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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘Alameen. Wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursalineen. Muhammadur Rasoolullah ﷺ sallallahu alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. Tasliman kathiran kathira.
Muhammadu Fadhu, my brothers and sisters, I remind myself and you of the connection between belief and action. Iman and Amal. In the Qur’an al-Karim, everywhere that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala mentioned Iman, He connected it with Amal al-Saleh, with good deeds. Everywhere, Iman wa Amal al-Saleh. This is the connection throughout our life. We believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. And this is what Islam is. Islam is to return to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Because Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala created us. And He said about us and the purpose of our creation: “I have not created the jinn and the insan, human beings, for anything other than my worship.” So when the person comes to Islam and he says, “La ilaha illallah,” he acknowledges and accepts the purpose of his creation. And so he returns to the reason why he was created. Because the Kalima is the belief, and the action which is associated with the Kalima, is Salah. When we say ashadu an la ilaha illallah, I bear witness that there is no one worthy of worship except Allah. So, I am ready to worship Allah. When we say ashadu anna Muhammad rasool Allah, that I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And the last and final messenger after whom there is no messenger. The manifestation of that belief is, I say I am ready to worship Allah in the way of Muhammad. Because I said I am following Muhammad. What is that following? That following is in how to worship. It is in everything in our lives, but it begins with how to worship Allah. So, the Salah is the Amal with the Kalima which is the Iman.
And that is the reason why, Rasool Allah said, He said, the Ahad, the dividing line, the differentiator, the covenant between them, or the differentiator between them and us. Them is people who are not Muslim. And us is the Salah. What differentiates a Muslim from a non-Muslim? A Muslim prays and the non-Muslim does not pray. A Muslim establishes Salah, the non-Muslim does not establish Salah. This is the difference. It is not based on race, it is not based on color or nationality or names or nothing. A Muslim prays and a non-Muslim does not pray. The one who prays is a Muslim. The one who does not pray is not a Muslim. No matter what his race, no matter what his name, no matter which family he belongs to, if he is or she is not, has not established Salah, if they are not praying, then they are not Muslim. And this is not my opinion, this is the Hadith of Rasool Allah.
So, that’s why there is no such thing as a non-practicing Muslim. A Muslim is the one who practices Islam. Who is the driver of a car? The one who drives. Not somebody sitting in the car. Who is the pilot of a plane? The one who flies the plane. You can’t have a non-flying pilot. What’s the meaning of that? So, if you are driving, you are a driver. If you are not driving, you are not a driver. So, similarly, if you are praying, then you are a Muslim. If you are practicing, you are a Muslim. If you are not practicing, you are not a Muslim. So, the Amal, the Iman is, the Tawheed is the Iman. And the Amal, the manifestation of that is Salah.
The same formula we apply in all of our lives. We believe in earning Halal, so the action is, we earn Halal. We do that action. We believe in eating Halal, so therefore we eat Halal. Throughout our lives, whatever. Then when we go into our Qabar, the questions in the grave are the questions that relate to the Aqeedah, to Iman. What do you say about the one, the man who was sent among you? What is your, who is your Rabb? What is your Deen? What do you say about the person who was sent among you? That is Rasulullah. These are questions of faith, questions of belief.
And then, can I say this? Connected with that are the questions of the Day of Judgement when we reach there. Where Allahﷻ will say, now these questions are not about faith. The questions of the Day of Judgement are not about Iman. They are about the Amal. They are about deeds. What did you do with the time that was given to you? How did you spend that time? You were allotted a certain amount of time. So many years of your lifespan. How did you spend that? Out of that lifespan, how did you spend your youth? Because that is the time of greater strength and ability and so on. So how did you spend your youth? Then, how did you earn your living? And where did you spend it? How did you earn your living? And where did you spend it? And then, what did you do with the knowledge? Knowledge that was given to you. Did you practice it? Did you convey it? So these are questions of the Day of Judgement. All of them relate to Iman.
So that is the most important thing, therefore, is for us to understand this and say that Alhamdulillah, Allahﷻ gave us this religion and He gave us the understanding of it. To whatever extent we have it. And so it is important for us to keep that in mind and to make sure that the actions follow our beliefs or stated beliefs. So I say I believe in this and that. Do I really believe in it or not? That is the question.
So for example, now we have said that, that is why, Sayyidina Ali bin Abi Talib R.A., he is reported to have said, he said, I don’t understand a person who says that he wants to go to Jannah. I don’t understand a person who says that he wants to go to Jannah, but when there is an opportunity to do a good deed, he does not do it. He says he wants to go to Jannah. But when there is an opportunity to do something good, he does not do it. For example, the simplest example is Salah. You always keep going back to Salah because Salah is the head of the matter. There is an opportunity to pray and to pray in the Masjid. But the person does not do it. Either he does not pray at all or he will pray at home. He will not pray in the Masjid. So there was a chance to do something which will take you to Jannah. But you did not do it. Similarly, he said, I don’t understand a man who says he is afraid of the hellfire. But when there is something which will take him to the hellfire, he does not run away from it. So he knows this action is wrong. He knows borrowing money on interest is haram. It is something which will lead to the hellfire. He knows that whatever actions, what Allah has made haram. But he does not run away from those. He participates. He indulges. He indulges in those. So then Ali said, I don’t understand this. You say you believe something. But your actions are pointing to the opposite. So what is this belief? Who are you fooling?
It is not because, it is not a matter of fooling anybody. What we are doing, Allah Ta’ala is aware of our intentions. Allah is aware of our deepest intentions. So who are we? Who do we think we are fooling? Why do we say something? And we do something else? Allah Ta’ala mentioned this in the Quran. He said, “O you who have believed, why do you say what you do not do?” This is a great sin in the sight of Allah if you say what you do not do. Allah Ta’ala said, “You believe.” How is it you say something and you do something else? You say I believe but you do something else. How is it possible? And you are people of faith. “How is it that you say something but you don’t act on it? You do something else.” And Allah said, “This is a great sin.”
Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un. This is a very serious matter with Allah. That you say something but you do something else. So I remind myself and you: Let us make istighfar and tawbah. Let us correct ourselves and correct our beliefs. Because simply saying you believe something is not enough; this has to be demonstrated—to Allah, not for the people. And that is the evidence in our favor. InshaAllah we ask Allah for this. Right? So let us make lots of dua. Today and tomorrow are particularly important days in this holy month of Muharram. It’s called Shahrullah; it’s called the month of Allah. And so the whole month is important, but especially the 9th and 12th. So make lots of dua. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala to accept our dua, to be pleased with us, to protect us, and to help us.