Before coming to this existence, you were absolutely nothing, as Allah tells us: {Does not man remember that We created him before, while he was nothing?}(Maryam:67)
Subsequently, Allah created you from dust, then from a sperm, and then there you were, hearing and seeing. He says: {1. Has there not been over man a period of time, when he was nothing to be mentioned? 2. Verily, We have created man from Nutfah drops of mixed semen (discharge of man and woman), in order to try him, so We made him hearer, seer.}(Al-Insân or Ad-Dahr:1-2)
Next, you progressed from weakness to strength, and one day you will return to weakness. Allah says: {Allâh is He Who created you in (a state of) weakness, then gave you strength after weakness, then after strength gave (you) weakness and grey hair. He creates what He wills. And it is He Who is the All¬-Knowing, the All¬-Powerful (i.e. Able to do all things).}(Ar¬-Rûm:54)
Afterwards will come the end of which there is no doubt…Death! Furthermore, at this point in your life you are in the final stages, moving from weakness to weakness. You cannot fend off harm or bring any benefit to yourself unless you beseech Allah to send His blessings upon you, namely; ability, strength and sustenance. You are poor and are in need in terms of your natural disposition; for how many things are there that you need in order to retain your life, but without His permission you will never be able to obtain them. If you are fortunate, you might acquire something once, but you certainly will be deprived of it at a later stage, or at least deprived of something else. How many things are there which are of benefit to you and you need to have, things you might gain at one opportunity but lose at another. Moreover, how many things can harm and disappoint your hopes, waste your efforts and bring you adversity and diseases, things you want to fend off from yourself. You may succeed to fend them off one time, but fail another.
Don’t you feel that you are totally dependent on and in need of Allah! Allah Almighty says: {O mankind! it is you who stand in need of Allâh, but Allâh is Rich (Free of all wants and needs), Worthy of all praise.}(Fâtir or Al¬-Malâ’ikah:15)
Even a weak and minute virus which you cannot see with the naked eye confronts you so you fall sick and are not able to protect yourself from it. To add insult to injury, you go to a man who is as weak as you for treatment, expecting to be cured, as if the power lies in his hands. The medication does its trick and heals you once, but when you fall ill again the doctor cannot cure you because the medicine fails to work. Both the patient and the doctor are perplexed. How weak you are, O son of Adam!! Even if a fly snatches something away from you, you would never be able to take it back!!
Allah is most Truthful when He says: {O mankind! A similitude has been coined, so listen to it (carefully): Verily! Those on whom you call besides Allâh, cannot create (even) a fly, even though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly snatched away a thing from them, they would have no power to release it from the fly. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought.} (Al-Hajj:73)
If you cannot take back what flies snatch away from you, then what can you control of your own affairs?! Your entire life and affairs, and your soul are in Allah’s hand, and your heart is between two of His fingers; He turns it whatever side He wishes. Your life and death are in Allah’s hand, your happiness and misery are also in His hand. Your movements and pauses and your words are done only with the permission and will of Allah.
You do not move without his permission, nor do you do anything at all except by His will. If He leaves you to yourself to run your own affairs, He would leave you to inability, weakness, negligence, guilt and sin. In addition, if He leaves your affairs to be run by others, He would leave you to someone who does not have the power to cause you harm, benefit, death, life or resurrect you. Thus, there is no way you can do without Allah, for even a blink of an eye. Indeed, you are in need of Him for every breath of air you take, both inwardly and outwardly. He bestows upon you His blessings, but you make Him displeased with you by committing sins and through disbelief, though you are in dire need of Him for everything. You have intentionally forgotten about Him, though you know that one day you shall inevitably return to Him, and between His hands you shall stand.
O man, because of your weakness and inability to bear the consequences of your sins, Allah wished to ease your affairs for you. He says: {Allâh wishes to lighten (the burden) for you; and man was created weak (cannot be patient to leave sexual intercourse with woman).}(An-Nisâ’:28)
Allah sent messengers, revealed the books, made legislations, set for you the straight path, and established proofs, arguments, testimonies and evidences, to the extent that He created in everything a proof of His Oneness, Lordship and Divinity. Nevertheless, you still find some people supporting falsehood against the truth, taking the devil and others as protectors instead of Allah, and arguing in favor of falsehood. {And indeed We have put forth every kind of example in this Qur’ân, for mankind. But, man is ever more quarrelsome than anything.}(Al-Kahf:54)
Do the blessings which Allah bestows upon you all the time make you forget what you were created from and to what you will return?! Remember that at first you were created from sperm, then that you will end in a hole in the ground, and after that Allah will resurrect you, either to Paradise or to Hell! Allah says: {77. Does not man see that We have created him from Nutfah (mixed male and female discharge semen drops). Yet behold! He (stands forth) as an open opponent. 78. And he puts forth for Us a parable, and forgets his own creation. He says: “Who will give life to these bones when they have rotted away and became dust?” 79. Say: (O Muhammad [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]) “He will give life to them Who created them for the first time! And He is the All-Knower of every creation!”}(Yâ¬-Sîn:77-79)
He also says: {6. O man! What has made you careless concerning your Lord, the Most Generous? 7. Who created you, fashioned you perfectly, and gave you due proportion;}(Al-Infitâr:6-7)
Why deny yourself, O man, the pleasure of believing in the Oneness of Allah and His Glorification? Why deny yourself, O man, the pleasure of standing before Allah, revealing your worries to Him to enrich you from poverty, heal you from diseases, relieve you from your hardships, forgive your sins and remove you from harm’s way? Why deny yourself, O man, the pleasures of Him supporting you if you have been wronged, guiding you when you are lost or misled, teaching you what you do not know and bestowing security on you when you are afraid? Why deny yourself, O man, the pleasure of acquiring His Mercy in times of weakness, His protection in times of uncertainty, and being granted His sustenance?!
O man, the greatest blessing bestowed by Allah on man, after the blessing of religion, is that of the mind. Man uses it to distinguish between what benefits and harms him, to realize the meanings of Allah’s commands and prohibitions, and to know the reason why he is alive, which is to serve Allah Alone without taking any partner with Him. Allah says: {53. And whatever of blessings and good things you have, it is from Allâh. Then, when harm touches you, unto Him you cry aloud for help. 54. Then, when He has removed the harm from you, behold! Some of you associate others in worship with their Lord (Allâh).}(An-Nahl:53-54)
A reasonable person loves what is beautiful and dislikes what is trivial, moreover, he likes to follow the example of the pious and noble prophets and righteous men, His soul desires to be attached to them although he has not lived with them. The only way to achieve this is through what Allah guided us in the following ayah: {Say (O Muhammad [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam] to mankind): “If you (really) love Allâh then follow me (i.e. accept Islâmic Monotheism, follow the Qur’ân and the Sunnah), Allâh will love you and forgive you of your sins. And Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”}(Âl-’Imrân:31)
If man truly follows the path of His guidance, Allah will grant him the company of the prophets and messengers, martyrs and the righteous. Allah says: {And whoso obeys Allah and the Messenger (Muhammad SAW), then they will be in the company of those on whom Allah has bestowed His Grace, of the Prophets, the Siddiqun (those followers of the Prophets who were first and foremost to believe in them, like Abu Bakr As¬Siddiq radhiallahu’anhu), the martyrs, and the righteous. And how excellent these companions are!}(An-Nisâ’:69)
I advise you, O man, to sit in seclusion and contemplate over the truth that has reached you. You should look into its evidence, and ponder over its proofs. If you find out that it is the truth, then do not hesitate to follow it and do not be a prisoner of tradition and habit, and know that your soul is dearer to you than your peers, companions and your ancestor’s legacy. Allah advised the disbelievers and also encouraged them to do this. The Almighty says: {Say (to them O Muhammad [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]): “I exhort you on one (thing) only: that you stand up for Allâh’s sake in pairs and singly, and reflect (within yourselves the life history of the Prophet [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]): there is no madness in your companion (Muhammad [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]), he is only a warner to you in face of a severe torment.”}(Saba’:46)
O man, submit yourself to Allah in Islam, as by doing so you will not lose anything. Allah says: {And what loss have they if they had believed in Allâh and in the Last Day, and they spend out of what Allâh has given them for sustenance? And Allâh is Ever All¬-Knower of them.}(An-Nisâ’:39)
That is, what harm will befall them if they believe in Allah and all that which has been revealed?! What harm will befall them if they believe in Allah and expect and trust in what He promised in the Hereafter for those who do good deeds?! What harm will befall them if they spend from that which Allah has provided them in the ways loved and accepted by Him? Allah knows their intentions, both good and bad, and knows who of them deserves to be guided and thus grants him success, inspires him with guidance, and destines him to do virtuous actions which please Him. Allah also knows who of them deserve to be abandoned and expelled from His great divine presence; and he who is expelled from Allah’s path will be disappointed and lost in this world and the Hereafter!
If you embrace Islam, it will not prevent you from eating anything you want to eat or doing anything you want to do which Allah has deemed lawful. Instead, Allah will reward you for every deed you do by which you seek the pleasure of the Almighty, even if it is a deed that increases your money, your wealth or your honor. You will even be rewarded for each morsel of food that you eat, if it is halaal, because Allah has commanded you to eat from the permissible food and to abandon the impermissible.
O man, the messengers of Allah brought you the truth and they conveyed Allah’s message. Man needs to be acquainted with Allah’s law to proceed in this life with insight and to be among the winners in the Hereafter. Allah says: {O mankind! Verily, there has come to you the Messenger (Muhammad [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]) with the truth from your Lord, so believe in him, it is better for you. But if you disbelieve, then certainly to Allâh belongs all that is in the heavens and the earth. And Allâh is Ever All¬-Knowing, All¬-Wise.}(An-Nisâ’:170)
The Most Exalted also says: {Say: “O you mankind! Now truth (i.e. the Qur’ân and Prophet Muhammad [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]), has come to you from your Lord. So whosoever receives guidance, he does so for the good of his own self, and whosoever goes astray, he does so to his own loss, and I am not (set) over you as a Wakîl (disposer of affairs to oblige you for guidance).”}(Yûnus:108)
If you, O man, become Muslim, you will only benefit yourself, and if you disbelieve you will also only harm yourself. Allah is free from need of His slaves, and sins committed by sinners do not harm Him, nor does the obedience done by the obedient benefit Him. He will not be disobeyed except with his knowledge and will not be obeyed without his permission. Allah says: {Verily, proofs have come to you from your Lord, so whosoever sees, will do so for (the good of) his ownself, and whosoever blinds himself, will do so to his own harm, and I (Muhammad [sal-Allâhu ‘alayhi wa sallam]) am not a watcher over you.}(Al-An’âm:104)
It was conveyed to us by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) that Allah said: “O My servants! I have forbidden oppression for Myself, and I have made it forbidden amongst you, so do not oppress one another. O My servants, all of you are astray except those whom I have guided, so seek guidance from Me and I shall guide you. O My servants, all of you are hungry except those whom I have fed, so seek food from Me and I shall feed you. O My servants, all of you are naked except those whom I have clothed, so seek clothing from Me and I shall clothe you. O My servants, you commit sins by day and by night, and I forgive all sins, so seek forgiveness from Me and I shall forgive you. O My servants, you will not attain harming Me so as to harm Me, and you will not attain benefiting Me so as to benefit Me. O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, and the humans of you and the jinn of you were all as pious as the most pious heart of any individual amongst you, then this would not increase My Kingdom by an iota. O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, and the humans of you and the jinn of you, were all as wicked as the most wicked heart of any individual amongst you, then this would not decrease My Kingdom by an iota. O My servants, if the first of you and the last of you, and the humans of you and the jinn of you, were to all stand together in one place and ask of Me, and I were to give everyone what he requested, then that would not decrease what I possess, except what is decreased of the ocean when a needle is dipped into it. O My servants, it is but your deeds that I will take into account for you, and then recompense you for. Therefore, he who finds good, let him praise Allah, and he who finds other than that, let him blame no one but himself.”[Muslim]
This, O man, is the path.There is no other path that leads to happiness in this world and the Hereafter. The other paths are paths of wretchedness and loss. Allah says: {“And verily, this (i.e. Allâh’s Commandments mentioned in the above two Verses 151 and 152) is my Straight Path, so follow it, and follow not (other) paths, for they will separate you away from His Path. This He has ordained for you that you may become Al-Muttaqûn (the pious - see V.2:2).”}(Al-An’âm:153)
Whoever takes this path achieves happiness, while whoever takes the other paths loses his way and departs from the path of Allah; he will never be able to reach happiness if he continues thereon.
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