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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Alḥamdulil-lāhi Rabbil-‘Ālamīn. Wa salātu wa salāmu ‘alā ash-sharafi al-anbiyā’ wal-mursalīn, Muḥammadin Rasūlallāh ṣallallāhu ‘alayhi wa ‘alā ālihi wa sahbihī wa sallam. Tasleeman kathīran kathīra, khamma ba’duh.
Now, brothers and sisters, we are talking about the issue of belief, *Imān bil-Ghaib*, belief in the Akhīrah, and how that is the fundamental principle of Islam, and how that is essential. And the safety in that is that as long as we believe, then not only does Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā give us the strength, and Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā gives us success, but also with that belief, as long as you are on that position of believing, the doors of tawbah and istighfār are open. Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā forgives us, forgives faults. But when certainty comes, when we see the Ghayb, then the doors of tawbah shut.
Now, belief is what gives strength. As I told you, it has two things, two aspects to it. One is that when you are believing, it means there is no separation. There is no certainties, which means that there is uncertainty, there is some level of fear, there is some level of doubt. The struggle or the success is to get over that, is to move despite having the doubt. To move through the doubt to success, that is courage. That is faith, right? If you know that, if you know for certain that you are going to succeed, then there is no courage; you know, you will succeed. But to move in the face of doubt, continue with steadfastness and suffer in the face of doubt, this is the issue of belief and faith.
Now, all the prophets, they embodied and exemplified the issue of *Imān-ul-Ghaib*, all of them. Take Ibrahim. When Ibrahim was captured, he was tied up, he was put into the cup of the *Mangorel* (likely referring to a specific type of vessel or context not fully clear, retaining original term as no direct correction fits standard terminology perfectly without hallucination) and he was going to be thrown into the fire. At that point, he had belief, he had faith. Does he know for certain that he will be saved? No, he doesn’t know. Does he know for certain that Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā is going to command the fire, “To Salāman Allāh Ibrāhīm Ya Nārī Kūni Baridān Wa Salāman Allāh Ibrāhīm”? Does he know that Allah will make this commandment? He doesn’t know that. But does his faith waver? Does he have a doubt? Does he have any doubt in Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā or in the fact that he is the slave of Allah and Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā is in charge and Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā is capable of saving him? Does he have any doubt? He doesn’t have any doubt.
We have the story of Jibrīl ‘alayhi s-salām coming to him at that point and asking him, “Can I do something for you?” He says, “No.” Even though for him to ask Jibrīl ‘alayhi s-salām to help him, nothing wrong with that. He could have asked him because here was Jibrīl in front of him. He could have asked him. But he didn’t ask him. Because his level of faith was such that he says, “I will take only from Allah. I will not take from anybody else.” And so Jibrīl ‘alayhi s-salām goes back to Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā and of course Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā knows and he says, “Ya Rabb, this is what is happening to your Khalīl. I asked him, can I help you? He says, no.” So Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā says, “Go and tell him I sent you and I want to know what does he want. I want to know what does he need.” And his response to that is also the same. His response to that is, “My Rabb does not need to ask. What do I want? I am a slave of Allah. What does a slave want? A slave wants whatever his master wants. A slave does not have his own will. A slave does not have his own desire. A slave does not have, ‘I want this,’ ‘I want that.’ No. What do you want? I want whatever you want.”
You want me to live? Save me. You want me to burn? I am ready. Whatever you like, whatever you want, is what I want. Now this is the essence of *Imān* to have complete and total faith in Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā and know that Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā that we exist for the worship of Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā: “Wa mā khalaqtul-jannata wal-insāni illā ya’būdūna.” Same thing with Nūḥ ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam. When he was building the boat, does he know there will be a flood? Does he know he will be saved? The very fact that he was building this big ship when there was no beach there, there was no river there, there was no seaside there. Imagine the amount of people who would have laughed at him. But we know what is the end of that. Mūsā ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam standing at the edge of the Red Sea, the army of Firaun approaching from behind and the people of Mūsā ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam having doubt in him and they say, “Oh you have destroyed us, you brought us to this point, now we will all die.” He says no. He said, “My Rabb is with me.” And Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā then commands him to do what he did, strike the water and so on, right? When Allah parted the ocean for him.
We have this, the case of Rasūlullāh ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, and his Dua at Badr. What does the Dua tell you? His Dua tells us that Rasūlullāh ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam at that time, he was asking Allah, he was saying, “Ya Allāh, if these people die, there will be no one left to worship You.” Why does he say that? If he was certain that in Badr they would be victorious, where is the question of if these people die? He does not know for certain. But because he does not know for certain, he does not turn around and go back home. He is still standing there. He is still doing what he needs to do. That is the faith. But he does not know. Will I be successful? I do not know. And that is why the Dua: “Ya Allāh, You promised to help me, so help me.” And these people, if these people die, then there is no one to worship. So this is the key thing; it is this too. All the Ambiyā’ ṣallallahu ‘alayhim wa sallam, they all believed. They did not know for certain. But they believed and they strove and they did their best.
The reward of believing without seeing is to see what you believed in unseen. The reward is to see what you believed in unseen. Which is the Ru’yah of Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā. The Deedar of Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā. Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā, may Allah count us and make us among them. Rasūlullāh ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said that when the Hisāb and everything is done and the people of Jannah, they go into Jannah, there will be this beautiful breeze which will come, which will blow and this breeze will cause the leaves of the trees of Jannah to flutter in the breeze. And touch one another and flutter. And that will produce, He said, a kind of music which will be sweeter than any music you have heard in the world. And you will hear this music there in Jannah if you don’t listen to music here.
Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā will tell Jannah, will order Jannah, “Make my slaves happy.” And every desire, whatever you want, without asking will happen. And then, Abī ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, there will be an announcement to say all the people of Jannah gather together. And everyone will gather in this one place. And Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā will then address and He will say, “O my slaves, are you happy? Are you pleased?” And the people there, may Allah make us among them. And all our *mutalikeen*, Insha’Allāh. We will say, “Ya Rabb, how can we not be happy? You have given us everything You promised. You have given us everything we desire. How can we not be happy?” And Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā will say, “O my slaves, shall I give you something which will make you even more happy?” And we will all say, “Ya Rabb, what can make us more happy?” And Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā will say, “Ya Rizwan, remove the curtain from between me and my slaves.” And by His grace, Jalla Jalālahū, we will see Allah subḥanahu wa ta’ālā.
The Sahaba asked, “Ya Rasūlullāh, how can we see? There will be so many people in that whole crowd. How will we see Allah?” One person in this whole crowd. Abī ṣallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said, “You will see your Rabb like you see the sun. It doesn’t matter how many people are there. Everyone sees the sun. Everyone sees the sun in the same way. Or the moon, full moon. It doesn’t matter. You can be in the middle of a million…”
People, you still see the full moon. It’s higher; that is what you will see. And remember, Musa AS asked to see Allahﷻ. Allahﷻ told him, “I will project one ray on this mountain. If the mountain can sustain that, you can see.” But the mountain blew up. Musa AS fell down unconscious.
Hmm? How will we see Allah? We will see Allah because Allah will wish to be seen. So Allah will give us that strength and enable us to see. And then Allahﷻ will say, “Shall I tell you something which will make you even more happy?” Imagine, you are seeing Allahﷻ. And the people will say, “What can we say? He is seeing you,” and you say something more. What can be more happy? And Allahﷻ will say, “Know therefore that from this time onward, I will never be displeased with you.”
“I will never be displeased with you.” So Allahﷻ’s pleasure—the fact that Allah will be pleased with us—is the highest of rewards. There is no reward higher than this. That’s why in the Quran, in one place, Allahﷻ says about the people, the kuffar and the people who deny Allahﷻ, the Mujrimun, Allahﷻ has said that Allah will not look towards them. Allah did not say He will burn them or inflict other punishments; He will not look towards them. That is all.
But that is the worst of the punishments: that Allah Ta’ala will ignore you. The worst punishment is worse than Jahannam—that Allah will not look towards you. So Allahﷻ says Allah will be happy with you, will be pleased with you. There is nothing superior to that. We ask Allahﷻ to include us among those whom He will be pleased with, and among those who will see Him and hear this proclamation: “O my slaves, I am pleased with you and I will never be displeased.” Wa sallallahu ala nabiyyil kareem wa ala alihi wa sahbihil bayyin bi rahmatullahi wa barakatuh