This is our condition, what is your advice?

[Haseena]

This is our condition, what is your advice? – Shaykh Haamid al‘Ali

 

We are a group of youth, who consider themselves from the people of practice and jealousy over our religion, and having zeal for it and love for Jihaad and the Mujaahideen and hatred of the tughaat and transgressors, and for long we talked about the issues (affecting) our ummah and its condition and about Jihaad and love for martyrdom in the path of Allah, but we didn't find to it (i.e. Jihaad) a path, but the issue didn't stop at that, but took a reverse effect on us and our practicing, until our condition became as follows:

 

- As for our manifest practicing, like having beards and shortening the thiyaab: We started not caring much about this, the important thing is that we disbelieve in the tawagheet, and some claim it is permitted to shave or shorten the beard and calls that tuqiyah with knowledge that we were not coerced into doing that and many of the youth (other than us) still holds firmly unto his principles and does not face any problems, and likewise there is neglect in our salah and not holding unto the sunan like the hats and head covers and siwaak, and this is in opposition to what we were like before.

 

- As for our meetings: They have become meetings for gheebah and talking about the honour of scholars and meetings for dunya, and nothing of the aakhirah is mentioned in them; or have become meetings and assemblies for joking and trivial talk and laughter, until one of those people, whom we consider to be from the fusaaq said of us: “I attend your assemblies to benefit from you and to strengthen my imaan, but I didn't see a difference between you and the rest of the youth who do not pray. (You) talk about the dunya and laugh, backbite and trivialise too much,†and by Allah these words of his were like a strong slap in our faces, and we were unable to reply to him, and how can we reply to him, and we are - as we described - or even worse than what we mentioned (so far). In fact, sometimes people who smoke attend our meetings, that we call - falsely - ‘Islaamic’.

 

- Our ideas and discussions: Our thinking has become like the thinking of the murji`ah who, for so long, we were mocking; so one of us now, (and he gives his birth control pills without limits), and says about himself that he can't provide for them and can't have more than two children, and says that this is from taking precautions (alasbaab), and that life is hard, and so on, and unfortunately others excuse him and even support him! And another (person) says, when we he is advised to leave some prohibited work, “Provide me with such-and-such an amount every month, and I'll leave my work,†and another begins his married life with sins, by talking to his fiancé by phone, even before he became her fiancé and sometimes in the street and he argues that that he's giving her da'wah and is teaching her! And another (person) wants to marry and establish a house with prohibited money and he knows that it is prohibited, and another (person) continuously sins and doesn't even notice it, and thinks he's doing well! And the worrying matter is, that after all this, we still consider ourselves practicing, and what is this practicing?

 

The dangerous matter is that we sit as described, and about six metres away are other assemblies for youth who do not know (anything) about salah, or some of them used to pray then left it, and didn’t find anyone who will strengthen their resolve to return to it. And we pass by them daily and sit in front of them and never have we spoken to them or called them to Allah and (caused them to have) desire and fear (in Allah, paradise and hell)! And me, and the rest of my brothers are certain that in them (those brothers) is much good, and that they are prepared to respond to the call, and they are only lacking in having someone grab them by the hand and push them with lenience to trek the path of safety (an-najaat). We know that we are not better than them, as we were once like them, and as soon as someone reminded us (with a good reminder) and we heard a tape or two, guidance entered our hearts, so what delays us from calling those (youth)? I don’t know! Rather (our condition is) that we are (sufficed) with stating that the one who leaves salaah is a disbeliever and we forget our responsibility of calling to Allah and we ridicule them for leaving the prayer and we do not ridicule ourselves for neglecting the da’wah, and yet, despite all this, we consider ourselves practicing!

 

The summary is that the shaytaanhas gradually lured us and time has passed us, so our hearts became hard and we have become faasiqeen (corrupt) without (even) realising, as though a coating was placed on our eyes – nay, our hearts - and we cannot see, and we consider ourselves prepared for Jihaad in the path of Allah! Nay we even argue about it! And we know (well) the siyar (biographies) of the Mujaahideen and what they were upon of ’ibaadah (worship) and practicing (iltizaam); so Allah’s help is sought!

 

The questions are:

 

- Does us, disbelieving in the tawaagheet, and loving Jihaad and the Mujaahideen, and (our claim) that if the call Jihaad is made that we would be the first to respond permit, or give us a pretext what we have mentioned to you above?

- Is (the circumstance) that if we cannot go to Jihaad that we leave everything, even da’wah to Allah? (And) please also clarify how the shaytaan has entered upon us through this door.

- What is the ruling on calling those youth, whom we sit close to, and will Allah ask us about them on the day of judgement; and our knowledge, what we did with it?

- Is calling those youth, collectively in groups, legislated or is it from the innovations?

 

And may Allah reward you!

 

Answer:

 

Praise be to Allah, and I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Him alone with no associate, and I bear witness that Muhammed is His Prophet and Messenger.

 

That, which you have described in your question, is from the deception of Iblees on many of the people; he distracts them with anticipations, busies them with words rather than actions, and he attaches their hearts to fantasies, and seats them from acting. (So that) if one wishes to do something to change his condition, his shaytaan halts him by whispering to him with the following: “Allah has granted you tawheed, and distinguished you from others by giving you knowledge about at-Taaghoot and (the ability to) disbelieve in him, and with this alone you will be saved, and your level will be raised by Allah†and he might lure him into committing minor sins, nay, even committing major sins, with this Iblisite deception.

 

And this poor man does not realise that he has become a victim of the greater taaghoot, and he is the shaytaan, the caller to every sin; and what are the tawaagheet except soldiers (i.e. servants) for this Satanic taaghoot. So let the intelligent person ponder upon how he has been deceived by the taaghoot - and he is warning from it – and later, he takes as enemy the human taawagheet and curses them, whilst, befriending the head of the tawaagheet when he obeys him in sinning, in secret!

 

The shaytaan has distracted him with anticipation and hope, and battled him with this plot, and kept him seated from seriousness (in actions).

 

It is, as Ibn al-Qayyim, rahimahullah, said: “The lowest of people in determination and the most dejected of individuals is he who is content with false hopes instead of realities, and his self fascinates and enjoys them, and they are – by the life of Allah – (like) the main wealth of the penniless man and the false trader; (and all this is nothing but) the strength of the empty self, which has been convinced with dreams rather than persevering, and with false anticipations rather than truths.

 

“It is the most harmful of things to the man, and it gives birth to disabilities and laziness, and (also) gives birth to extremism, wastage, anxiousness and regret.â€

 

And he, rahimahullah, explained that one of the main indications of success, “is when a slave is guided to thinking about the momentary-obligation and his job, (when) all his goals are gathered for it. So the knower, is the son of his time, so if it (the time) is lost, all his interests are lost, as all interests are established in time, hence when time is lost, those interests will not be attained. ash-Shafi’ee, radiallahu ‘anh, said: I accompanied the Soofiyyah and did not benefit from them except two statements, one of which is: Time is a sword - you strike it, or it strikes you. The other being: Yourself, if you don’t engage it in truth, it will engage you in evil.

 

Thus, the time of man is his life in reality, and it is an essence that leads to eternal bliss or eternal depression in the eternal punishment, and it passes quicker than the movement of clouds, so whoever (makes) his life for Allah and by Allah then it is his life and time, and other than that is not (really) considered to be part of his life, even if he lives the life of animals, for the one who ‘strikes’ his time with negligence, desires and false-anticipation, and the best of what he does is sleep and inaction, then the death of such a person is better than his life, (for) if the slave has from his salah only what he comprehended from it, (then likewise) he does not have of his life except as much as he was conscious of Allah, and other than that is from the (wasteful, useless) thinking or the whisperings of the shaytaan or from the false-anticipations and untrue deceptions, (which are) akin (in value) to the thoughts of the drunken or mad one.

 

In summary then from the indications of success for the slave of Allah is when he is constantly worried about the hereafter and manufactures his time with time, if he is in Jihaad, he is in Jihaad, and if he isn’t, he busies himself with the worshipping in that time.

 

So he is: Either calling to Allah, the Most High; for Allah has made the one who calls to Him, the best of people in speech and what a great commendation this is: the Most High says: “And who is better than he who calls to Allah and does good and says ‘I am from the Muslims’ â€

 

Or (he is) commanding virtue and forbidding vice; or remembering Allah; or busying himself with (other) types of worship and kinds of (actions that bring about) closeness (to Allah).

 

And the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa salam has made the remembrance of Allah the best of actions and better than the one who has his neck strike in Jihaad, as is in the hadeeth: “Shall I not inform you of the best of actions, and the most commended to Allah, (that) which is better than giving gold and silver as charity, and (that) which is better then for you to meet your enemy and for you to strike their necks and them to strike yours? The remembrance of Allahâ€, collected by at-Tirmithi and al-Haakim from Abud-Dardaa`, radiallahu ‘anh.

 

Likewise, he made awaiting the prayer after a prayer, similar to ribaat (shielding) in the path of Allah, as is in the Saheeh: “Shall I not lead you to that by which Allah erases mistakes and raises in ranks? They said ‘Yes O Messenger of Allah,’ he said: “Covering (with) ablution dirt, and walking to the masaajid and awaiting the salah after a salah, for that is ribaat.†And in the hadeeth of Shu’bah there is no mentioning of ribaat, however in the narration from Maalik there is.

 

And he made worship in times of unease akin to migration to the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa salam, as is in Saheeh Muslim from Mi’qal bin Yasaar, radiallahu ‘anh: “Worship in times of unease is like migration to meâ€.

 

That is, the one who busies himself with worship during tribulation, then he has a reward similar to the reward of migration to the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa salam.

 

And if the slave does a good action and has determination to do it, and ‘throws an arrow’ at every gate of good, (consequently) his heart becomes attached to the hereafter, (consequently he will) treat greatly what comes to him from the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa salam, and will rush to imitate him, then he is upon good, and if he doesn’t do anything except have wishful thinking and hopes, then he is on a level that is not higher than (to have) regret, for he has been mislead by the shaytaan.

 

And I advise the brothers to trouble themselves with remembrance of the hereafter, for its trouble is the greatest (and best) of troubles (that one can have), and to hold firmly unto the Quraan, (so let them) fill their abdomens with it, and let them moist their tongues with the remembrance of Allah, and to make apparent their gripping of the sunnah of the Messenger, sallallahu ‘alayhi wa salam amongst the people, and from the greatest of that (sunnah) is al-Jihaad, and for their condition to be in constant Jihaad against Satan, the ego and the desire, and in the hadeeth, the Mujaahid is the one who does Jihaad against himself for Allah, collected by at-Tirmithi from Fudaalah bin ‘Ubayd, radiallahu ‘anh, and Allah knows best.