Faith in difficult times

When we look at today'sheadlines in the newspapers and magazines, or
perhaps hear a brief news report on the radio or television, or read
the latest news updates on the internet, it is quite easy for a person
who does not have the Qur'anic perspective andthus fails to consider
that there is good in everything that Allah creates to be overwhelmed
with a feeling of the darkest foreboding.
Unemployment is on the increase in many of the world's largest
economies; financial markets are unable to shake off their doldrumsfor
very long; the twin scourges of homelessness and hunger are on the
rise. Itseems to many that the days of limitless economic growth and
the boundless wealth associated with it are coming perilously close to
a shattering end. People are now feeling great anxiety about not only
their own but their children's futures; recently, in London, England
rampaging mobs of looters took to the streets to express themselves
through wanton theft and lawlessness. All around us, it seems that the
machinery of civilizationis coming to a halt. We see signs of
increasing immorality, of a hardening of attitudes in the hearts of
men throughout the world, of the abandonment of the most helpless
amongst us by not only their respective governments, but seemingly by
their fellow men as well.
At difficult times like this, it is of the most vitalimportance for
the believers to never forgetthat all these manifestations are not
cause for us to resign ourselves to feelings of nihilism. We must
alwaysremember that it is our Lord, Almighty Allah, Who is in supreme
control of all affairs, and all things happen through His All-powerful
Will. Indeed, the life of this world is but a place of testing for the
true life to come, the Hereafter.
One of the reasons so many people feel despair and hopelessness in
their lives is that they have fallen prey to one of satan's greatest
traps; they have put their faith,not in Allah, but in the transitory
treasures of this world. They have replaced faith in our Lord with
faith in the New York Stock Exchange. They long not to read the Word
of Almighty Allah, the Qur'an, but instead their quarterly dividend
statement. They wish to hear only the honeyed words of their financial
advisor, and pay no heed to the call to prayer. They turn for help to
economists, financial pundits and investment bankers, oblivious to
the only One Who can grant themassistance, Allah, the Creator and
Owner of all things. As a result, their lives are an unending quest
for ever-greater riches in the life of this world, all the while
forgetting the eternal life to come. When events no longer proceed in
the manner in which they foolishly assumed would continuefor the rest
of their lives,their hearts are seized with disillusionment,
despondence, fear, and anger.
All too many people today have fallen into this snare set for them by
satan; they have succumbed to his infernal whisperings. They live
their lives in anegocentric manner, obsessed with the accumulation of
riches and the acquisition of "the finer things in life." They care
not for their fellow men; they turn away when they see a homeless man
or womanbegging in the streets. They avert their gaze and walk by as
though these needy people did not exist, and do not even give them a
kind word if perhaps they haven't the money to spare them. In the
worst cases, they privately (or even publicly) castigate these
indigent people and wish them ill. These people have truly fallen into
the lowest levels of moral degeneracy.
However, it is incumbentupon us as believers to profess our great
devotion and deep faith in Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, He upon Whom
all things depend, and for us to give our constant praise and thanks
to our Lord for allthe innumerable blessings which He has chosen to
bestow upon us through His endless munificence. In times of
difficulty, it is of course natural for us to turn to Allah for help
in removing our afflictions;but we must also never forget to turn to
Allah in heartfelt thanks in times of plenitude and show Him our
deeply felt gratitude for the boundless blessings He has granted us.
In these volatile times, we must also humbly implore Almighty Allah to
give us the strength we need so that we may remain steadfast and
continue on His path, and to seek refuge in Allah from the
".......whisperer who withdraws, who whispers into the hearts of men
among jinn and men." (Surat an-Nas, 4-6).
Let us briefly reflect on what faith means to us as Muslims. The vast
majority of Islamic scholars teach that faith is far more than simply
amental agreement with certain facts or mechanical adherence to a
particular set of rules, but rather it is a believer's dedication to
the Will of Allah and the recognition of His Sovereignty; this has
profound implications for the believers' behavior in their families,
in society at large, and in the State aswell. Certainly, Islam is more
than just a mere external membership in a particular creed, or a
simple theoretical agreement with certain sets of principles. For
thebelievers, faith is something that is felt with every fiber of our
being; it is what guides our actions, our speech, our behavior towards
others and how we interact, not only with other believers, but also
how we interact with everyone else in the world. As believers in our
Lord, and as His servants and the followers of His eternal
commandments, it is ourfaith that guides us at every moment of our
lives until the very last breath we draw in the life of this world.
Therefore, we must always strive to deepen and strengthen our faith,
as doing so not only stands us in good stead in the Hereafter through
earning the good pleasure of Allah, but also serves us well inthis
world for the very same reason. It is faith that not only sustains us
in times of hardship, but it is faith that allows us to appreciate the
times of plenty all the more, aswe give thanks to our Lord for His
provision which He, in His infinite benevolence, has bestowed upon us
so that we may use it in His way. Likewise, in times of hardship, it
is our faith which informs us that our current difficulties are but
the means by which Almighty Allah tests us in the life of this world,
and we should use such opportunities as a means of broadening our
religious convictionsand fortifying ourselves spiritually. In this
way, we are able to draw ourselves closer to Him.
Additionally, it is also important for us as believers to remind
ourselves in times of difficulty the lessons we may learn from the
glorious examples of theProphets of Allah, all of whom faced enormous
difficulties on His way. We need only think of the example of our
Prophet (saas), who faced slanders, lies, threats of physical harm
against him, and expulsion from his home. Yet through all these
tribulations, our beloved Prophet (saas) remained wholly steadfast in
his faith in our Lord, and his profound faith was rewarded by Almighty
Allah, not only in this world but in the Hereafter as well. We may
reflect upon the Prophet Moses (pbuh) who faced difficulties in
Allah's path chiefly through the machinations of that most arrogant of
men, Pharoah, a disbeliever whose arrogance led him so far as to
consider himself a living god, andto compel his subjects to worship
him (surely Allah is beyond that). Weshould ponder upon Prophet
Abraham (pbuh), who faced the threat of death not only from his own
people butfrom his own father, when he reproached them for their
persistent worship of false gods. Let us contemplate Prophet Noah
(pbuh) who was mocked by his people although he persistently appealed
to them to repent of their mistaken ways and to worship Almighty Allah
alone. And let us not forget the example of the Prophet Lot (pbuh)
arighteous man and devoted servant of Allah who stood against the
perverse and defiant wickedness of the people of his city. All these
Prophets were despised by their respective peoples whenthe Prophets
made everyeffort to turn their respective peoples away from the Wrath
of Allah, and to set them on the path to the True Religion. Indeed, no
matter the difficulties we may face in our everyday lives, they surely
pale in comparison to the enormities encountered by the Prophets in
their heartfelt attempts to turn their fellow men onto the path of our
Lord.
As we observe the lives of those who disbelieve, we can see how far
they have fallen away. Quite recently, on the website of the
Universidade de Santiago de Compostela ,there appeared an article
describing how young women in the United States are resorting to a
form of prostitution in order to pay for their higher education. The
details ofthis sstory suffice to illustrate the depths to which
someone will sinkwhen one has no sense of morality and concernss him
or herself chiefly with financial matters.
Even an excerpt from thestory shows that all too many students are
all too willing to sell their bodies for the sake of simply paying
their debts. It goes without saying, of course, that this immoral and
squalidbehavior is in flagrant contradiction to the lawsof Allah, who
commands as follows in the Qur'an; "And go not nigh to fornication;
surely it is an indecency and an evilway." (Surat al-Isra', 32)
The lives of the disbelievers are further made insufferable through
drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and violence; however there is no need to
dwell further upon these ills prevalent in societies farremoved from
the principles of the True Religion . When we examine in detail the
root underlying cause for these nightmarish social ills, we find one
common denominator; the materialist philosophy.
In brief, materialism, thephilosophy of the dajjal, has been with us
for a very long time. It has been noted in surviving historic texts
dating back to the Axial Age (cca. 800-200 BC). It emerged to the fore
during the time of the European Enlightenment(the 18 th Century), and
achieved its highest theoretical exposition under the founder of
Communism, Karl Marx. This godless philosophy states that the only
thingthat truly exists is matter; simply put, matter is the only
substance with any reality (surely Allah, the Creator of not only
matter but all things, is beyond that). Materialism went on to spawn
Darwinism (the theory of evolution), Communism, Fascism, National
Socialism and has led to an unending series of wars of conquest,
economic and physical exploitation, the wholesale slaughter of
innocent men, women and children who committed no offense against
their heartless executioners and every manner of human misery.
Materialism, and Darwinism in particular, hold that man is nothingmore
than a common animal, engaged in a never-ending struggle tosurvive
even at the expense of his own kind,and this core philosophyhas
provided the underlying rationale for every nightmare the world has
beheld since itwas unleashed upon the minds of men by the eternal
enemy, Iblis (satan) the loathsome jinn expelled from Paradise due to
his willful disobedience andarrogance.
When we take a momentto see the lives of those without faith, it is
materialism that forms the basis of their erroneous thinking, and has
distorted their hearts and souls and turned them from the love of
Almighty Allah. Not only are these wretched people doomed to an
eternity of punishment in the fires of Hell (unless they turn in
sincere repentance towards our Lord and implore Him for His
forgiveness), but are equally doomed to an abominable existencein this
life as well. It is easily observable that the lives of disbelievers
are filled with loneliness,emptiness, hopelessness,despair, and
feelings of abasement and self-loathing. They seek escape through
narcotics, strong drink, violence, and by the pursuit of the most
debased forms of depraved sensuality and mindless hedonism. These
rotten fruits of thematerialist philosophy are the harvest of horrors
we see every day in the mass media; stories of murder, rape, and
brigandage; parents, children and siblings ruthlessly turning against
one another and throwing aside the bonds of familial love in
unthinkable acts of betrayal; civilized lands such as Norway and
England in shock and mourning because of individuals who think nothing
of perpetrating the mass-murder of innocents, or in looting and
maliciously destroying the property of their fellow men. When a person
regards another person as a mere animal to be used for achieving one's
ends,these kinds of dreadful events are the natural and inevitable
consequence.
O brother and sisters in Islam! We must not let usourselves become
disheartened or discouraged by the deplorable conditions we see around
us in this world; we must always remember that the true life is the
life to come in the Hereafter. However, we must not neglect our duties
to our Lord in the life of this world, either.
As believers, we know that we will stand before our Almighty Lord on
the Day of Judgment, and will be given a full accounting of what we
did, and did not do, as His humble and faithful servants. Therefore,
who amongstus wishes to stand before Almighty Allah knowing in the
depths of his heart that he did not do enough?
In this blessed season of Ramadan, we fast as we were commanded to by
our Lord. We are thus reminded of what it is tonot have enough to eat
or drink, of what it is to be amongst the poorest and most vulnerable.
And though we break our fast at the setting of the sun, we must
remember that for far too many in this world, destitution never ends
except with their deaths.
We must always remember that it is also our duty to help our fellow
men. Part of this responsibility is to not only help our fellow
Muslims stay on the true path of Allah, but to reach out to others,
especially in these tryingtimes when so many have gone astray. We
cannot allow ourselves to look upon others, particularly disbelievers,
with hatred and contempt; when we feel hatred and contempt, we
invariably dehumanize our fellow man and thereby fall into the
materialist trap laid for us by satan, who forever seeks to turn
peoples against one another.
We must also bear in mind that regardless of our theological
differences, it is the People of the Book with whom we share a common
history and lineage; though they arein error, they are nonetheless our
natural allies in the struggle against the pernicious philosophy of
the dajjal, and we must not allow ourselves to be ensnaredby the
retreating whisperer who seeks to inflame the dark passions of man and
cloud his reason in orderto cause enmity and hatred; it is through
causing such malefic emotions to emerge in the hearts of men that the
eternal enemy advances his evil agenda. Let us, as Muslims, live by
the command of Allah when He says in the Qur'an, "Say; O People of the
Book! Come to common terms as between us andyou; that we worship none
but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him; that we establish
not from amongst ourselves lords and patrons other than Allah." (Surah
Al 'Imram, 64). Let us look at the Christians and the Jews as our
cousins, not our adversaries; we have butone adversary, satan, and on
that particular matter of theology, there is absolutely no point of
dispute whatsoever.
In regard to the disbelievers, we must reach out to them with
compassion and love. Not all the disbelievers will necessarily heed
the call of Allah, but there are those amongst them who are
desperately andgenuinely searching for a way out of their unspeakable
condition. It is incumbent upon us, as devoted servants of Allah, to
extend to them not a clenched fist and threatening shouts, but rather,
a hand opened to them in a gesture of love and kind words. While we as
Muslims must, at all times, enjoin the good and forbid thatwhich is
evil, we must also endeavor to serve as examples of the love that
Allah commands us to show, and which was so magnificently illustrated
by our Prophet (saas) and his companions (may Allah be pleased with
them) who never once ceased inviting the disbelievers to the path of
Allah; theydid so not for the sake oftheir own prestige or to satisfy
their own egos, but because their hearts were overflowing with the
all-consuming love which their faith in our Lord gave them. And while
we may invite, we must never compel; as itsays clearly in the Qur'an,
"Let there be no compulsion in religion. Truth has been made clear
from error. Whoever rejects false worship and believes in Allah has
grasped the most trustworthy handhold that never breaks." (Surat
al-Baqara, 256)
The difficulties we face and overcome (by His leave) in order to earn
the good pleasure of Allah and our deep faith and endless devotion to
Him and His commandments will allow us (insha'Allah) to be amongst
those of whom it is revealed in the Qur'an; "Some faces, that Day,
will be radiant (in brightness and beauty), looking towards their
Lord..." (Surat al-Qiyamat, 22-23). Therefore, in these turbulent
times, letus not yield to melancholy, but rather let us discover the
happiness in our love and abiding trust in Almighty Allah, and His
love for us, and let these times serve to deepen our faith in our
Lord, The Ever Merciful and Endlessly Compassionate. - - ▓███▓
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