Reality Of Faith 3/4

Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Rahim, wa bihi nasta'in. Wa salla Allahu ala Muhammad wa aalihi at-Tayyibeen, at-Taahireen, al-Masumeen.

We have been discussing one of the most important dictums of Imam Al-Ridha, alayhi assalam, concerning how to make our faith to be perfected. Imam says there are three qualities a person must have so that his faith can be perfected.

One of the qualities we mentioned, which was very important and we discussed in detail in our previous session, was at-tafakku fi 'd-Deen, and that means learning Islam, not a peripheral learning Islam, rather in-depth and profound learning. That means that when you know religion, you know that in and out of religion, you know the different levels of religion, you know the different dimensions of religion. And not only that, but you get you get authoritative scholars to teach you that religion. That's what we talked about in a previous session.

Another important thing that imam mentions that we vaguely or we, you know, gave you a peripheral outlook of it was husn at-taqdir fi'l maisha. That means, you know, you should have a beautiful control of your livelihood, how you spend, where do you get your money from? How much do you spend? Some people are you know, they spend so much, they say, no, we have money, we have millions.

So what can we do? We have to spend this. So let us spend the way we want. But this is not, you will find that in one family there are five members and they are five cars, five good, good cars. Well, they are people who are suffering. Instead of having five cars, you can use two cars. And these three cars can also be actually spent on people who would actually benefit from this money and so on.

Or sometimes you'll find that persons who have so much love for eating and clothing and all these things, you will find that because of love for food and clothes and, you know, buying different different items and so on, the person doesn't control his expenses and that actually effects the Iman.

But I think there is something which is very important here, and that husn at-taqdir fi'l maisha perhaps talks about how to be very sure of the Halaal and Haraam, which is there in the livelihood that has gotten. You know, these are beautiful verse in Surah al-Abasa: "Fal yandhuril insanu ilaa ta'ami" (80:24). Allah, Subhana wa Ta'ala, tells us that, you know then that men let men look at his food. Where is this food come from? How is it made? Who makes it and what kind of food is this? All these are very important here.

Imam Ja'far Al-Sadiq, alayhi assalam, is reported to have said "Fal yandhuril insanu ilaa ta'ami" (80:24) means that Ila 'ilimihi, alladhi yakhudu wa ma yakhudu, he must look at his knowledge from where is he getting this knowledge? Is he getting this knowledge from a person who is an authority in knowledge, or is he getting from a person who doesn't know the subject very well?

But here I would I would like to stress is wa husn at-taqdir fi'l maisha, control of your livelihood, if you have a firm basis and if you have a set goal of what you would like to become, you will find that you will actually spend at home properly. You'll know how to spend the money that you have and you will know how to get the money also in a very pure form.

This is the second important characteristics that Imam Al-Ridha, alayhi assalam, mentioned. And the third, which is extremely important, is wa as-sabr ala rizayah. Sabr ala rizayah means patience over calamities. This subject entails some discussion. So we will stop over here and we will continue in the next episode. We come to the end of the program.

Wa Al-Hamdulillahi Rabb Al-Alameen, wa salla Allahu ala Muhammad, wa aalihi at-Tayyibeen, at-Taahireen, al-Masumeen.