The Most Precious

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Iman (Faith) is the most precious thing that we have because it is our key to Paradise. Whoever dies believing in the Oneness of Allah and believing in His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, is from the People of Paradise. This person might go to Hell and it might be for a long time because of his sins for not doing the deeds of Islam but his eventual abode is Paradise. A believer has this right with Allah but he shouldn't rely on that. Why?

First, going to Hell for any amount of time is something we cannot imagine--the terror, the fear and the pain. For someone to say "I don't mind going out with my girlfriend for a few nights in this life, or looking at the ilicit website, or eating haram, or drinking haram, or gambling, or stealing, or lying, or backbiting, or doing other unlawful things, and in return I will burn in Hell with the most intense pain for as long as Allah wills," is unimaginable. Even a fool would not say this. Yet some people do this clear unlawful things all the time. Hellfire for any amount of time is not pleasant. This is sufficient to perfect our Islam and to save ourselves from Hell altogether no matter how long one might be in it.

Second, there is even a greater danger than a short time in Hell. Our iman is not sitting around without any enemy. There is an enemy who wants our iman. That enemy is called shaytan (devil). The shaytan doesn't really care about many things. He doesn't care if you womanize, fornicate, drink, gamble, etc, He is only after one thing--your iman.. He is forever lurking to steal the iman from your heart so you go to Hell forever. He put doubts in your heart. He gives you ideas. Everything he does is to push you to the limits to get something he really wants from you. What is your defense against the shaytan? We have no defense against the shaytan except for the actions of Islam and the most important of these are the obligations of Islam.

You might came across an article on atheism which sounded very convincing. The shaytan might give you ideas--how do you know there is god? It might shake you a bit but when you heard the call of prayer, you do wudu' and you pray. Those thoughts and doubts immediately leave you. The devil will never be able to steal from you your iman if you do the obligations. Whoever is faithful to the 5 pillars of Islam, the devil will have a very tough job to lead this person astray.

So now, the devil's real task is to make you leave the 5 pillars. He will try to trick you. Allah has protected these obligations with the sunnahs of the religion. If you pray the sunnah prayers before and after each prescribed prayers, how are you going to forget the prescribed prayers when the time enters? If you fast Mondays and Thursdays, how are you not going to fast in Ramadhan? If you give charity everyday, how are you going to forget to give zakat when it is due every year? If you go to umrah every year how are you going to foget to go hajj at least once? The only way the shaytan can misguide you is to tell you that the sunnahs are not important after all. But Allah gives us recommended worship to protect our sunnahs. So we should do much of the recommended acts.

Our iman is the key to Paradise no doubt but what guarantee do we have that we are going to keep it safe until we die considering our mortal enemy is out there. There is a danger of relying on the promise for the people of iman and not doing the acts of the people of Islam--praying, fasting, paying zakat, performing hajj when you are able. Someone who performs the pillars of Islam and the actions of Islam can hope to die as a Muslim because he puts all these protections in place.

If a woman loses her hijab, it is not just the benefits of wearing hijab that she is losing; if someone loses his/her prayers, it is not just losing the benefits of prayers; if someone doesn't pay zakat, it is not just losing the growth on his money; if someone doesn't fast, it is not just losing the benefits of fasting; but the door is wide open for the treasure of treasures to be stolen from this person. This is the problem. This is the reason why we should not belittle what the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, has brought and taught us. All of them is a guidance for us to keep our iman safe in our hearts until we die.

Knowledge is key success. Some knowledge is obligatory for everyone--the basics of belief and practice. So seek them. "Whoever follows a path to seek knowledge therein, Allah will make easy for him the path to Paradise."

"Verily the prophets don't bequeath dirhams or dinars. They but bequeath knowledge; whoever takes it has taken a great share." (Tirmidhi)

"...Allah raises those who believe among you and those given knowledge by huge degrees." Qur'an 58:11

May Allah protect our iman and make our ending better than our beginning at the highest of iman. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam