How do we deal with sectarianism?

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

Many Muslims in our time tend to focus more on refuting “deviant sects” and telling the Ummah to stay away from certain groups. Let us look at how Allah teaches us to deal with deviancy in the religion, He says in the Qur’an:

But the people divided their religion among them into sects – each faction, in what it has, rejoicing; So leave them in their confusion until a time

[22:53-54]

Islam is no different from any other religion in the fact that there will be people who come up with deviant teachings and interpretations; this will continue to happen. Sometimes our response to this is to call out all the deviant groups, attempt to prove everything they’re doing wrong.

The problem with this is that new groups and sects will always come about, causing merely a back and forth debate between the truth and deviancy thus leaving the most important aspect which is to teach people the correct religion.

If we focus on educating the correct path, we’ll find that the people that have goodness in the hearts – whatever faction they may belong to – will realise what they are missing in their sects and find their way back to it.

Our job as Muslims is to make the correct understanding of Islam a common place and Allah will pull people out of all deviations.

We must adopt the mentality that Allah is teaching us here: leave them, stop passing judgement on them.

There’s a reason why Allah has made the heart hidden from everyone except Himself – it’s so we don’t hold the right to judge eachother. Someone who may seem like a deviant could be more pure of heart than a renowned scholar and Allah will pull them to the truth. At the end of the day, He is the only one capable of guiding or misguiding people.

May Allah bring the Ummah together and place us all on the correct path with the correct understanding of His beautiful Deen.

Allah knows best.

Balance of spending

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

Allah says in the Qur’an:

“And [they are] those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, [justly] moderate” [25:67]

 

We see two extremes around us today:

  1. Those who over spend on unnecessary items.
  2. Those who don’t spend enough.

Allah teaches us that Islam is balance in all its aspects and spending is an important one. In this section of the Qur’an Allah speaks of those Muslims who will earn extra status with Allah.

Not throwing money away or spending insane amounts on pointless things is one way of being in this category. This is not merely talking about “shopaholics”, but also those who go out of their way to buy something that is logically over priced. These people know that the item is too expensive yet they buy it anyway.

Allah uses the word “yusrifou” which is derived from the word “israf” meaning to go overboard, to waste. This can apply to legitimate items too such as clothing or food. Spending on food and clothing is legitimate but over spending on them becomes a problem.

Then there is the other side of the spectrum, those who hog their wealth, spending the bare minimal just to keep the numbers in the bank account or the stacks of notes. Allah uses the verb “yaqtorou” which essentially means to shrink the budget.

With these people it is usually the people surrounding them that suffer the most, such as family. The father may be overly attached to his earnings to the point where any money he spends on his kids feels like a huge burden. Allah teaches us that this is not the way a Muslim’s mentality should be.

We must spend our wealth on ourselves, the people around us and those in needs, within the limits Allah has given us. Those who are rich will have different limits to those who are less wealthy. We must stay in our lanes, as they say today.

At the end of the day the money we keep in this world will mean nothing once we pass on to the next life. What will have value is what we have spent in doing good for ourselves and others, and also abstaining from that which is wasteful.

May Allah make us of those who balance their wealth.

Allah knows best.

Making sects in Islam

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

The world has become confused when it comes to sects in our deen. Muslims and non-Muslims alike believe that separation in Islam is the norm, when in fact it isn’t. Allah says in the Qur’an, as mentioned in a previous post:

“He has ordained for you of religion what He enjoined upon Noah and that which We have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], and what We enjoined upon Abraham and Moses and Jesus – to establish the religion and not be divided therein…” [42:13]

What we should concentrate on here is the fact that Allah ordained upon the people His religion in which division should not be an occurrence at all. Allah uses the word “tafaruq” which means to separate or divide, not to be confused with “ikhtilaf” which is a disagreement (mostly a small one which could be good or bad). Angels for example have ikhtilaf between them just as we humans do – the only tafaruq is between them and the jinn, for example.

As human beings we can have disagreements when it comes to the deen – there are various opinions within tafsir of the Qur’an and hadeeth and fiqh. However, if this ikhtilaf turns into division this is where the problem is – Allah says establish the deen and do not separate.

Today we are the complete opposite of this teaching. We take the smallest disagreements and make them the justification for our divisions. One mosque telling the people to avoid another mosque because they place their hands in a different position during salah – a ridiculous but real example. This completely goes against what Allah is teaching us here.

“Sects” only started forming after the death of our prophet (ﷺ) and they have now mostly become different religions teaching different things. We have been warned by our prophet (ﷺ) that even though these ayahs have come down there will be people that make sects; he (ﷺ) said: “My ummah will divide into 73 sects, all of them will be in the Fire except for one, and that is the Jamā’ah.” It was said, “And who are they, O Allah’s Messenger?” He responded, “That which I and my Companions are upon today.” [Tirmidhi]

There is only one Islam and it is formed around the teachings in the Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah of the prophet (ﷺ) and following these is what defines us as Muslims <- the only name we should be using. The prophet (ﷺ) was not a “Sunni” or a “Shia” or a “Suffi” etc. he was a Muslim, just as all previous prophets were – people who submit their wills to Allah and follow His guidance.

May Allah make us all one true ummah and guide all those who have fallen into deviated teachings to the right path.

“And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favour of Allah upon you – when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favour, brothers [and sisters]. And you were on the edge of a pit of the Fire, and He saved you from it. Thus does Allah make clear to you His verses that you may be guided.” [3:103]

Allah knows best.

“We have time”

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

One of the biggest fitnas of our time is the idea that we still have time. Many of us are living in the delusion that we still have a long way to go until judgement day. We hear people saying “some of the signs of judgement day haven’t happened yet”. We see the youth look at those who are older and assume that because those others have lived many more years, so will they. Allah says in the Qur’an:

“Indeed, Allah [alone] has knowledge of the Hour and sends down the rain and knows what is in the wombs. And no soul perceives what it will earn tomorrow, and no soul perceives in what land it will die. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted.” [31:34]

He says only He has knowledge of the “hour” – the use of this word is interesting as Allah could have said “day” but instead uses the Arabic word “sa’a”. In modern Arabic this translates to “hour” – in old Arabic they used this word as a “moment”. This is to show us that we must have a sense of urgency, as a moment is much less than a day.

The hour here represents death as every living creature and plant will pass away – Allah says He knows when everything will end and will continue to provide life-giving rain which gives birth to everything on Earth just like the womb of a mother.

Allah then reminds us that we have no idea what we will earn the next day. We hear those around us saying that they will start praying their daily prayers soon or whenever they reach a certain age – “live your life, you’re still young” – we don’t know if we can earn that tomorrow.

Judgement day may seem far away, but every single soul’s judgement starts in the grave and that can happen at any time, on any land – certainly Allah is fully aware. The fact that we are alive right now is a blessing and a chance to fix our deen, before it’s too late.

May Allah make us of those who are weary of time in all aspects of our lives.

Allah knows best.

Seeking dunya over the afterlife

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

Allah in the Qur’an speaks of those who take preference of the afterlife over the dunya and also those who wish for the opposite. He says:

“Whoever seeks the harvest of the Hereafter, We shall increase for him his harvest, and whoever seeks the harvest of this world, We shall give him thereof; but he will have no share in the Hereafter” [42:20]

The difference Allah places here is that those who seek the afterlife will be increased in their harvest, their blessing. Imagine a farmer that plants a certain number of seeds yet in harvest season, more crop appears than what he originally planted – that is how Allah wants us to see our good deeds in this world.

Yet when He talks about those who seek only the dunya, he mentions they will get a share of it, only a fraction of what they worked for. Let us remember that materialism cannot satisfy the heart so even someone chasing materialism will not gain full satisfaction and at the end of the day it’s temporary; the prophet said: “The life of this world compared to the hereafter is as if one of you were to put his finger in the ocean and take it out again then compare the water that remains on his finger to the water that remains in the ocean” [Muslim].

Then after death this kind of person will not gain any good portion of the afterlife at all.

This is a reminder for us all not to make our worldly gain our only priority. We have our responsibilities in this dunya yes, Allah mentions:

“. .but do not forget your share in this world..” [28:77]

However, letting the world take over to the point where we no longer yearn for Jannah is where the shaytan wishes to take us, because when we are no longer conscious of the afterlife, anything goes. Our good deeds will be empty and our sins will be beautified, as Allah warns us:

“Can that person be guided whose evil deeds are beautified to him that he considers them good?” [35:8]

Let us take a step back and analyse our lives. Is our everyday life merely for worldly gain? Or have we balanced it in a way where deen comes first?

Allah knows best.

What if we were all rich?

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّحِيْمِ

Allah says in the Qur’an:

And if Allah had extended [excessively] provision for His servants, they would have committed tyranny throughout the earth. But He sends [it] down in an amount which He wills. Indeed He is, of His servants, Acquainted and Seeing.” [42:27]

He tells us what would happen in society if He extended provisions for all His people i.e. made everyone rich, given everything we wanted; the result would be that we would have corrupted the land. Let’s look at the times we live in today. The percentage of very wealthy people is very small compared to the rest of the world, yet most of the corruption and crime that happens comes at the hands of the very rich.

Let’s take alcohol for example. A multi-billion pound industry run by some of the richest people in the world. How much crime was facilitated by alcohol alone? How much corruption and fitna has been caused by the poison that these rich people sell and the rich leaders of nations allow to be sold? Statistically every single country or city or county that used to be dry had a massive spike in crime after the introduction of alcohol.

This concept is similar to that of a “sadaqa jariya” (continual charity) in the way that we can trace our Islam back or through others such as parents or teachers; we are able to do good deeds because we learned from somewhere else. Crime works in that way too. The criminals themselves are still responsible but we cannot simply wave off the fact certain crimes were facilitated through certain policies in the certain neighbourhoods set by wealthy individuals taking control however they like, caring only about their bottom line which is to make more money.

Now Allah tells us that if we were all in those upper positions we would be heedless. Many of the working class people would rather party every day and night rather than go to work; imagine they had the chance to do that because of wealth – there will be chaos everywhere. When are there the most car accidents, fights and hospital treatments? Weekends, when everyone is free and the bars are full. Most of these wealthy people become “mutraf”, completely deluded by wealth, not a care about anything or anyone.

So instead Allah sends down provision with limits however He deems fit, which strikes a balance in the dunya. Let us remember that 2 of the 5 things we shall be questioned about on the day of judgement are about wealth – where we got it from and where we spent it. The more someone has, the more they will have to take responsibility for.

May Allah assist all those who are struggling financially and open doors to halal solutions for all issues.

Allah knows best.