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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Alḥamdulilāhi Rabbil-ʿĀlamīn. Wa salātu wa salāmu ʿalā ash-sharafi al-anbiyāʾi wal-mursalīn. Muḥammadur Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa ʿalā ālihi wa sallam. We were talking about the fundamental principle in Islam, which is Iman bil-Ghaib—the belief in the unperceivable. And we believe not because we have seen, nor because we have experienced, but because we believe the word of Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam.
Now, if you see Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam himself, his own mission was powered by his belief. By his Iman in Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā. By his Iman that he was a Nabī ʿalayhi salātun wa salām. And that his mission was a divine mission for the benefit of all of mankind. Allāh said, “Wa ma arsalnaka illa rahmatan lil-ʿĀlamīn.” We have sent you as nothing but a mercy to all of creation, all the worlds. And it was his belief in that which powered his mission. So despite all the difficulties, all the opposition and so on, he continued unabated.
And that is why belief is superior to certain knowledge. Now again, when I say belief is superior to certain knowledge, I’m not talking about superstitions. Right? If I just say it like this, it sounds as if I’m saying, “just believing something.” In Islam, there is belief. There is belief with evidence.
There is belief with proof. There is belief with evidence. So we have: when we say, “when I say belief here,” I mean belief in the divine evidence that we have in Islam, which is the Kalam of Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā. So belief in the divine evidence, which is the Kalam of Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā, which is the Book of Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā. This belief is superior to certain knowledge or superior to…
…mushāhada—superior to observing and seeing for yourself. Right? So believing what Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā has told us, even though we don’t see it, is superior to what would have happened if we had seen it.
Now belief motivates.
You get up in the morning and go to work because you believe that you will be successful. Right? Right? This is the difference between somebody who is in… deep depression, for example. They won’t get out; they won’t get out of bed itself.
Because the mind is playing games with them. The mind is telling them that, “you know, you will fail, you cannot succeed.” So why get up?
But we get up, alḥamdulillāh, may Allāh keep us positive. That is the benefit of positive beliefs. You get up and go to work because you believe that you are successful. You go and study. You are studying different courses. Many courses for all, or actually all courses for multiple reasons. Because there is a belief that at the end of that, I will succeed, I will become this, I will become that, and so on. So belief motivates. Belief drives. Belief is the drive. It gives you the energy to go forward. Belief is the light on the path in the cold, dark night. When there is… when things seem to be dark, when things seem to be difficult, you continue because you have belief in… success. Belief in Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā’s help. Belief is hope. And belief is faith in Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā.
Belief also implies uncertainty and doubt and anxiety and fear of failure because we believe. There is… at some times, there is no evidence that you will succeed. And this is not even in the case of the Akhirah, but even in your own life. I’m not saying everybody has the experience, but… many of you may have the experience of passing through certain times in your life when even you did not think you could succeed. But you did it. And then you found you, alḥamdulillāh, succeeded. Right? But if you had given up at that time, you would not have succeeded. So what kept you through that? Through that point, through that period when there was so much doubt—even you had doubt, people around you had doubt. But you continued. That was faith. That was belief.
So therefore, belief also implies courage and focus and persistence and fortitude, ṣabr. Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā talked about belief and seeing, certainty. Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā said, “Wa qālū ʾaydha thallanā fī l-ard, aʾinnā lafī qalbīn jadīdin? Bal hum bil-liqāʾi rabbihim kāfirūn.” They ask mockingly: “When we are disintegrated into the earth, will we really be raised again as a new creation?” Allāh said, “Bal hum bil-liqāʾi rabbihim kāfirūn.” In fact, they are denying the meeting with their Rabb.
People are saying, even today people say, “how is it possible, you are going to be resurrected, how is this possible?” So people disintegrate completely; you become mud and sand, and you are saying, “you come, you know.” So Allāh says, the people who are saying that, the people who say that are denying the meeting with their Rabb. “Bal hum bil-liqāʾi rabbihim kāfirūn.” And then Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā, in His commanding way, He says, “Qul—yatawaffākum malakul-mawti alladhī bukkila bikum thumma ilā rabbikum turjaʿūn.” Say: “Your soul will be taken, you will die. Your soul will be taken by the angel of death, who is in charge of you. And then to your Rabb, you will all be returned.”
And then Allāh says, now we are talking about seeing. Allāh says…
“Wa law tara ʾidhi l-mujrimūna nākisū ruʾusihim ʿinda rabbihim. Rabbana abṣarnā wa samiʿnā farjiʿnā naʿmal-salihin. Inna mukinūna.” Allāh says, “You will see, if only you could see, these people—the Mujrimūn, the wicked people—if you could only see them hanging their heads in shame before their Rabb, crying and weeping and saying, ‘Rabbana abṣarnā.’ O our Rabb, we have seen. Until then it was belief. Now we have seen. Abṣarnā wa samiʿnā. We have heard.”
“Naʿmal-salihin—Inna mukinūna.” Return us. Send us back. “Farjiʿna naʿmal-salihin Inna mukinūna.” We have now seen and we have heard. Return us and we will be good people. We will be obedient people. And of course, the time for that returning is over. There is no time to return. Once the curtain has been lifted, once we have seen Malakul-Mawt, there is no return from there. If they see, when they see, what will they see? They will see, and all of us will see. May Allāh subḥānahū wa taʿālā help us to see that with khair and afiyyah and with His permission. You see your Rabb on His throne. You see Malayka Ṣafan Ṣaff. Allāh said: in rows and rows and rows like armies.
And we don’t know what is the glory and majesty of Allāh. They will see that.
So, with belief is forgiveness. When we believe and we act on that belief. Again, as I said, I am not talking about superstition. There is no superstition in Islam. There is no mythology in Islam. There are no stories in Islam. In Islam, you either have something which is factual, which is narrated in the Qur’an and by Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam; or we have the word of Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā himself with regard to the Ghaib which we believe because Allāh said so. And Allāh said so—how do you know that? Because Rasūlullāh ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam told us. So, this is the belief. So, with belief is forgiveness. With demands for certainty, where you say, “I must see this, I must see that,” there is accounting and punishment.
So, for example, Salli ʿalayhimas-salām, his people, they said, “You will not believe in Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā unless you must bring out and tell Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā to bring out a pregnant camel from this mountain.” And Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā said, “You will not believe in Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā unless you must bring out and tell Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā to bring out a pregnant camel from this mountain.”
And Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā said, “You will not believe in Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā unless you must bring out and tell Allāh ṣubḥānahu wa taʿālā to bring out a pregnant camel from this mountain. I will show you the thing that you are demanding; I will show you, but after that, if you touch that camel, if you harm tha…”
camel, then we will destroy you. There is no forgiveness after that. So, they said, “We want to see it.” So, Allah ﷻ brought out the female camel. The she-camel came out, and then Allah ﷻ put conditions. Allah said, this camel will graze; when the camel grazes, nobody will touch her. Nobody will bother this camel. And this camel will drink water on this day; others will not drink on that day. And so on and so on—difficult conditions. So, there were people, and from the narration of the Quran and the Hadith, we know that there were only nine people. Imagine: this is a whole town or whatever it was. There were just nine people. Those nine people plotted. They said, “This camel we have to kill” because this is causing us trouble. They plotted and killed the camel. And Allah ﷻ destroyed the whole time. Even though the people who did that work were not everyone; not everyone did it. Few people did it, but those few people were not stopped by others. So, Allah ﷻ destroyed everybody. With Isa a.s., his Hawariyun (his companions) said they were not demanding, but at the same time they said, “Allah ﷻ sent down for us a Maida Dastarkhan,” a dinner spread of food, so that we can eat it and we can remember Allah ﷻ. But Allah ﷻ warned them. Allah ﷻ said, “I will send this down, but if after that you do not believe, I will punish you in a way that I have never punished anybody else.” Because you are demanding a certainty. If the food comes from the heavens, that’s a certainty. Believing without demanding all this. Take Firaun. He denied Allah ﷻ and denied Musa a.s. continuously until he was drowning. And then he said, “I am unto my Rabb Musa and Harun.” He said, “I believe in the Rabb of Musa and Harun.” And Allah ﷻ said, “No. Too late.” Now there is no chance of accepting this because this is too late. So when the curtain is lifted, the door of Tawbah is shut. So I remind myself anew: the key is to believe in Al-Ghayb. For us, when you see Malik al-Maut, the door is shut. So we have to accept Islam. We have to accept Allah ﷻ as our Rabb without any partners. We have to accept Rasulullah s.a.w. as his Nabi alayhi s.a.w., and the last of them—unseen and unperceived. And then Insha’Allah we look forward to the forgiveness of Allah ﷻ. We ask Allah to save us from all doubts. We ask Allah to help us to remember Him always and to keep us in a state of obedience to Him on the Sunnah of His Rasul s.a.w.