[Music]
peaceful peaceful peaceful peace
Faith
increases by Good Deeds by doing
righteous
Deeds when we do righteousness Faith
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increases by committing sins Faith
[Music]
decreases that's the general
formula is enough for me Allah is is
enough for me patience and
repentance Allah is enough for me Allah
is enough for me patience and
repent
is all Praises due to Allah I welcome
you all to this evening's lecture by
Dr Abu Bal Phillips inshallah today's
topic will be increasing faith during
difficult times I would request Dr Abu
Amina Bilal Phillips to deliver his
speech
alhamdulillah all praise is due to Allah
and me Allah's peace and blessings be on
the last messenger of
Allah increasing faith
in difficult
times is a topic which Begins by
assuming that we understand what faith
is Iman we use the
term faith we translate the
term but what
actually does Iman or faith mean in the
Islamic context the
definition is belief in the heart a
statement by the Tongue and action upon
the pillars of
Islam Faith or Iman is
belief in the
heart which is
stated by the
Tongue and acted
upon by the
limbs through the pillars of
Islam now this
definition distinguishes
between
knowledge and
Faith knowledge and Faith or knowledge
and
belief there's a distinction here which
is an important distinction because a
person might have very strong
strong
faith which lacks a knowledge
base leading to
commitment to
falsehood one may strongly
believe
in what is
incorrect you
have people who
believe that God is the
tree or the
moon or people
believe that they are themselves
gods and they believe it
very strongly they can have very firm
faith in
it but without true knowledge it's firm
faith in the wrong
thing so when we talk about increasing
Faith we're talking about increasing
true
Faith true Faith which must be preceded
by
knowledge
knowledge provides the foundation for
True Faith it's not blind yes atheists
and others like to
say you have Blind Faith your faith is
blind it's not based on reason and
knowledge it's just something you
believe in but no that's not
correct true faith is based on
knowledge real
knowledge knowledge which is
authentic knowledge knowledge which
originates with God
with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala this is
where true knowledge
originates we have a lot of knowledge in
this
world but not all of it is
true we have false knowledge propagated
for a variety of
purposes whether it is
to remove from people's
mind the need to think about God so we
propagate
Evolution we
evolved we were not created we
evolved that's false
knowledge but it is popular it is
widespread so true knowledge
originates with the
Creator with that true knowledge
revealed in the form of of Revelation
scriptures to the prophets of
God that true knowledge is the
foundation of true
Faith
now we
find this
stated very clearly in the Quran in
Surah
Muhammad verse 47 verse 19 the 47th
chapter
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know that none has the right to be
worshiped except Allah know it have
knowledge of it arting it because your
parents said
it because somebody told you to say it
this is not faith not the basis of
faith that is the basis of custom
habit but real faith it comes from
knowledge and that's why Prophet
Muhammad wasallam
said whoever dies knowing that none has
the right to be worshiped but Allah will
enter
Paradise whoever dies
knowing not whoever dies
saying or people saying for
him or saying around him but whoever
dies
knowing that none has the right to be
worshiped except Allah will enter
Paradise that is the
Criterion based on
knowledge
so having understood
that we need to look
at the state of our
faith how is our faith
today does faith remain at a constant or
is Faith fluctuating going up sometimes
going down at other
times I think most of us will say that's
true we're not always at the same level
of Faith it's going up and it's going
down the prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon him had said every
heart is covered by a
cloud like a cloud covering the full
moon which causes it to suddenly go dark
but when it passes the moon shines
again every heart is covered by a
cloud like the cloud which covers is the
moon the full moon causing it to
suddenly go dark but then the cloud
passes and the moon shines again that's
the
faith sometimes Falls to a low and
sometimes it comes back again when the
cloud
passes and he said in another simile
Faith wears out in your hearts just as
clothes wear out so ask Allah to renew
the faith in your
hearts Faith wears out in your hearts
just as clothes wear out so ask Allah to
renew the faith in your
hearts so Faith fluctuates it goes up
and it goes down it wears out it's
blocked so what do we need to increase
it in general what's the general
principle before looking at difficult
times let's look at the general
principle what is the general principle
which causes Faith to
increase and
decrease somebody tell
me what causes Faith to increase and
decrease huh sin
suffering Faith
increases by good Deeds by doing
righteous
Deeds when we do righteousness Faith
increases by committing sins Faith
decreases that's the general formula
Allah is
enough we find that the international
media they are bombarding misinformation
about Islam they give a wrong meaning of
the verses they quote either of the
Quran or the Hadith of the Prophet
sallallah wasallam the media says that
Muslims are extremist I said yes I'm an
extremist I'm extremely kind I'm
extremely merciful I'm extremely honest
I'm extremely just throughout the world
there are hundreds of Christian channels
there are Hindu channels there are J
channels how many Islamic channels do we
have how many channels we have for dawa
what we should do we should utilize the
science and technology and turn the
tables over and utilize it for good work
this media means of mass communication
tend
wonders media and Islam war or peace in
Truth
Exposed why the West is coming to Islam
Islam has the solutions to the problems
of the West whether it be atheism
secularism Marxism communism westernism
Islam is destined to supersede all
master them all overcome them all Islam
is not a religion only for the West it's
a religion for the whole of humankind Dr
Zak n speaks on why the West is coming
to Islam in Truth
Exposed now Satan fits in this picture
in the Sin
category suggesting sin sins encouraging
sins promoting sins but it's still you
who has to do the sin for your faith to
decrease and that's why Prophet Sall
wasallam had said follow up your sins
with good
deeds if you commit a sin follow it up
with a good
deed and it will wipe it out
Allah said in the Quran indeed righteous
Deeds erase evil
deeds and this is the grace of God this
is the mercy of Allah the good deed is
Multiplied in its value so it can wipe
out evil Deeds of course this is not
when you plot and
plan I'm going to do this evil deed so
let me PL plan a good deed afterwards
no that's not the one which wipes out
evil Deeds where we commit a sin we do
an evil deed and then we catch ourselves
we realize we shouldn't have done this
this was evil it was
wrong then we decide let me do some good
to try to erase it that's the one that
erases it not the ones we plan
ahead as I spoke before when people
delay their Hajj delay pay the
pilgrimage to the later years that's a
good deed which they're hoping to wipe
out the evil Deeds they're doing now so
they say you know we do it later when we
can't do any more evil Deeds we'll run
out of evil Deeds then we go and make
Hajj and wipe it out you see that kind
of thinking will
not purify us from sin those good deeds
will not erase sin because we have
planned it ahead it has to be
sincere so knowing
that good deeds erase evil Deeds then
considering our
circumstance in our times of trial
whether it's due to the tsunami or other
trials which exist within the society in
the country around the world whether it
is what is happening to people in Iraq
or Kashmir or Chia or whatever wherever
Muslims are
suffering these are the trials that
Muslims are facing how do we increase
our
faith fundamentally It Is by practicing
Islam quite simply not very complicated
just practice Islam if we do what Allah
tells us to do then our faith will
increase our
communities will come together and we
will be able to change our situations
and change the world bring good to the
world be known for good in the world as
we were in the
past in the distant past we were known
as The Centers of civilization where
knowledge and learning thrived and
flourished we had no contradiction
between science and religion no it was
all from
God so people flocked to our
universities and to our centers from all
around the
world the knowledge that is available
today of Technology modern science Etc
is built on the knowledge that we taught
the
world but today we have lost our
way so how to get
back well the starting point Point has
to be
Revelation Revelation has to be the
starting point meaning the Quran this is
our starting point there is no other
starting point but the Quran itself the
last
revelation of God to humankind Allah
revealed his word his
will he showed us the
way in in the
Quran the
way to raise Faith to purify
it to remove
sin to cure the hearts of their
diseases as he said inah verse
82 I sent down from the
Quran what is a cure and mercy for the
Believers I sent
down from the Quran what is a cure and
mercy for the
Believers and in Surah unun verse 57 he
said
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oh
humankind good advice has come to you
from your lord and a cure for what is in
the chests what is in the hearts and
guidance and mercy for the Believers so
the primary
medicine for our current state of
illness our diseased heart
the primary medicine is the Quran itself
which Allah describes
as a cure for what is in the hearts but
how do we use this cure Allah tells us
a will they not reflect on the meanings
of the
Quran or are their hearts locked up
a blessed book which I have sent down to
you that they may ponder over its
verses and that men and women of
understanding would
remember the Quran is for reflection
pondering over its verses Allah has
revealed in it
guidance and a cure for what is in the
hearts
so our first step towards increasing our
faith in these difficult times is to go
back to the
Quran to read it in
Arabic and in our local
languages the translation of its
meanings we should read at the same time
because how can we ponder over it if we
we read it in the Arabic text and we
don't know what it says then we cannot
ponder over
it so we must know what is it Allah is
saying to us so it can have an impact on
us
secondly we need to seek greater
knowledge about Islam as a whole about
Allah to know who he is
correctly to remove from our hearts any
misund understandings any
misgivings any
false uh knowledge any false
information we need to seek knowledge as
the prophet wasallam
said seeking knowledge is compulsory for
every
Muslim primarily knowledge of Allah of
the creator of this universe know who he
is accept him in your hearts
because if you don't accept him in your
hearts and you only speak about him with
your lips and your tongues then we will
not benefit from anything that we have
gained whether it be knowledge or in any
form of information that we manag to
acquire it will only be for show or to
fulfill some rituals Etc but it will not
be beneficial to us according to Iman
according to our hearts it will not
raise the level of our
Iman and this is
why this is why Allah subh said in the
Quran in the
20 in the 35th chapter that's Surah Al
faat verse
28 indeed
of Allah's servants it is the scholars
who truly fear
Him indeed of Allah's
servants it is the scholar Scholars the
knowledgeable ones people of knowledge
who fear Him
even those
who uh belong to other systems who are
scientists Etc you find that science
leads them all ultimately to recognize
Allah because their knowledge of the
Stars their knowledge of the earth of
biology Etc it leads them in their heart
of hearts to recognize and to
accept Allah the
third
principle that we need to
develop is to remember
Allah regularly
what we refer to
as to remember Allah often as he said in
Surah verse
41 oh you who believe remember Allah
often remember Allah
often the prophet s wasallam on one
occasion when a man complained to him
that the duties of Islam were too much
for him the prophet s wasallam told him
keep your tongue moist with the
remembrance of
Allah and as we mentioned earlier in the
previous lecture
about the Quest for inner
peace it is only with the remembrance of
Allah that Hearts can find
rest so if our faith is to increase
it has to increase with a sense within
ourselves of Peace we have to have inner
peace peace within ourselves for that
faith that Iman to grow so remembrance
of Allah we have to come to we have to
commit ourselves to it is the purpose of
prayer it's the purpose of fasting it's
the purpose of giving zaka or
charity it's the purpose of Hajj
Islam is about remembrance of Allah so
we have to keep that Focus there
remembrance of Allah remember there's a
goal behind Salah it's not the the the
Salah the prayer itself is a means it's
not an end what happens to us is that we
may turn it into an end so we do it it's
over okay fine let me get on to my
business we're not thinking
thinking that it is a means to an end
the end being remembrance of Allah the
prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
preached and many are the Miracles that
he has been given really we can talk
hours and hours about the number of
Miracles they don't number in the
hundreds they number in the thousands
but his greatest miracle was the miracle
of the Quran ever used to worship Allah
then Allah is the ever living Who Never
Dies fundamentals of
faith that all Muslims believe in the
one and same Lord
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Allah all Muslims believe in the final
and same messenger of Allah Muhammad
sallahu alaihi wasallam Quran it is the
last revelation of Allah Allah himself
said right I'll take care of preserving
myself I would not UST it to anyone
Dr Jamal bad a day when no wealth or
children would be of any help except
those who come to Allah with a clean
hurt because after all we came from the
dust and to dust we are
returning Faith
increases by Good Deeds by doing
righteous
Deeds when we do righteousness Faith
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increases by committing sins Faith
decreases
patience that's the general
formula Allah is enough for me patience
and
repentance Allah is enough for me Allah
is enough for me patience and
repentance Allah is enough
for Allah said in the
Quran establish the prayer for my
remembrance in order that you remember
me so that is the goal the goal of
worship is
remembrance of Allah so our faith can
only increase in these times if we are
conscious of Allah if we remember Allah
in all aspects of Our
Lives not just sitting after Salah and
saying Subhan Allah alhamdulillah Allah
abbar yes that is a form of remembrance
of Allah and making
Dua but
remembrance of Allah should not be
restricted to this that is only one
aspect remembrance of Allah should be in
whatever we say Prophet wasallam
said whoever fears Allah on the last day
will either speak good or remain
silent so even in our
conversations Even in our
conversations when we choose to be
silent when we have nothing good to say
we are remembering Allah it is a part of
Rememberance of Allah and when we raise
our
children when we consider the education
of our children where should they be
educated we need to find the best place
for them to be
educated where they will receive proper
Islamic teaching and
training that this is our duty we owe it
to
them when we think like that that is
remembrance of Allah remembering our
duty to our children that we give them
proper Islamic upbringing so we are
concerned about our
children we're concerned about our
business when we have the choice between
doing honest
business and making a moderate prophet
and doing dishonest business and making
a great big Prophet we remember Allah
and we are
honest we do honest business because the
prophet wasallam had said that the best
of us are those who are best in
character
The Best of You are the Best in manners
in moral
character this is what is pleasing to
Allah so we remembered
Allah and so on and so forth in every
aspect of Our Lives we remember
Allah and in Remembering
Allah our faith
increases the other point that we need
need to reflect
on for increasing faith is
death we need to reflect on
death usually people don't like to
hear death it's a bad
Omen get away from it in this Society if
somebody you step out of your house and
somebody goes walking by with a dead
body uhoh
death he don't want to think about it
but the prophet s wasallam he
said Remember the destroyer of Pleasures
often the destroyer of Pleasures is
death because Pleasures end at that
point so remember it often he said I
used to forbid you from visiting Graves
but now you should visit them for it
softens the
hearts it fills fills the eyes with
tears and it reminds one of the
Hereafter but don't do anything
false visit them often for it softens
the
hearts it fills the eyes with tears and
reminds one of the
Hereafter visit the
graveyards be involved in the
janaza don't just pray in the Masid when
they bring someone for the prayer the
funeral prayer follow the janaza there's
more reward to the graveyard until
people are
buried and reflect on death which is
around the
corner and it is our forgetting it which
often times leads us to many sins we
forget that death is around the corner
we keep thinking I'm still young
at 30 I'm still young at 40 I'm still
young at 50 and as we get older we still
think we're young there's still plenty
of time that we can repent later
no death is upon us is upon each and
every one of us every time that we lie
down in our beds and we go to sleep we
have entered into the state which the
prophet called sallallahu alaihi
wasallam
the sister of
death and it is up to Allah whether he
will allow our souls to come back to our
bodies from our sleep or whether he will
keep
them every
night we have a brush with
death every night we have a brush with
death if we wake up in the
morning the prophet sallai wasallam told
us to say
alhamdulillah all praise is due to Allah
who gave us
life after causing us to
die and to him is the
return the Gathering will be gathered
all back to him
that Dua is something we should be
reflecting on but we don't we just say
it if we manage to say
it we need to reflect on it death is
tonight we're going to meet death
tonight and if we make it to the morning
let's make that supplication which the
prophet sallallah wasallam taught us
sincerely alhamdulillah
all praise is due to
Allah who gave us life brought us back
to life after causing us to
die and to him we will be gathered so
brothers and sisters remember
death let us
do what it causes or what is necessary
to help us to remember death and in
Remembering death we should remember the
Hereafter in
general what we will
meet when we are raised up when we come
before
Allah what will be our fate we should
think about it and make
it the basis for
our program in life
think about the Hereafter and that's the
point I would like us to focus on
now as Muslims we all know that this
life is a
transition the Greater Life the eternal
life is the life to
come this life is only a
test so therefore if that is the case
then the life Life to Come should be
where our Focus
lies that is common sense that is reason
that is
logic but we have to look into our lives
and see where the focus is is it really
on the Hereafter is it really on the
life to come or are we lost in the Dunya
lost in this material
world where our greatest concern
concerns is about this material
world
well the prophet may God's peace and
blessings be upon
Him taught us in a Hadith found in sunn
MA the principle
enunciated by that well-known
motivational speaker Steven kovi in his
book
habits of highly effective
people he mentioned among them habit or
principle of first things
first and that's what I'd like us to
reflect on right now first things
first prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi
wasallam said
whoever makes this material world his
goal Allah will scatter his
Affairs Allah will scatter his
Affairs and he will place poverty
between his
eyes and he will not get from this
world except what Allah has written for
him Dr Abu Amina Bal Phillips doubts
about the existence of Allah he has
disbelieved in Allah belief is based on
truth to worship God's creation this is
called sh if we really feared Allah
subhana tala then our lives would be
straight Allah looks into an
individual's level of faith and if he
sees that his faith is strong then he
puts a strong trial on you fire of
Faith the best time for a person who's
fasting to make Dua is while breaking
his fasting there is nothing that draws
you closer to Allah
better than obligatory acts I want to to
fast every single day of the year this
is not acceptable in Ramadan there
is the night of Destiny so one night is
equivalent to 1,000 months whatever you
do in that night Ramadan
issues Islam is still spreading because
it is not the religion of paper Islam is
a way of life words of warning on the
day of judgment every human being is
vulnerable to be touched by h fire
Abdullah quick men have rights over
women but women also have rights over
men M Muhammad we should remember what
have we prepared for the day of judgment
remind
us whoever makes this world his goal how
do we know when somebody has made this
world his goal when the only thing he
talks about is this world when you sit
down and talk with him he only talks
about his car his house his children his
money his
vacation that's all he talks
about that means this world is his goal
he might say yes there's a and yes we
are supposed to you know come before God
and we will be judged and there's heaven
and hell but that's not what he talks
about so if the only thing he talks
about
is the things of this life that is the
extent of his
conversation then we say this life has
become his
goal so Allah
said that he will scatter his Affairs
meaning he he has made this life his
gold so he's only focused on money how I
can get money how I can make money how I
can save money you know how I can spend
money that is his
Focus but what happens is that though
that is his Focus he's not able to deal
with it systematically and consistently
what you find he's running here he's
running there he's running over here
he's running over there
he no re
his Affairs are
scattered and Allah will put poverty
between his eyes so even though he's
Gathering money he's increasing bank
account is increasing Etc but there will
be poverty between his eyes meaning he's
fear he fears loss of his
wealth anybody who he sees who Smiles at
him he thinks oh he must want want
something from
me what is he
after he cannot treat a smile as a
friendly gesture no the person's got
something in the back of his mind he's
planning he's plotting to get some of my
money see that's how he's
thinking so he's suspicious of everybody
around him poverty is between his eyes
it may be so much so that when the stock
market crashes we read about it in
America a stock broker he's he has a
Fortune of $8 million stock market
crashes he loses $5
million that hits him so hard the loss
is so great he jumps out of the window
he still has three million left hey you
what you could do with three no but for
him that loss is so so devastating he
takes his
life and we see it among the Rich and
Famous how many of them take their
lives they seem to have everything that
we're supposed to have or that people
want and desire but yet they're killing
themselves committing suicide their
lives are in
shambles because we cannot
achieve happiness
peace of heart through the duny we
can't it is a
false story and image which is promoted
through the media through the newspapers
the magazines the television promotes
this beautiful picture which is only a
facade it's fake what is behind it is
corruption
unhappiness wretchedness
because people have made this world
their
goal and even after all of that after
running around Here There and Everywhere
trying to gather whatever we can of this
world we will only get what God Allah
subhana wa ta'ala has already written
for us no more what God already wrote
before he created us is going to be our
lot will not get any more than
that so then what is the alternative
Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alai
wasallam
said whoever makes they hear after his
intention Allah will bring his affair
together how do we know when
somebody's Nia or his intention is the
you will see how he conducts his life he
or she conducts his life they are not
tied up with all of the trappings of the
this
life they are not focused on gaining and
getting and going and taking
and living a high life an enjoyable life
no they take from this world what is
necessary they live simple
lives and when you talk to them about
the things of this world they talk about
it as if it is something temporary
yes we have this but Allah could take it
away anytime we have it for a time and
so I'm going to try to use this in a way
that's pleasing to Allah Allah has
blessed me with a car then I will use
that car part of the time to spread his
word to distribute information about
Allah and about Islam to the
society I will use it to help the needy
I use it sometime for things other than
just
myself and so I will deal with all of
the various properties that I
have I will look at for ways and means
that I can use it to earn blessings for
myself not just to consume
it we shouldn't be consumers yes we
consume but we shouldn't be consumers
meaning that's the sum total of Our
Lives no
we should
utilize we should
exploit this world and the things of
this world in order to benefit us in the
next world that should be our Focus how
can I use this which Allah has given me
to benefit me in the world to come that
should be our
Focus such a person then the is his or
her
intention in such a case then Allah
brings their Affair together all of
their Affairs come together they are
relaxed they can deal with the issues of
Life they're not confused you ask them
where you're going what are you doing
what are you planning to do Etc they're
able to give you answers just like that
very easy because the way is clear
the way ahead is clear where they're
headed what they want to do is
clear and Allah said through his
messenger that Allah will put richness
in his
heart he will put his
richness his
wealth his wealth and richness will be
in his
heart there will be something around him
also but the real wealth and richness
will be in his heart as the prophet Sall
wasallam said it cannot be achieved
through drugs it cannot be achieved
through music it cannot be achieved
through yoga it cannot be achieved
through anything of this
world it can only be
achieved through the
heart linking itself with Allah la
remembering
Allah focusing on the
Hereafter so to increase our faith back
to the
beginning we need to
know what faith
is there's a difference between
knowledge and
Faith
Satan had knowledge
Satan knew
Allah better than you or
I but he didn't have
faith so there's a difference between
the
two we need to have faith but that Faith
should be based on
knowledge let's increase it by righteous
Deeds this Gathering is a righteous deed
if we have come here to gain some
knowledge about Allah about God about
Islam about the way of life which Allah
has prescribed for man so I ask Allah
subhana wa ta'ala
to not let any of us leave this
gathering without renewing our
faith without renewing our faith and our
commitment to first things first to the
Hereafter to making the Hereafter our
goal and Our
intention and to changing our lives so
that it reflects that goal and
intention as it said actions speak
louder than
words you have heard me you agree and
you can repeat what I said but
will you do according to what I said and
you
heard and you said that is the question
I ask Allah to help each and every one
of us leave this gathering with a
renewed intention to make the our goal
to step out of here and to try to turn
our lives around into lives that are
pleasing to Allah subhah wa ta'ala to
lives which reflect
focus on the
Hereafter Allah is enough for me
patience and
repentance Allah is enough for me
patience and
repentance Allah is enough for me Allah
is enough for me