Faith is a 3-D Experience
By Arshad Gamiet/Royal Holloway University
“A-úthu billáhi minash shaytánir rajeem. Bismilláhir rahmánir raheem
Al hamdu lillahi nahmaduhu wanasta’eenahu, wanastagh-firuhu, wanatoobu ilayhi, wana’oothu Billaahi min shuroori an-fusinaa, wamin sayyi aati a’maalinaa. May- Yahdillahu fa huwal muhtad, wa may- yudlill falan tajidaa lahu waliyan murshida. Wa ash-hadu an Laa ilaaha ill-Alláh, wahdahoo laa shareeka lah, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan ‘abduhoo warasooluh”
All Praise is due to Alláh, We praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Alláh, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Alláh, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, sws, is His servant, and His messenger.
Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem! Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, haqqa tuqaatihee wala tamu tun-na, il-la wa antum Muslimoon.”
O You who believe, – Fear Allah, as He should be feared, and die not except as Muslims.
Ya Ay-yuhal-latheena ‘aamanut taqul-laaha, wa qooloo qawlan sadeedaa. Yuslih-lakum a’maalakum wa yaghfir lakum thunoobakum, wamay yu-til-laaha warasoolah, faqad faaza fawzan atheemaa.”
O You who believe, – Be aware of Allah, and speak a straightforward word. He will forgive your sins and repair your deeds. And whoever takes Allah and His Prophet as a guide, has already achieved a mighty victory.
In the opening verse of Sura An-Nisaa’, Allah says:
O mankind! Show reverence towards your Guardian-Lord Who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, his mate and from the two of them scattered (like seeds) countless men and women;― Be conscious of Allah, through Whom ye demand your mutual (rights) and (show reverence towards) the wombs (that bore you): for surely, Allah ever watches over you.`
My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
How often do we thank Allah for giving us two eyes, instead of just one? Two eyes give us stereoscopic vision. We can see things in depth. Each eye is set slightly apart from the other, and sees a slightly different image. Our brains match these slightly different images to give us perspective. Perspective, seeing in depth, is seeing things in their relative proportions to each other. It’s a big step forward from seeing things in just two dimensions, which is the best you can do with just one eye. Life is not just a flat surface; we have to evaluate, to judge, and to give everything its due proportion.
How fortunate we are, to have faith, to have Iman. Without faith, people see the world in 2 dimensions only. They only see themselves and everything that’s out there, the natural world, the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms, earth, water, wind and fire. That’s all: just the human self and everything outside it.
People of faith, on the other hand, see themselves, and the created order, and Allah in a kind of triangulation. God, human beings and other creatures: this is really the true spiritual perspective. Allah created the world to serve us, and He created us to serve Him.
“Laqad khalaqtul jinni wal insa liya’budoon”[Quran 5:56]
“I have not created jinn and human beings except for worshipping Me.”
We serve Him by acknowledging Him with gratitude, and we take care of other people, animals, plants, the land, sea and air, in order to reciprocate His overflowing love and mercy towards us.
Brothers and sisters, once we understand this simple fact of a 3-dimensional perspective of life, some things become abundantly clear to us:
Firstly, there is this invisible but inseparable triangulation between me, my Lord and the rest of His creation. In our mind’s eye, we must live every moment in a state of awareness of this 3-dimensional reality. Living with this awareness means that Allah not only watches over everything I do, but as long as I am aware of His presence, reminding my forgetful and infinitely distractible human nature of my total reliance on Him, He will be there to help me, to guide me and to protect me from harm. My very awareness of Him actually brings him closer to me, “closer than our jugular vein,” says the Quran [ch50:16]. Knowing this becomes a tremendous source of inner peace for me, a source of security and tranquillity, sakina. The Quran assures me that true, lasting satisfaction can only be earned by constantly remembering Allah. [Quran 13:28]
Secondly, when I realize that I am an important part of this triangular matrix, God-man-and-universe, then logic drives me to answer the obvious question: what’s the plan? What’s the purpose?
Everyone makes plans. We plan our professional careers, our family plans, holidays, work and leisure times. We even plan for retirement and death. Believers plan. Non-believers also have plans. But their plans exclude the central Reality in all our lives: Allah. The Holy Quran tells us that:
“The unbelievers plot and plan, and Allah also plans, and Allah is the best of planners.” [Sura 8:v30]
Believers use some Arabic expressions as part of everyday language, and I want us to reflect for a moment on the significance. Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem, inshAllah, Ma-sha-Allah, Alhamduli-Laah, bi-ithnil-Laah, Jazak-Allah-khairan. We use these terms so casually. We rarely stop to give them a second thought. But they are crucially important. When we begin anything we say that we begin in the Name of Allah. When we plan something for the future, we say, If Allah wills it. When we see a beautiful thing that we admire, we say, this is the Will of Allah, there is no power and no strength except from Allah. When we thank someone, we also thank Allah. With these simple everyday expressions, we sanctify everything we do. It’s another way of saying, Allah is connected to everything and everyone, even if we’re not aware of Him, even if some people don’t believe in Him. It’s a way of saying, I’m not living on a 2-dimensional flat surface. It’s not just me and what’s out there. Allah is an indispensable part of my reality. Nothing exists apart from Him, nothing happens without His permission. Indeed, come to think of it, nothing really exists in the real sense, except for Him. He, Allah is the only real Reality. Everything else is ephemeral, like a dream. Everything else came into existence, and will one day disappear, like smoke, like waking up from a dream. As Sura Al Rahmaan reminds us:
“Kullu man ‘alayhaa faan. Wa yab’qaa waj’hu Rabbika dhul jalaali wal ik’raam
“All that is on earth will perish, but only the Face of your Lord will endure, full of majesty, bounty and honour! Then, which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?” [Sura Rahmaan 55:26-27]
Brothers and sisters, how wonderful is the gift of Iman, the gift of faith! Allah has given us this gift so that we can appreciate everything around us, not just superficially, but deeply, so that we understand the meaning of things. Other people, who have no faith, look only at the surface of things, and they see how things relate to each other, and how other things relate to them. But they miss out the vital 3rd Dimension: they miss out the One Who created everything, Allah. The difference between those who believe and those who do not, is the difference between the 2 Arabic words, basar, and baseerah. Basar is to see, to have sight, and baseerahis to have insight, to understand the hidden meaning of things. Without faith, we are like people who are blind to the true meaning of things. The Holy Quran reminds us not to be like those who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not. This is beautifully summed up in a rhetorical question, in Surat Al-Hajj (Chapter 22, Verse 46)
“Do they not travel through the land, so that their hearts (and minds) may thus learn wisdom and their ears may thus learn to hear? Truly it is not their eyes that are blind, but their hearts which are in their breasts.”
Clearly the Qur’an assures us that wisdom does not repose in the eyes but in the heart, the spiritual heart,the Qalb, the locus of our personality which drives our motives and our desires. This spiritual heart is inspired by Allah towards guidance. In several verses the Qur’an tells that if it pleased Allah, He could have guided everyone. He could have made us all the same. But Allah does not guide those who are ignorant or arrogant. A pre-requisite for divine guidance is humility, and a willingness to learn. Islam is about submission, surrender to Allah, letting go of one’s vanity, letting go, liberating ourselves from our whimsical and capricious ego, the nafs al ammara bis sow.
Brothers and sisters, let us constantly keep in our mind’s eye, the 3-dimensional perspective, the invisible triangle that connects us to Allah and to His creation. Let us constantly try to find our place in the grand cosmic scheme of things. We have plans, and Allah is the best of planners. Where do we fit into His master-plan?
innalláha wa malaaikata yusallúna alan nabi. Yá ay yuhal latheena ámanu sallú alayhi wasalli mú tas leema. Allahumma salli alá Muhammad, wa ala áli Muhammad, kama salayta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali Ibrahim. Allahumma barik ala Muhammad, kama barakta ala Ibrahim, wa ala ali ibrahim. Fil ála meen, innaka hameedun majeed.
Second Khutbah:
Sub’ hanallahi wal hamdu lillah, wala hawla wala quwwata illah billah yu althi yual theem
Glory to Allah! Praise to Allah! There is no power and no strength except from Allah!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Islam,
Over the years, I’ve noticed, and I’m sure you’ve noticed, how Muslims are getting on, making progress in the world. Walk through any mosque’s car park, or attend a wedding reception and you’ll see that Allah has blessed us with lots of creature comforts. We drive nice cars, we live in comfortable homes, and most of us are doing rather well. But is this all? Is this really what our lives are all about? Some of us seem to think that by dropping a few coins in a collection box or by sending the occasional cheque to Islamic Relief we’ve done our bit for the poor. We can settle back in front of our high-definition TV sceens with a clear conscience that nothing more is needed from us.
I’m afraid that’s a big mistake. If we really understand the 3-dimensional link between ourselves, Allah and His creatures, we won’t waste so much time on pointless amusements. We would be overwhelmed with gratitude to Allah for our good fortune. We would be constantly looking for ways of expressing this gratitude in big and small acts of kindness and charity to others. Even if we tried to calculate how much we owe our Lord, we will realize that we can never repay Allah, we can never thank him enough, no matter how much we tried. The best we can do is to serve others as instruments of His mercy.
Remember, whatever fascinates us about this life, our sports, our hobbies, our loved ones, our nice cars and our beautiful homes, remember that Al-Jannah, Allah’s Garden, is infinitely better. Why not prepare ourselves for where we hope to live forever? Why mess around with elusive pleasures, short-lived pleasures of this life, when Allah has prepared delights for us, beyond our wildest imaginings, that will endure for eternity?
[Sura Al A’la reminds us, [87:16-17]
“Bal-tu’ thiroonal hayaat-ad-dunyaa, wal aakhiratu khairu, wa ab’qaa!
Behold, you prefer the life of this world, when the life to come is more beautiful, and longer lasting!”
Brothers and sisters, let’s not be deceived by the fleeting pleasures and distractions of this life. Let’s move on beyond the dry formalities of worship. Let’s go beyond chequebook charity to real involvement with people who need our time and resources. This is the real living example of our beloved of Prophet Muhammad sws. We must spend whatever is beyond our modest personal needs in Allah’s service. This means, joining others, inside and outside the Muslim community, in promoting good and forbidding evil. Ta’moroona bil ma’roof, watan hawna ‘anil munkar. In Islam, worshipping Allah cannot be separated from serving others, from serving His creation. “aqeemus salaah, wa aatuz-zakaah,” says the Holy Quran. “Estabish prayer, and practice regular charity.” The poor and needy have a right over some of our wealth. It’s not just an optional matter for us. It’s a moral imperative, it’s an obligation.
One way in which we can help our community and our wider neighbourhood, is to join the Islamic Welfare Association and to carry forward the good work that they are doing. After the prayers, Brother Mushtaq will tell us about the meeting here in this hall on Sunday, afternoon, and why it’s so important that we all make an effort to attend.
Enough for now.
I pray that Allah should help us all keep in mind, and strengthen our triangular, 3-dimensional connection to Him and His creation. O Allah, help us to serve all of Your creatures, out of our love and gratitude to You. Help us to be like your final Prophet Muhammad sws, whom You sent as a mercy to all the worlds, rahmatul lil aalameen. We too, can be merciful to other people, to plants, animals and the natural environment. Guide us and help us to be good trustees of what You have given us into our care. Let us serve You and worship You in the best way that You deserve to be worshipped.
Brothers and sisters, to conclude our khutbah:
InnaAllaha, Yamuru bil adel, wal ihsaan, wa eetaa-i zil qurba; wa yanha anil fuhshaa-i, wal munkari walbaghi; ya-idzukhum lallakum tathak-karoon.(Sura 16:90),
“Surely Allah commands justice, good deeds and generosity to others and to relatives; and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and rebellion: He instructs you, so that you may be reminded.”
Fadth kuroonee adth kurkum, wash kuroolee walaa tak furoon[2:152].
“and remember Me: I will remember you. Be grateful to Me, and do not reject faith.”
wala thikrul-Laahi akbar, Wal-Laahu ya’lamu maa tasna’oon.”[29:45].
“and without doubt, Remembrance of Allah is the Greatest Thing in life, and Allah knows the deeds that you do.”
Ameen. Aqeemus salaah!
[first posted 27 July 2009. repeated 8 May 2014]