A Gift of Faith, and a Faith on Loan

Dhikr, the constant remembrance of Allah (swt), revives hearts. Many of the scholars teach — and it is in fact a hadith from Muʿādh ibn Jabal (may Allah be pleased with him) — that before he passed away, on his deathbed, Muʿādh said to the people: come closer; I have heard something from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and I am going to convey it to you, and there is no harm in your conveying it to others — please do so; there is no restriction on what I am going to tell you. The hadith is that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said one day: he who says lā ilāha illallāh with certainty, yaqīn, and with sincerity, ikhlāṣ, in his heart, shall definitely enter Paradise. SubḥānAllāh. But the sign of ikhlāṣ, of sincerity in saying this word — what ikhlāṣ means in this context, it is explained — is that a person keeps away from what Allah (swt) has forbidden, keeps away from sins. If a person says lā ilāha illallāh and continues to commit what Allah (swt) has forbidden, it will not help him. It is like a borrowed tawḥīd, a tawḥīd on hire, ijārah, a rented tawḥīd; and eventually the rented property returns to its owner.

That is why some of the scholars say that there are two types of īmān in the hearts of the Muslims of today. One is ʿaṭāʾ Allāh, a gift from Allah (swt), established and confirmed in the heart. Such a person finds everything so easy, māshāʾAllāh; he does everything so nicely and beautifully; he is an obedient, submissive servant of Allah (swt), muṭīʿ; he does everything with sincerity, by the book, by the Qur'an and the Sunnah, and in spite of difficulties he practises his religion. This, they say, is a gift from Allah (swt), and whoever is of this category is fortunate indeed. The second type is the rented one, the temporary one, the one held on trust, amānah: it is given to a person because he was born into a Muslim family. Lā ilāha illallāh Muḥammadur rasūlullāh — yes, he has heard it. There is the case of a Chinese man from Malaysia who accepted Islam just before the ʿIshāʾ prayer, a cause of great joy: he pronounced the kalimah so nicely, without difficulty. The imam told him to say after him, bismillāhi al-raḥmāni al-raḥīm, and he said bismillāhi al-raḥmāni al-raḥīm at the first attempt; lā ilāha illallāh, lā ilāha illallāh; ashhadu an lā ilāha illallāh, ashhadu an lā ilāha illallāh, without any difficulty. He explained that in Malaysia they had lived next to a mosque, and he had heard it all the time. So some people were perhaps not Muslim, and became Muslim — may Allah preserve him and protect his īmān, māshāʾAllāh. And many people are the other way: born into Muslim families, carrying the label "Muslim" — "Islam; I am a Muslim" — but not, in reality, valuing their īmān properly before they enter the next world. When the angel of death, Malak al-Mawt, comes, in the grave itself, such a person will not be able to pass to the other side, because the price of Paradise, the key of Paradise, is what? Lā ilāha illallāh. The access code to what? To Paradise is lā ilāha illallāh. It is impossible to obtain this key without having valued this īmān. So the angel will say: excuse me, sir — you have something of ours; you cannot pass through; it is to be taken from you.

The example of the video shop, given so often, is the Blockbuster video store. If a DVD is three or four days late, they telephone: excuse me, you have something of ours; it is overdue. For a lousy DVD. They want the DVD back — and what is a DVD? It makes them some money; a hundred, two hundred, three hundred dollars is the investment, and for three hundred dollars they want their property back. Allah is going to give Paradise, eternal bliss, eternal happiness. Is that cheap? Definitely not. Lā ilāha illallāh does not mean saying lā ilāha illallāh with the tongue alone; its requirements must be fulfilled — by practising Islam, by being serious, by being sincere in deeds and in intention, in everything one does. If a person abuses this gift of Allah (swt) through his own partial will, irādah juzʾiyyah — his own will, his whims and wishes, his choices — and abuses this particular gift of Allah (swt), it is feared that he will not be able to pass to the other side with īmān.