By Sheikh Saleh ibn Muhammad al-Talib – 08 Jumaadal Ulaa 1436

His Eminence Sheikh Saleh ibn Muhammad al-Talib –May Allah protect him– delivered this Friday Khutbah entitled “Accepting Allah, His Messenger and His Religion.” Citing evidence from the Holy Qur’an and the Sunnah, the Sheikh explained that this feeling of the acceptance of Allah (to Whom be ascribed all Perfection and Majesty), His Messenger –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him‒ and His religion represents perfect faith.

Praise be to Allah! Praise be to Allah Who Has created, enacted, decreed, and sent His messengers with perfectly designed codes in which He has instilled enlightenment and consecrated guidance. He has made accepting them an emblem of glorifying Allah and acknowledging His absolute supremacy. Woe unto him who blocks the way to those coming to Allah’s religion, or shies away haughtily! I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah, alone with no associate. Compared to anyone considering oneself great, Allah is definitely the Greatest, and compared to anyone considering oneself mighty, Allah is certainly the Mightiest. I equally bear witness that Muhammad is the Servant and Messenger of Allah. He transmitted the Message, notified and warned the Ummah, and heralded good tidings. May Allah send His Salat (Graces, Honours, and Mercy), Peace and Blessing be upon him, his family, his Companions, and all those who righteously follow in their footsteps till the Appointed Day, the Day of Resurrection!

Now then! O you, Believers in Allah and His Encounter! Observe true Taqwa of Allah (fear of disobeying Him) and make haste to beseech your Lord for pardon and satisfaction. Do respond to the call for joining the abode of His benevolence and His vast Paradise. Lifetime, with its hours and days, is flying by. Every person whose conduct was commendable before death would inevitably regret not having enhanced his record of good deeds, and everyone whose record was negative would wish he had not died (before having repented of his sins): “O You who believe! Fear Allah and keep your duty to Him. And let every person look to what he has sent forth for the morrow, and fear Allah. Verily, Allah is All-Aware of what you do.” [Al- hashr: 18]

O Muslims!
In his Saheeh Book, Imam Muslim reported a Hadith narrated by Abee Saeed Al-Khudree RA where Prophet Muhammad –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– said, “O Aba Saeed! Whoever accepts Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad as his Prophet does deserve Paradise.” ‘Abu Saeed liked it very much and said: O Messenger of Allah! Could you please repeat it once more for me!’ The Prophet did so…” (cf. the rest of the Hadeeth).

O Muslims!
Acceptance is a feeling within one’s heart. It includes both acquiescence and full compliance. Acceptance is the foundation of Islam, the basis of faith (Īman), and the prerequisite for attesting monotheism (tawheed). Allah –to Whom belong Might and Majesty‒ says: “But no, by your Lord, they can have no Faith, until they make you (O Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) judge in all disputes between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decisions, and accept (them) with full submission.” [Al-Nisa’: 65]

Therefore, Allah, the Absolute Truth –May He be exalted– vowed that they would not embrace faith until they make Allah and His Messenger judges (in all disputes between them), find in themselves no resistance against His judgement, and accept it with full submission. This is the essence of accepting Allah’s Judgement and Sharia.

Allah attributes non-resistance and full submission to the self rather than to the heart for a specific wisdom.That is, the fact that it is the ‘self’ wherelie the whims, desires, protests, and objections. This is why the Prophet–May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– said, “Only someone who accepts Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad as his Messenger will taste the flavour of faith (Īman).” He also said, “He who, upon hearing the Azan (the call for prayer) being raised: ‘I bear witness that there is no deity except Allah alone with no associate, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Servant and Messenger’ says: ‘I accept Allah as my Lord, Muhammad as my Messenger, and Islam as my religion’ will have his sins expiated.” [The two Hadiths are narrated by Imam Muslim]

As said by Ibn Al-Qayyim ‒May Allah bless his soul‒ these two Hadiths constitute the foundation of religion and its ultimate end. They contain the acceptance of His Lordship and Divinity –May He be exalted–the acceptance of and submission to His Messenger, as well as the acceptance of His religion and full submission to Him. Whoever has these four qualities combined is considered the truly righteous Muslim.

However, although they are easy to claim verbally, these qualities prove to be extremely difficult when they are put totestin real practice, especially if they happen to run contrary to the desires and aspirations of the self. First, the acceptance of His Lordship involves accepting to love Him alone, fear Him, implore Him, worship Him with no associate, and show Him full loyalty. The acceptance of His Divinity involves accepting His unalterable prearrangement of His creatures’ affairs, relying on Him, and accepting whatever the Lord decrees for His servant. Second, as to the acceptance of His Prophet as Messenger, it involves blind obedience and total submission to him.

Third, the acceptance of His religion means total acceptance of whatever Allah says, ordains, decrees, or forbids, without finding any resistance to His judgement, and submits to it totally even if this judgement might be opposed to one’s wishes and desires, to the opinions of one’s Sheikh, one’s sect, or the scholar of whom one is a disciple. The acceptance of the Lord is true honour and companionship of Allah and His Messenger and the essence of intimacy with Him. He who accepts Allah as his Lord, Muhammad –May Allah’s Salat and Peace be upon him– as his Messenger, and Islam as his religion will stand deeply rooted in Tawakkul (true reliance on Allah), submission, and confidently entrusting one’s fate to Allah. So, whoever is satisfied with what Allah has bestowed upon him will by the same token benefit from requited divine satisfaction.

For this reason, acceptance is Allah’s greatest gate, this world’s paradise, the relief of the knowledgeable, the real life of Allah’s adorers, the bliss of the worshippers, and the delight of those craving for divine companionship.

O Servants of Allah! O Muslims!
The opposite of acceptance is objection and hatred of what Allah has revealed, be it partially or totally. Acceptance means submission, approval, and obedience. Its opposite is refusal, resistance, and aversion. The origin of such resistance is pursuing personal desires, seeking inspiration other than divine revelation, and receiving from external sources other than those from Allah and His Messenger.

Some people resorted to reason, impulse, and personal opinion as their sole arbitrator, and followed the philosophy of those lost in thought. Others used taste, strong emotion, and inquiry as their criteria of judgement. As a result, Satan fiddled around with their reason, causing them to sink into the abyss of fairy tales and illusion. Still others chose to deliver themselves to petty worldly gains, sought refuge in mundane conventions, and indulged in capricious whims, justifying their position by using analogical reasoning and a plethora of opinions in order to make permissible what Allah has prohibited and prohibit what Allah has made permissible, as well as nullify certain obligations imposed by Allah and make lawful what He has already nullified.

The main reason behind all that is pursuing whimsical desires and notaccepting Allah, His Messenger, and His religion. This explains why the Holy Qur’an is replete with warnings against caprices. Even more, one of the ultimate objectives of Sharia is to rescue people reaching the age of performing religious observances (at puberty) from the seduction of whims and orientate them to comply with shar’c (set of religious codes in Islam). At this particular point, divine trial through ordeals will take place, and a clear-cut distinction will be made between those who obey Allah and those who disobey Him, as well as between a worshipper and a dissolute person. Allah –to Whom belong Might and Majesty‒ says: “And if the truth had been in accordance with their desires, verily, the heavens and the earth, and whosoever is therein would have been corrupted! …” [Al-Mu’minūn: 71]

He–May He be exalted– also says: “…and follow not your desire for it will mislead you from the Path of Allah…” [Sad: 26]

O Believers!
Adhering to the Sharia of Allah and obeying Him are indeed a question of creed and faith before being practical rituals and jurisprudential details. Therefore, the cause of all types of deviation, humiliation, defeat, and disunity in our everyday life is our departure from the approach of the Sunnah and Jama’ah (Muslim Congregation) in faith, behaviour, religious commitment, and the path of reform. Likewise, disengagement from acts of worship and evasion from observances and duties are caused by the laxity and decline which the Ummah is currently suffering from.

O Servants of Allah!
One of the most serious reasons of divergence occasioning afflictions in this respect is the idea of insisting on jurisprudential differences and supporting one’s argument with feeble opinions as well as unwarranted statements. As a result, religious rulings have been nullified on the grounds of divergence of opinion, and worshippers’ motivation has faded away to the point of renouncing rites of obedience, getting distracted by superfluous permissible acts and commodities, audaciously approaching repugnant deeds which represent the gateway to committing interdicted acts.

What is more, certain people have been locked in perplexity and confusion after using the pretext of diverging scholarly interpretations once they are confronted with any religious text. Thus, each time they are presented with a verse from the Holy Qur’an, a Hadith from the Sunnah, or a jurisprudential ruling, they advance the argument that it is an object of controversy among scholars. It sounds as if they had forgotten that Allah –May all Majesty be ascribed to Him– revealed this Book to us so that we can adjudicate disputes. He –Exalted be He‒ said: “Mankind were one community and Allah sent Prophets with glad tidings and warnings, and with them He sent the Scripture in truth to judge between people in matters wherein they differed…” [Al- Baqarah: 213]

Therefore, the role of the Book is to guide, settle disagreements, and show truth. We worship Almighty Allah by making recourse to His revelation for arbitration in case of ‘disagreement’ rather than by making out of ‘disagreement’ an argument against it (the revelation). Allah ‒Exalted be He– said: “And in whatsoever you differ, the decision thereof is with Allah (He is the ruling Judge).” [Al-Shūra: 10]

Perverts have sought to turn around this notion and use ‘disagreement’ as argument in fulfilling their whims, overlooking the illegitimacy of such a practice. They know then that such prohibition involves ‘disagreement’, which puts into doubt their acceptance of Allah Almighty and His adjudication!

Indeed, this is one of the fitnahs (trials) pervading our modern times, for those who get caught under the spell of discord and aberrant discourse are bound to tailor for themselves a religion that is fully supportive of their whims and passions and far removed from the Will of Allah Almighty and the guidance of His Messenger. Therefore, following disputation and controversies is amenable to the vagrant path of whims and desires and is incompatible with the notion of acceptance.

Ibn hazm‒May Allah bless his soul‒ said: “If a man committed himself strictly to what had been determined as consensual by the Ummah leaving aside those areas of discord within the religious texts he would then be unanimously judged godless by the entire Ummah.” In the same context, Ibn Abd Al-Barrsaid: “As per all the Muslim scholars I have known, nonconformity has never been considered as a valid argument.”

Allah –May He be raised far above– says: “O you who believe! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger (Muhammad صلى لله علیھ وسلم ), and those of you (Muslims) who are in authority. (And) if you differ in anything amongst yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger ( صلى لله علیھ وسلم ), if you believe in Allah and in the Last Day. That is better and more suitable for final determination.” [Al-Nisa’: 59]

The Muslim Ummah must seek to take the commands of Allah seriously and to carry them out with firmness in order to attain, with determination and resolve, the peak of glory. Likewise, the Ummah must not regard Allah’s provisions as obligations that are open for manipulation and attenuation. Legal provisions, no matter how enormous they may seem, should never be considered burdensome. Rather, they are valid assets for power and sublimity, as an eagle that is made to soar high up in the air despite the ever-imposing weight of its massive wings.

Allah Almighty says: “Hold firmly to what We have given you [i.e. the Taurat (Torah)” [Al-A‘raf: 171], and “O Yahya (John)! Hold fast the Scripture [the Taurat (Torah)” [Maryam: 12]

May Allah bless you and me by the Qur’an and Sunnah and benefit us with their verses and wisdom! Having said this, I ask Allah‒be He exalted‒ to forgive me and you!