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Allah the Almighty says
{O
you who believe! Fear Allah as He should be feared, and
die not except as Muslims.}
(Aal `Imran 3:102)
O you who believe! The message is clearly
directed to us as believers. It is not a general statement
but is specifically addressed to the believers. This ayah
from Surat Aal `Imran states a simple and straightforward
message that forms the basis of our faith.
The word taqwa, mindfulness of Allah the
Almighty and having fear of Him, has been mentioned in the
Qur'an 251 times as an indication of the importance of the
subject and the dimension of this concept.
Today as Muslims our faith is weak and the
fear that we should have for the Creator, has been displaced
by fear for the created. The created are things like people
and wealth. We fear people, we fear poverty, we fear
humiliation, we fear death and we fear everything except
Allah the Almighty as He should be feared. The most
prominent fear and the only fear that we should have is now
deficient. This overpowering fear of created things rather
than for the Creator of all, has subjected us, as the Ummah,
to one humiliation after another with subsequent loss of
pride, dignity, and self-respect.
The Messenger of Allah the Almighty (peace
and blessings be upon him) was reported to have said:
"It is expected that nations
will call other nations to share against you, as the
feasters call each other to eat from the food in front
of them in a large wooden plate." One of the
Companions asked, "O Messenger of Allah, will this
be because of our small number at that time?" The
Prophet said, "No. Your number will be great.
But you will be worthless like the foam on the face of a
river; and Allah will remove awe of you from the hearts
of your enemies and throw 'wahn' into your hearts."
One of the Companions asked, "What is wahn, O
Allah's Messenger?" The Prophet answered, "It
is to love this life, and to hate death!" (Abu
Dawud and Ahmad)
Wahn results from weakness of faith or lack
of taqwa. There is no literal English equivalent for the
Arabic word wahn, so when we love this life and hate death
we are suffering from a sickness in our hearts, or rather, a
sickness in our faith.
The phenomenon of weak faith has become
widespread among Muslims today. Therefore, we often feel
this hardness in our hearts, in that we do not find any joy
in worship; reading Qur'an does not move us; and we fall
into sin very easily. It is unfortunate that this weakness
often spreads throughout our entire existence without us
being consciously aware of its destructive nature. Moreover,
we are unaware of how detrimental it is to the spiritual and
moral aspects of our lives.
As Muslims this is not acceptable. We need
to recognize and acknowledge this weakness and make sincere
efforts to transform it into strength. In so doing we will
be serving Allah the Almighty and His cause.
Causes of Weakness of Faith
Many of us fail to seek knowledge on a
constant basis. Many of us have abandoned reading the
Qur'an and Hadith on a daily basis and when we do we seldom
reflect on its message or seek guidance. Our minds are not
focused on the virtue of its message. We starve ourselves in
the knowledge of religion by allowing our attention to be
diverted by feasting on daily talk shows on the TV, or other
forms of destructive activities to pass the time. We miss
out on that breeze of faith that softens the hearts.
Many of us live in an environment that is
surrounded by sin. This environment serves to weaken our
faith. In this atmosphere, temptation exists at every point.
We do not have as much taqwa as we should, and we allow
ourselves to be swayed and distracted by temptations. We
have been without a faith-filled environment for too long.
We have lost sight of the world of the
Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). We are oblivious
to goodness as taught by him. Moral and spiritual values
that elevate man have been replaced by the worldly pleasures
found in today’s society.
We fail to protect ourselves and our
families from acts of disobedience and we often accept them
as the norm. Moreover, we seldom turn to Allah the Almighty
in repentance. This reflects our state of ignorance and
weakness.
Many of us are preoccupied with our worldly
life, while neglecting the Hereafter. Our day-to-day
activities center on our material world; business, work,
money, bills, the sizes of our homes, cars, and so on. These
take preference both in our minds and our speech.
Preoccupation with the world enslaves our hearts.
We have allowed the diseases of the
heart to flourish such as vanity, pride, fame, and glory. We
tend to get lost in these illusions, fooled by worldly
glamour and so fail to illuminate our hearts with the light
of Allah the Almighty.
Allah the Almighty has created us for His
worship alone as His slaves but today we have become slaves
to this world; slaves of our desires and ambitions, and
slaves to wealth.
Allah's Messenger (peace and blessings be
upon him) was reported to have said:
"Perish the slave of the dinar
and the slave of the dirham…" (Al-Bukhari)
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon
him) further said: "Every nation has its fitnah
(trial or temptation), and the fitnah of my Ummah is
wealth." (At-Tirmidhi).
It is this eagerness to acquire wealth that
weakens faith. This is what the Prophet (peace and blessings
be upon him) meant when he said:
"Two hungry wolves sent against
the sheep would not do more damage than what a man's
eagerness for wealth and prestige does to his
religion." (At-Tirmidhi)
We must analyse and reflect where we are in
terms of our knowledge, our environment, our desires, our
hopes and dreams, and our level of faith.
Weak faith is a disease of the heart,
and like all other diseases it too has its symptoms.
Symptoms of Weakness of Faith
One of the main symptoms is heedlessness
while performing acts of worship. Performing prayers without
the keenness to earn reward, and without humility and
obedience indicate weak faith. The Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) said:
"Allah does not accept the
du`aa’ of one whose heart is heedless of Him." (At-Tirmidhi)
It is weakness of faith that makes us lack
zeal and enthusiasm in Prayer and other acts of worship that
we are able to perform. At the same time, we often tend to
procrastinate performing them. This lax attitude contrasts
with what Allah the Almighty describes in His words:
{…
They used to hasten on to do good deeds, and they used
to call on Us [Allah] with hope and fear, and used to
humble themselves before Us [Allah].}
(Al-Anbiyaa’ 21:90)
Many of us are not moved by the Qur'an. This
is another sign of weakness of faith. We hear and read
the words of the Qur'an but seldom relate to its meanings.
The promises of Paradise in the Qur'an or its warnings of
Hellfire do not touch our hearts. Its commands and
prohibitions and its descriptions of the Day of Resurrection
are not taken seriously. The person, who has weak faith,
gets bored when he or she hears the Qur'an being recited,
and cannot continue reading it. Whenever such as person
opens the Book of Allah the Almighty, he soon closes it
again.
Many of us do not do enough dhikr.
Remembering Allah the Almighty becomes difficult, and often
when we raise our hands to make du`aa’, we quickly lower
them again. A difference between those with faith and the
hypocrites is the remembrance of Allah the Almighty. Allah
the Almighty says about the hypocrites that they:
{…do
not remember Allah save a little.}
(An-Nisaa' 4: 142)
Many of us are vulnerable to fall into sins.
Without much hesitation or reservation we fall into what has
been prohibited. Many of us persist in our sins to the
extent that they become a part of who we are and a habit for
us. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was
reported to have said:
"All of my Ummah will be fine
except for those who commit sin openly, an example of
which is one who does something at night, and when
morning comes and Allah has concealed his sin, he says,
'O So-and-so, I did such and such yesterday.' His Lord
had covered his sin all night, but he has uncovered what
Allah had concealed." (Al-Bukhari)
Many of us sin with neither remorse nor
repentance. Physically, this weakness is manifested as
anxiety, mood swings and depression that weigh the person
down. Irritability sets in and the person has no tolerance.
The heart that harbors love for fame, desire
for leadership without understanding the serious
responsibility involved, stinginess and greed, and malicious
enjoyment of the failures of others, can not have abundance
of faith in the same heart.
There are two more important aspects that
affect us; not just on an individual basis but collectively
as an Ummah, these are not feeling any responsibility to
work for Islam and a lack of concern for Muslims.
Many of us do not feel any responsibility to
work for Islam, even though spreading the message of Islam
is our duty. In this context, we should remember the
attitude of the Companions of the Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him). As soon as they entered this
religion, they immediately felt the responsibility of it.
For example, when At-Tufayl ibn `Amr
Ad-Dawsi (may Allah be pleased with him) embraced Islam, he
went to call his people to it straight away. He was only a
new Muslim but he felt that he had to go back and call his
people to Islam, so he went and did that.
Today after being committed to Islam for
several years we still hold ourselves back because of fear.
We fear that others will think we are old fashioned. We fear
rejection and being unable to fit in. All of this comes from
the sickness of the heart.
Many of us lack concern for Muslims. Lack of
concern for the welfare of our Muslim brothers and sisters
is a sign of lack of faith. This is the case, whether it be
by making du`aa’, giving charity, or helping them. A
person with weak faith has a distant attitude toward the
oppression, suppression and disasters suffered by the
Muslims in any part of the world. Such a person is content
with his own safety because this world is everything to him.
This is the result of weak faith. The Prophet (peace and
blessings be upon him) was reported to have said:
"The believer's position in
relation to his fellow believers is like that of the
head to the body; the believer feels the pain of his
fellow believers as the body reacts to the pain suffered
by the head."( Ahmad)
Do we feel the pain, the torment, and the
oppression of others? Do we feel the hunger, the sense of
loss and the hurt? Do we feel angry when the limits set by
Allah the Almighty are violated?
We do not feel this anger because the flame
of zeal has been extinguished in our hearts. We no longer
take action to stop evil, guide evildoers to do good deeds,
or denounce wrongdoing. We seldom get angry for the sake of
Allah the Almighty. The Messenger of Allah (peace and
blessings be upon him) described the heart that is ravaged
by weakness.
"Hearts will be subjected to trial
after trial, and there will appear a black stain on any
heart that is affected… The stain will continue to spread
until the heart is completely black and sealed, as it were,
so that it will not recognize any good deed or denounce any
evil, except whatever suits its own desires." (Muslim).
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