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Bismillāh ar-Raḥmān ar-Raḥīm. Al-Ḥamdu lillāhi Rabbil-‘Ālamīn. Wa-salātu wa-salāmu ‘ala ashrafil-anbiyā’ wal-mursalīn, Muḥammadir-Rasūlallāh ﷺ, wa ‘ala ālihi wa ṣallām taslīman kathīran kathīrān. Aumadhu billāh. My brothers and sisters, I am on myself and you that our religion is based on *Iman bil-Ghaib*—on having faith in the unperceivable.
Now, this is not blind faith, even though it is faith in the unperceivable. I say “unperceivable,” I don’t say “unseen,” because unseen can be known in other ways. There are many things which are unseen in our daily life. For example, how my voice is recorded: it is recorded in a form which can then be sent electronically to somebody else, and there it is recorded and it is reconstructed as my voice, and that person listens to a recording. This is what is happening in a recording. My voice is being digitized in some form. I can’t see it; I don’t understand it, but I don’t deny it because I can see it—it happens. And then after I record it here, I send it and it goes to you, and there you listen to my voice. That digital format has been reconstructed into an audible format which you can listen to. Similarly, there are many things which are not visible, but they are not Al-Ghaib.
Al-Ghaib is something which is unperceivable by two factors: one is unperceivable through any means, neither directly perceivable nor through something. So for example, you cannot see a star, but if you use a telescope, you can see it. You cannot see a microbe, a bacteria, or a virus, but if you use a powerful enough microscope, you can see it. So, “unperceivable” is something which is not perceivable in any way, using any instrument. And the second requirement is, it is something which will never be perceivable, *illā mashā’ Allāh*.
So for example, the situation, the conditions in the grave—what happens when a person dies and he is placed in his grave—is unperceivable; we cannot perceive it. What happens when we are resurrected and we are on the plane of Ḥaşar? Unperceivable. What happens when we go into Jannah? We ask Allah for Jannah, *inshā’Allāh*; we can’t see it. What happens to those who are put into the hellfire? And so on and so on. *Iman bil-ghayb* is to believe all of this, and it is not blind faith because before we believe all of this, we believe in Allah ﷻ, we believe in His Rasool A.S., and in His truthfulness that He conveyed the message of Allah ﷻ completely without changing anything, without losing anything, without forgetting anything.
So, this is *Iman bin Ghair*. So about this, Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā is saying in Surah Al-Sajdah: Allah said, “Still they ask mockingly, ‘When we are disintegrated, *adalna fil ardh*, adalna fil ardh—completely finished, disintegrated and gone, decomposed, mixed up with the soil.” If you dig up a grave, there is nothing there. In some cases, even the bones are gone because, you know, depending on how long the grave has been before it was opened—and I’ve seen graves; I’ve seen graves where somebody is buried in an older grave. So, I’ve seen that grave which is opened; maybe that person died 30, 40, or 50 years ago. You open the grave, there’s nothing there. Even the bones are not there.
So people say that when that is the situation, you are saying, “This person will be revived, will come back to life.” Allah says, “Yes, definitely this will happen,” and those who are saying this are denying the meeting with their Rabb. And then Allah ﷻ said, “Qul yatawaffakum”—tell them they will die. Tell them they will die. “Qul yatawaffakum malakul-mawt alladhī wukila bikum, summa ilā rabbikum turja’un.” Malakul-Maut has been set upon you; that is his job. And he will extract your soul, and you will be brought back before your Rabb: “Malakul-mawti wukila bikum thumma ilā rabbikum turju’u.” And you will return to your Rabb, and then…
Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā says the Prophet ﷺ: “Wa law tara idh al-mujrimūna nākithu rū’sihim ‘inda rabbihim, rabbanā abṣarnā wa samm’nā farji’na na’mal sāliḥin, innā mu’kirūn.” Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā says He says, “O my Nabi, if only you could see the Mujreemin.” Allah did not say *Ghafirin*; *Mujreemin* includes the Muslims. May Allah save us from this. Includes the Muslims who insist on committing sins, who insist on indulging in haram, who insist on oppressing people, who insist on lying and cheating—*Mujreemin*. They will stand there with their heads hanging in shame before their Rabb. And they will say, “O Allah, we have seen and we have heard; return us back to the world so that we can do good deeds and we will be among the obedient.” I remind myself anyway: Allah says this is not happening because the world itself will cease to exist. There will be nothing to send you back to.
So Allah says we will not send you—that is a decision—but even if Allah wants to send, I won’t say Allah cannot send; Allah can send, Allah can recreate the world if He wants. But in the normal scheme of things, the earth as we know it is over; the going back to the earth is out of the question. I remind myself, you know, therefore that this life and this world and this time is so precious because we will never get it back no matter what we do; we cannot get this time back. So the only thing we can do and the best thing we can do is make the best use of this time.
This is our core belief: that one day we will face Allah ﷻ. One day we will stand before Allah ﷻ. It is very important because if I ask you, today, what is the best way in which you can spend your time? Let’s ask anybody: today, what is the best way in which you can spend your time? How can they answer that question? They can answer that question if they have some goal for today, right? Supposing you have no goal for today—nothing. Then there is no best way of spending time. You just spend time. Maybe you’ll sleep. Maybe you’ll go to a restaurant, have a nice meal. Maybe you’ll go visit some friends. Maybe this, maybe that, maybe that. But if you have a goal—”Today my goal is to go there and get that work done”—then what’s the best way to spend the time? You will structure your time. “I have to reach there at that time,” so I have to leave my house at this time because of the traffic and so on and so on. When I go there, I need to have these papers ready; so I will take those papers with me. When I go there, I need to know the person I am going to meet—is he there or not? So I take an appointment. So there is a whole plan. That whole plan is based on only one thing, which is, what is the goal? What is your goal for today?
Similarly, if people tell me, “Teach us time management,” I said, “I cannot teach you time management unless you have a goal for your life.” How will I teach you? How can anybody teach you time management? What is the meaning of time management? How can you have priorities if you have no goals? The whole issue of saying, “I will do this first, I will do this number two, number three…”—that depends on the goal. If there is no goal…
So what is our goal? Our goal is when we meet Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā: Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā should be pleased with us. That’s the goal. That is the goal. So if that is the goal, then planning life is easy. Then getting up for *tahajjud* is easy. My brother sent me some clip saying somebody said there is no adhan for tahajjud because for tahajjud, Allah is calling. We don’t need a human being to call; Allah is calling. Get up, come to me, ask me, I will give you. “Yā ayyuhā al-muzzammilu, qumil-layla illa qalīlan.” Allah is calling. There is no adhan. We don’t need the mosque to call the adhan.
So if Allah should be pleased with me, then the plan is clear. I will pray tahajjud. I will fulfil all the faradh, whatever Allah has made fard on me—I will do that. What Allah made halal, I will do; I will use it. What Allah made haram, I will not touch, and so on. I will spend in the path of Allah—my investment with Allah—I will increase it more and more and more. Plan is clear, but that’s because of the goal. But when there is no goal, then there cannot be a plan.
So our faith is based on *Iman Bil-Ghaib* because this *Iman*, which Rasūlullāh ﷺ powered his mission with, his belief, his *Iman* was the power behind his mission. That’s why they say belief is superior to certain knowledge because belief connects us with the one we believe in. Knowing something is a different thing, but believing connects us to Allah, and belief motivates us. If I believe in the Akhirah, then I am motivated to do good things. If I believe in the fact that our Amal and our good deeds are with Allah ﷻ and Allah ﷻ will return them to us in a beautiful form, Nabi ﷺ said somebody may have donated, may have given one dead seed in Sadaqah, Allah will hand it to him like a mountain of gold. He said, “Allah subḥānahu wa ta’ālā receives the sadaqah which is spent in his path; Allah receives it in his right hand.” When we say right hand, left hand, we don’t say this in the context of human hands and so on. Right hand is whatever it means with the glory and majesty of Allah. He receives in his right hand. And then he said, Nabi Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said, “and then he nurtures it like you nurture a foal, a young horse.”
If you have a baby horse, you will be very careful with it. You should not get sick, you shouldn’t get hurt, you shouldn’t run away somewhere, something should not attack it. You care for it, you take care of it, you love it, you shower it with love and affection, right? If it is cold in the night, you will bring him and make him sleep in your bed maybe, feed him the best food. Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la nurtures that sadaqah which you have given, and then when you meet Him, Allah will give it to you in its full form. But this we will do if we have faith in the Akhirah. So I remind myself and you that *Al-Iman Bil-Ghaib* is the root of our faith and our belief. And our *Iman* is not blind; it is based on our belief in Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la Jalla Jalaluh. It is belief; it is based on the fact that the one who told us about Allah Subh’anaHu never told a lie. And so we believe. So our belief is belief with knowledge, not blind belief. And when we live our lives according to that, then *inshā’Allāh* we look forward to the mercy and forgiveness of Allah ﷻ.