Diluting Deen

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On one occasion, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) addressed the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum) and said:

لا يلقى الله أحد بشهادة أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريك له إلا دخل الجنة ما لم يخلط معها غيرها

There is no person who will meet Allah Ta‘ala in the condition that he bears testimony that there is none worthy of worship besides Allah, who is Alone and has no partner, except that he will enter Jannah – unless he has mixed his imaan with something that is averse to it.

Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) repeated this statement three times, and the gathering remained silent. Through repeating the statement three times, it was as though Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) wanted someone to ask about it, but the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu ‘anhum), due to awe and respect, remained silent. Finally, a man who was seated at a distance got up and addressed Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) saying, “O Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam)! May my parents be sacrificed for your sake! What is the meaning of mixing it (imaan) with something else that is averse to it?”

Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) replied, “(Mixing deen with something that is averse to it refers to) having such love for the world where one gives preference to it over deen, and one goes on amassing wealth, and is pleased with it (i.e. one makes the amassment of wealth his main goal in life), and he deals with people unjustly like tyrants (i.e. he oppresses people due to him having wealth and position in the world).” (Shu’abul Imaan #10017)

From this Hadith, we understand that as long as a person does not give preference to the world over deen, he will remain successful in the sight of Allah Ta‘ala, and if he passes away in this state, he will immediately enter Jannah.

However, when a person gives preference to the world, and he goes on amassing wealth, making it the main goal and aim of his life, then the natural outcome of this will be that in the process, he will begin to neglect fulfilling the rights he owes to Allah Ta‘ala and the rights he owes to his family and to the people. He will not perform his salaah with jamaat in the Musjid and he will not see to the deeni welfare of his family on account of him being pre-occupied with amassing wealth. Due to the love of wealth, at times, he will break the laws of Allah Ta‘ala in his business, and at times, he will not pay people what is due to them. Hence, on account of him mixing his deen with dunya and polluting the purity of his deen, he will become sinful in the sight of Allah Ta‘ala, and eventually, he will have to face the evil consequences of his wrong and sinful actions in the Hereafter.

The Purpose of Man Coming to the World

The purpose for which Allah Ta‘ala created man and sent him to this world is so that man can please Allah Ta‘ala by fulfilling the rights he owes to Allah Ta‘ala and the creation, thereby leading a life of total obedience and submission to Allah Ta‘ala.

Allah Ta‘ala has allowed us to benefit from this world and use it to earn the pleasure of Allah Ta‘ala and to uphold deen. However, when man forgets his main purpose in life, then he begins to make the world his main goal, and instead of the wealth becoming the means of earning the pleasure of Allah Ta‘ala, the wealth is used to commit sins and earn the wrath of Allah Ta‘ala.

The example of this is like a person who travels all the way to Makkah Mukarramah and Madinah Munawwarah for the purpose of haj, umrah and to visit the Rowdhah of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam).

However, on reaching the Holy Lands, he does not even enter Musjidul Haraam, see the Baytullah, and nor does he visit the Rowdhah Mubaarak. Rather, he spends all his time in the shopping centres, buying gifts for his wife, children, relatives and friends. Thereafter, when the time comes for him to return home, he returns home with a lot of worldly wealth, but he did not perform his haj or umrah, nor did he visit the Rowdhah Shareef or carry out any ibaadah during the journey.

What will be said about such a person? Undoubtedly, he has acquired some worldly wealth during the journey, but what was the main goal of the journey, this was certainly not attained.

In the same way, Allah Ta‘ala sent us to this world for a certain purpose. Our purpose for coming to this world is to please Allah Ta‘ala through upholding deen and fulfilling the sunnah in all departments of our lives.

The Reason for the Downfall of the Ummah – Giving Preference to Dunya Over Deen

In the Mubaarak Hadith, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) had foretold the coming of such crucial times in the ummah where the Muslims will lose the divine help of Allah Ta‘ala on account of them giving preference to dunya over deen.

عن ابن عمر قال: سمعت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم يقول: إذا تبايعتم بالعينة وأخذتم أذناب البقر ورضيتم بالزرع وتركتم الجهاد سلط الله عليكم ذلا لا ينزعه حتى ترجعوا إلى دينكم (سنن أبي داؤد، الرقم: 3462)

Hazrat Abdullah bin Umar (radhiyallahu ‘anhuma) reports, “I heard Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) mention, ‘When you will engage in riba and invalid business transactions, and you will hold onto the tails of cows, and you will be pleased with crops (i.e. all your effort will be directed towards your livestock, agriculture and businesses), and you will leave out striving in jihaad (and making effort for deen), then Allah Ta‘ala will inflict upon you such humiliation which He will not remove from you until you return to your deen.’”

The Test of Wealth

One should understand that while living in the world, man will be faced with various types of challenges and tests. All these challenges and tests will come to turn a person away from Allah Ta‘ala and deen, and cause him to disobey Allah Ta‘ala as well as neglect his deeni obligations.

One type of tests which a person will face in life is the love of wealth. Due to the love of wealth, a person will be prepared to break the commands of Shari’ah. This can easily be seen by people running their business on interest. They are prepared to break the commands of Shari’ah just for the sake of acquiring more wealth to lead a better lifestyle.

Similarly, we see people sending their daughters to universities to acquire a degree so that they will be financially secure in life. However, the point which they do not understand and realize is that in the process, the hayaa and deen of their daughters is being compromised. Shaitaan will come to a person from this angle and tempt him with more wealth, thereby causing him to destroy his deen.

During the time of the Bani Israa’eel, there was a very pious worshipper who would spend his night and day in ibaadah. One day, a group of people came to him and informed him that there was a certain tribe who was living nearby, and they were worshipping a certain tree. Hearing this, he was infuriated, and his anger was motivated by deen and imaan. He thus took his axe and went to cut down the tree.

Shaitaan came to the man in the form of an old man and asked him where he was going. When the man said that he was going to cut down the tree, Shaitaan said to him, “Why are you concerned about this tree? You should continue to remain engaged in your ibaadah, and do not give it up for the sake of something that does not concern you.” The man replied, “But this is also ibaadah.”

Then Shaitaan tried to prevent him from cutting the tree and there was a fight between the two of them, in which the pious man overpowered Shaitaan. Finding himself completely helpless, Shaitaan begged for mercy. When the pious man released him, Shaitaan said, “Allah Ta‘ala has not made the cutting of this tree obligatory on you. You will not lose anything if you do not cut it. If its cutting was necessary, then Allah Ta‘ala would have got it done through one of his many Ambiyaa (‘alaihimus salaam).”

However, the man insisted on cutting the tree, and again, a fight broke out between the two, and this time also, the man overpowered Shaitaan. Shaitaan then said to him, “I propose a settlement that will be to your advantage.” The man told him to explain the proposal.

Shaitaan said, “You are a poor man. Your living is a burden on this earth. If you refrain from cutting the tree, I will give you three gold coins every day. You will find them lying under your pillow daily. With this money, you can fulfil your own needs, you can look after your relatives, help the needy, and do so many other virtuous actions. Cutting the tree will only be one virtue, which will eventually be of no use because the people will then grow another tree.” This proposal appealed to the man’s reasoning and he accepted it.

For the next two days, the man found the money beneath his pillow, but on the third day, there was nothing. Seeing this, he became enraged, picked up his axe, and went to cut the tree. Again, the old man met him on the way and asked him where he was going. The man shouted, “I am going to cut down the tree!” Shaitaan said to him, “You will not be able to do it, as I will stop you!”

An encounter then ensued between the two, and this time, Shaitaan had the upper-hand and overpowered the pious man. The man was surprised that he was defeated and asked Shaitaan, “How is it that this time, you have overpowered me, whereas prior to this, I had overpowered you two times?”

Shaitaan replied, “At first, your anger was purely for the sake of Allah Ta‘ala, and therefore, you had the divine help of Allah Ta‘ala with you, but now, your anger is not solely for the sake of Allah Ta‘ala, but also for the love of the gold coins. Therefore, the love of the gold coins has now contaminated your intention, and therefore you lost the battle against me, as you do not have the divine help of Allah Ta‘ala with you.” (Ihyaa Uloomid Deen 4/377)

This is the problem with the ummah today. On account of the love of wealth, worldly comfort and worldly entertainment, people are prepared to break the commands of Allah Ta‘ala. A person wants to grow his business, so he takes an OD facility with the bank. He looks at the kaafir businesses making a lot of money through dealing in interest, and he thinks to himself that if he also adopts their way and deals in interest, his business will prosper. What he does not realize is that Allah Ta‘ala made the food of a swine different to the food of a sheep.

A sheep’s progress is in eating pure grass, and a swine’s progress is in eating filth and faeces. The more filth the swine eats, the fatter it becomes, but if a sheep eats it, it will die.

In the same way, a kaafir might benefit through him involving himself in interest, but a believer will not benefit. If a believer goes onto the path of dealing in interest, he will be bringing Jahannum into his home, business and life. Happiness will leave his heart through him breaking the commands of Allah Ta‘ala, and his entire life will be in turmoil and problems.

He will face marital problems with his wife, domestic problems with his children, and social problems in society. He won’t know where all the problems came from – whereas the reality of the situation is that all the problems came about due to him breaking the commands of Allah Ta‘ala through him giving preference to the love of wealth.

The second type of tests is the love of women or getting involved in sensual pleasures.

The Fitnah of Women and Getting Involved in Sensual Pleasures

In the Mubaarak Hadith, Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) warned that one of the major fitnahs of this ummah is the fitnah of women. (Saheeh Muslim #2740) Because of women, a person gets involved in sins of lust. Even if he does not fall into zina, he becomes involved in looking at haraam e.g. on the internet and TV.

When Allah Ta‘ala sent Nabi Aadam (‘alaihis salaam) and Hazrat Hawwaa (‘alaihas salaam) to the world, then Allah Ta‘ala began to bless them with children. Every time Hazrat Hawwaa (‘alaihas salaam) bore children, it would be a set of twins – one boy and one girl. Thereafter, when the children grew up, and the time came for them to marry, since they were the only humans on earth, the command of Allah Ta‘ala was that the twins born together could not marry among themselves. Rather, the boy from one set of twins was only allowed to marry a girl from another set. He was not allowed to marry his twin sister.

Among the sons of Nabi Aadam (‘alaihis salaam) were Haabil and Qaabil. Qaabil’s sister was more attractive and beautiful than Haabil’s sister. Allah’s command came down that Haabil should marry the twin sister of Qaabil, and Qaabil should marry the twin sister of Haabil. However, on account of Qaabil’s sister being more attractive than Haabil’s sister, Qaabil was not pleased with this divine command and wanted to marry his own twin sister.

Haabil was pious and was always pleased with the decree of Allah Ta‘ala, but Qaabil’s heart was not right. He was not happy with the decision and command of Allah Ta‘ala. He thus came to his father and said, “This is merely your personal opinion. This is not the command of Allah.”

Nabi Aadam (‘alaihis salaam) explained to him that it was the command of Allah Ta‘ala. Nevertheless, since he was not prepared to accept, Nabi Aadam (‘alaihis salaam) told both his sons to offer a sacrifice to Allah Ta‘ala and whoever’s sacrifice was accepted, this would be the way for them to know who among them was on haq.

Qaabil was a crop farmer, and Haabil was a livestock farmer. Nabi Aadam (‘alaihis salaam) told Qaabil to take some of his crop and place it on the mountain, and he told Haabil to place an animal which he owns on the mountain.

The sign of the sacrifice being accepted was that a fire would come and pick up the sacrifice, raising it to the heavens. If the crops were accepted, then it would be a clear sign that Qaabil was on the haq, and if the animal was accepted, then it would be a clear sign that Haabil was on the haq.

Since Qaabil’s heart was not right, he offered inferior quality crops as a sacrifice for Allah, not realizing that when you are giving for Allah, then you must give the best and with a happy heart.

On the contrary, Haabil placed the best sheep that he had in his possession as a sacrifice for Allah. Allah Ta‘ala then sent the fire from the sky which lifted up the sacrifice of Haabil, while Qaabil’s sacrifice remained untouched. In this way, Allah Ta‘ala showed them both that He was pleased for Haabil to marry the sister of Qaabil.

Seeing that his sacrifice was rejected, Qaabil became enraged. Allah Ta‘ala narrates the incident in the Qur’aan Majeed. Allah Ta‘ala says:

وَ اتۡلُ عَلَیۡہِمۡ  نَبَاَ ابۡنَیۡ اٰدَمَ  بِالۡحَقِّ ۘ اِذۡ قَرَّبَا قُرۡبَانًا فَتُقُبِّلَ مِنۡ اَحَدِہِمَا وَ لَمۡ یُتَقَبَّلۡ مِنَ الۡاٰخَرِ ؕ قَالَ لَاَقۡتُلَنَّکَ ؕ

And recite to them the story of Nabi Aadam’s two sons, in truth, when they both offered a sacrifice (to Allah), and it was accepted from one of them but was not accepted from the other. He (Qaabil) said (to Haabil), “I am definitely going to kill you!” (Surah Maa’idah v. 27)

Qaabil could not give vent to his anger in the presence of his respected father, Nabi Aadam (‘alaihis salaam). So, he waited for the right opportunity to get back at him.

When Nabi Aadam (‘alaihis salaam) went to perform hajj by the Ka’bah, Qaabil came to Haabil, and out of anger and jealousy, he said to him, “I am going to kill you, as your sacrifice was accepted and my sacrifice was rejected!” His brother, Haabil, responded saying:

لَئِنۡۢ بَسَطۡتَّ اِلَیَّ یَدَکَ لِتَقۡتُلَنِیۡ مَاۤ   اَنَا بِبَاسِطٍ یَّدِیَ اِلَیۡکَ لِاَقۡتُلَکَ ۚ اِنِّیۡۤ  اَخَافُ اللّٰہَ  رَبَّ  الۡعٰلَمِیۡنَ ﴿۲۸﴾

If you stretch your hand towards me to kill me – I will not stretch my hand towards you to kill you. Indeed, I fear Allah, Rabb of the worlds. (Surah Maa’idah v. 28)

Qaabil then killed Haabil in cold blood. This was the first murder which took place on earth that was motivated due to the love of women. Thus, Qaabil disobeyed the command of Allah Ta‘ala and became a kaafir. (Tafseer Mazhari 3/78-79)

Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) mentioned that every unjust murder that takes place in the world – the sin of that murder will also be loaded onto Qaabil, as he was the first person to initiate the sin of killing a soul unjustly in the world. (Saheeh Bukhaari #3335)

The third type of tests is getting involved in entertainment or getting involved in modern devices which lead one towards falling into sin e.g. the internet, TV, Youtube, etc.

The Fitnah of Entertainment and Modern Devices

In today’s times, we see the fitnah of padel tennis where males and females all gather at the padel court. The laws of Shari’ah are violated due to purdah not being upheld among men and women. This then leads to people facing problems in their nikaahs through them exposing their women to other men and they themselves getting involved with other peoples’ wives and women. Illicit relationships are initiated through this haraam entertainment and nikaahs eventually break through it. All these problems are created on account of people having love for worldly entertainment.

Similarly, due to the internet and TV etc, people fall into many sins (e.g. looking at women, getting involved in porn etc). All these things will affect and corrupt one’s mind and heart, and ultimately cause one to fall into many other sins, through which one’s deen will be destroyed.

Another fitnah in today’s times is people referring to AI in order to find answers to their deeni problems. This is a major fitnah where people are taking their deen from AI.

It has been proven in many cases that AI makes up mas’alahs which are totally against the deen of Islam. We should understand that AI is a kaafir product which is engineered by the kuffaar, and the aim of the kuffaar is to destroy the deen of the Muslims.

In the Qur’aan Majeed, Allah Ta’ala has commanded us to refer our matters to the rightly-guided Ulama and seek deeni guidance from them. Allah Ta‘ala says:

یٰۤاَیُّہَا الَّذِیۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡۤا اَطِیۡعُوا اللّٰہَ وَ اَطِیۡعُوا الرَّسُوۡلَ وَ اُولِی الۡاَمۡرِ مِنۡکُمۡ

O you who believe! Obey Allah, the Rasul and the ulil amr (the people of authority amongst you). (Surah Nisaa’ v.59)

The Mufassireen explain that in this verse, the word “ulil amr” refers to the rightly-guided Ulama and the Fuqaha of the Ummah. (Tafseer Ibnu Katheer 2/345)

In our deen, we are not commanded to refer to AI or to Google or to the TV channels or Youtube videos, etc which are full of haraam, such as music, photography of animate objects, men and women intermingling and other haraam elements etc. Rather, we are commanded to refer to the rightly-guided Ulama.

In order for our deen to be pure, we have to go back to the pure way of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) in everything. We should examine our lives and ask ourselves whether Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam) would be happy with the photography we are involved in, or the way we are running our businesses on interest, or the manner in which we conduct our wedding or waleemah functions etc.

Our condition has become such that it has become quite difficult to distinguish between a Muslim and a kaafir due to the Muslims adopting the ways of the kuffaar in their dressing and appearance, businesses and lifestyles.

We have begun to adopt the systems and ways of the kuffaar in all facets of our lives, and we have abandoned the mubaarak way of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam).

However, even in this day and age, Allah Ta‘ala has blessed us with many Awliyaa – His special servants who are firmly holding on to the sunnah and the mubaarak way of Rasulullah (sallallahu ‘alaihi wasallam).

When we are faced with any problem relating to our deen or dunya, then we should refer to these rightly-guided Ulama and friends of Allah Ta‘ala and seek guidance from them.

Through us adopting this procedure, Allah Ta‘ala will bless us with happiness and success in our lives. We are all looking for true happiness, but true happiness is only found in following the deen of Islam and keeping our deen pure – not mixing up our deen with the haraam of this dunya.