (sal Allahu alayhi wa Sallam) said, “Don’t be excessive in laughing, for verily excessive laughing kills the heart.”

To Be Continued……..

Part 1: 5 Symptoms of the Weakness of Eeman