When you think of the live you are living in this world, you\nthink that there are many good points and some bad points too. Of the good\npoints, if you were to list them then your top three may be things that you\nown, such as house or a car, for the younger folk here, maybe your new phone or\na favourite item of clothing. Others may even go for the deeper answer and\nspeak about their family or their children as being the best thing about their\nlives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of these answers are wrong, these are all blessings\nthat have been given to us by Allah SWT but the biggest and often most\noverlooked of the gifts that we are given is the actual faith of Islam itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The imam reminded us of this point by referencing the 17th<\/sup>\nayat of sura Hujurat which is translated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n They regard their acceptance of\nIslam as a favour to you. Tell \u02f9them, O Prophet\u02fa, \u201cDo not regard your\nIslam as a favour to me. Rather, it is Allah Who has done you a favour by\nguiding you to the faith, if \u02f9indeed\u02fa you are faithful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear brothers and sisters, this ayat tells us that Allah SWT\nhas done each and every believer a favour by guiding them to the truth of\nIslam. And we all know that living in this country, we are blessed as there are\nmany around us that do not have this blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For those who are in their youth, there may be times when it\nis hard to fully appreciate this blessing. After all, if Islam is practiced in\nthe minority as is the case in this country then often it is only human nature\nto look at others and see how they live in comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The difficulty we have then is that on the onset it looks\nlike a life without this deen is an easy life. They are free to party, to drink,\nto socialise as they please, enter relationships with no limits and to engage\nin any activity they like with no consequences as their only rule is that whatever\nmakes you happy is what you pursue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, if we reflect further on this concept we can see\nhow flawed it actually is. Before this is explained, the imam reminded us that\nany other path is destined for loss in the next life. He referenced the 85th<\/sup>\nayat of Sura Imran which is translated to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whoever seeks a way other than\nIslam, it will never be accepted from them, and in the Hereafter they will\nbe among the losers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear brothers and sisters, the reality of any path besides the\ntruth is that it is a delusion and a trick from Shaitaan to lure you in. Todays\nreminder could speak of the impact that life of no limits has on society as a\ngeneral, how it affects the mental and physical wellbeing of society as a whole\nand how independent scientific studies has proven without any doubt that living\na life without rules and limits negatively impacts everyone in society and actually\nbrings it down in standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, this reminder is on the individual. To not have the\nblessing of deen, to not be blessed with the status of a Muslim is the biggest\nloss to any individual. And those who do relentlessly and stubbornly pursue any\nother path suffer individually as a result of it eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good example for the youth to reflect here may be role\nmodels in the form of celebrities. Just doing a simple search of mental\nproblems in the life of a celebrity who supposedly lives the perfect life of no\nlimit and pursuit only of pleasure, often reveals drug abuse, self harm or even\nattempts at suicide. This isn\u2019t isolated news, it\u2019s a recurring theme amongst\nthose who appear to have it all. Why then, if they have it all, do they resort\nto the most damaging and destructive of actions? Surely it is the soul knowing\nthat the biggest pleasures of this life cannot even begin to compare to the\ngift of belonging to the truth of Islam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear brothers and sisters, you are in such a high lofty\nposition you don\u2019t even know it. We are blessed with the instruction and guidance\nof Allah SWT, the creator of everything and everyone we know. The master of the\nuniverse and beyond. Just think about it for a moment. Out of all the souls we\nsee walking the earth today, we are blessed with belonging to His religion, to\nthe actual truth of this life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just to think about that with real reflection causes the\nheart to tremble with gratitude and joy. We are winners in this life and insh\u2019Allah\nin the next life too. May Allah SWT keep us protected in his deen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we have to nurture this gift otherwise we could lose it.\nThat is the lesson for todays reminder. Like you water a plant and failing to\ndo so kills the plant, we water our faith with remembrance of Allah SWT, with worship\nof Allah SWT and doing good for the sake of Allah SWT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The imam reminded us of the following warning issued by the\nProphet Muhammad SAWS which said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Be prompt in doing good\ndeeds (before you are overtaken) by turbulence which would be like a part of\nthe dark night. A man would be a believer in the morning and turn to disbelief\nin the evening, or he would be a believer in the evening and turn disbeliever\nin the morning, and would sell his Faith for worldly goods.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so, there is no guarantee of faith staying with us. It\u2019s\na gift but it\u2019s a gift that is given to those deserving of it. Don\u2019t fall into\nthe trap of thinking we have the gift so we can be relaxed with it. Just as we\nwere blessed to have given it, we can also be in a position to have it taken\naway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear brothers and sisters, our faith is the single biggest gift\nwe will ever be given. Let us make sure we don\u2019t squander and waste it and instead\nask Allah SWT that we are forever bestowed with this blessing by reciting the\ndua on being steadfast. The imam reminded us of it by referencing the following\nhadith:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI said to Umm Salamah: \u2018O Mother\nof the Believers! What was the supplication that the Messenger of Allah (\ufdfa)\nsaid most frequently when he was with you?\u201d She said: \u2018The supplication he said\nmost frequently was: \u201cO Changer of the hearts, make my heart firm upon Your\nreligion.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you think of the live you are living in this world, you think that there are many good points and some bad points too. Of the good points, if you were to list them then your top three may be things that you own, such as house or a car, for the younger folk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","post_slider_layout_landscape_large":"","post_slider_layout_portrait_large":"","post_slider_layout_square_large":"","post_slider_layout_landscape":"","post_slider_layout_portrait":"","post_slider_layout_square":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salahadeenmosque.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}