Not to die as an unbeliever -3-

Dear Readers,

An unbelieving heart is a dead heart. Faith is like spirit of heart. Heart awakens through faith. As long as the love of Allah, which is the light of faith in heart, increases, a spiritual joy, serenity, peace occur at heart. This situation is reflected likewise to human’s body, his looks, voice, and every movement. I listened at a television conversation. A software engineer working on audio technologies told in an interview conducted with himself that they had made audio recording and analysis in several places, and as a result of these studies they had concluded that serenity in heart was reflected to voice of human completely, sound values of those conducting hajj task and that of uneasy people working in stressful environment were different from each other. What gives this peace to the heart is being remembered Allah, trusting him, being dependent on Him. Although bodies of those remembering Allah are physically near public, their heart are always near Allah. It is ordered in a Qur’an verses that:

"Those who believe, and whose hearts find satisfaction in the remembrance of Allah;" [Rad, 28]

# We must keep away from affairs weakening faith

Dear readers, every fact weakening faith in heart is a factor causing to die as an unbeliever.

Abu Hanifa hazrats stated that faith was declared by tongue, and certified by heart, and increase or decrease on faith wouldn’t be occurred. But it is ordered in the verses from the Qur’an that:

"Whenever there cometh down a Surah, some of them say: "Which of you has had His faith increased by it?" Yea, those who believe,- their faith is increased." [Tauba, 124]

"Believers are those who, ... when they hear His revelations rehearsed, find their faith strengthened," [Anfal, 2]

Then, what is that increasing and decreasing? That increasing and decreasing is love of Allah that is light of faith.

The love is a heartfelt faithfulness. When human loves his Rab by believing Him, love against everything relating to Allah occurs in his heart. You will remember that, I had declared at one of my articles issued recently that, things relating to Allah and reminding Him were called as "sheairullah" and these were signs of Allah on earth. The most important ones of these signs are Qur’an, Allah’s prophets and Muslims. Divine mercy spreads all over the world through them.

# The greatest friends of human

The greatest friends of human are Allah, and Allah’s prophets and Muslims, who are Allah’s signs on earth. Because, they attempt human to forward to goodness and rescue the human from eternal fire. They don’t demand any charge or reward for that. It is ordered in a Qur’an verse that:

"Your (real) friends are (no less than) Allah, His Messenger, and the (fellowship of) believers." [Maida, 55]

Rasulullah (s.a.w.) ordered that:

"... I am holding you, and prevent you from falling on fire. You are striving to fall down in fire getting rid of my hands!" [Bukhari, Muslim]

While loving believers and loving them for only Allah’s consent is a sign of faith, not to love unbelievers who are enemy of believers, and treating them as an enemy for only Allah’s consent is a sign of faith in the same way. This is called in Islamic literature as "Hubbu fillah, Bugdu fillah" (loving for Allah’s consent and treating as an enemy for Allah’s consent)

# The most powerful sign of faith

It is ordered in the hadiths that:

"The strongest basis and the most powerful sign of faith is hubbu fillah, buğdu fillah." [Abu Davud]

"The base of faith is to love believers and not love unbelievers." [I. Ahmad]

"Even you perform worship like Gabriel (a.s), unless you love believers for Allah’s consent and not love unbelievers for Allah’s consent, none of your worships, favours and beneficial works are accepted!" [Ay Ogul Ilmihal]

"The righteous of faith is loving for Allah’s consent, mistreating for Allah’s consent, mentioning Allah through tongue, demanding good things that he thinks so for others, not demanding anything that he doesn’t want for others, talking about beneficial issues or shutting up." [Tabarani]

Dear readers, as it is seen, hubbu fillah and bugdu fillah are ones of the most important indicators of strong and mature faith.

For this reason, we should love for Allah’s consent and mistreat for Allah’s consent not to die as an unbeliever. We shouldn’t consider wishes and desires of our nafs and personal interests essentially as a gauge for our love and mistreatments. The correct gauge on this issue must be Allah’s provisions and consent. If human acts in direction of his self’s desires and wishes, he always makes a mistake. Human’s nafs (ego) is the biggest enemy of himself and Allah. It always orders evil. Those subjecting to their nafs can not get rid of the troubles.

# Addiction of the world life is the poison of faith and salvation

Dear Readers,

The reason why the human is devoid of peace, comfort and eternal happiness, and the right way in brief is their fondness of the world life. It is ordered in a Qur’an verse that:

"This because they love the life of this world better than the Hereafter: and Allah will not guide those who reject Faith." [Nahl, 107]

The reason of human’s salvation is "faith" . It is ordered in a Qur’an verse that:

"Those who believe, and work righteousness,- their Lord will guide them because of their faith." [Yunus, 9]

In addition that, addiction of the world, love of the world life and preferring it to the Hereafter drags the human to the rejection of Allah which is the most clear truth; it is also one of the most important reasons damaging faith, weakening and ruining faith on the believing humans.

# The love of the world life is primary reason of spiritual diseases

The love of the world is one of the most serious spiritual diseases of heart. The human indulging in the world’s pleasures usually doesn’t avoid of lying, tricking, deceiving the people for small benefits of the world. The reason of deception, deceit, fraud, trickery, cheat is fondness of the world. These kind of behaviors occur among the people, not believing in Allah, being interrogated, being punished due to his bad behaviors as a result of revealing of divine justice. In other words, the main reason of lie and humbug is faith weakness. It is ordered in a Qur’an verse that:

"It is those who believe not in the Signs of Allah, that forge falsehood: it is they who lie!" [Nahl, 105]

The mother Aishe told that “There was nothing worse than lie in salaf-i salihin’s opinion. Because lie and mature faith don’t get together."

It is ordered in a hadith that:

“There are such three things, whom one of those exist in, he is a hypocrite (factious), regardless of the fact that he performs the salat or fasts. he lies, doesn't abide by a promise, misappropriates.” [Bukhari, Muslim, Imam Suyuti]

# The biggest fault: Lie

“The biggest fault is to lie.” [Hutbatur Rasul]

“As long as a Muslim’s heart isn’t righteous, his faith won’t be real. As long as he lies, his heart won’t be righteous.” [Ibn-i Hanbel]

Safvan Ibn Sulaym (r.a.) tells:
We asked "Ya Rasulullah! Does a believer have fears?"
He said "Yes!" .
We asked "All right, can he look twice at every penny?"
He said "Yes!" again
We asked "All right, does he lie?" At this time, he said: "No!" [Muvatta, Kalam 19]

Dear readers, plainly, the worst poison weakening faith is to lie. Lie is rejection of the reality, and invert the truth. Although lying is so bad behavior, amazingly, in most cases, the reason of lying is to provide small world interests. Whereas, lying isn’t needed for that. Because, Allah clearly orders that He will provide the world benefactions to those whoever want them, and Hereafter whoever wants it:

"To any that desires the tilth of the Hereafter, We give increase in his tilth, and to any that desires the tilth of this world, We grant somewhat thereof, but he has no share or lot in the Hereafter." [Shura, 20]

# Allah narrows and widens livelihood

Allah doesn’t discriminate between his servants in terms of science. He gives it whoever wants. But the case is different in terms of livelihood. Allah (swt) gives goods and property to those He wants to give to. He widens or narrows the livelihood of those He wants to do.

"Allah doth enlarge, or grant by (strict) measure, the sustenance (which He giveth) to whomso He pleaseth. (The worldly) rejoice in the life of this world: But the life of this world is but little comfort in the Hereafter." [Rad, 26]

Dear readers, another way of perverting the facts by inverting the truth is hypocrisy. The hypocrisy is to reveal out his feelings and thoughts differently than they are in his heart. In other words, the hypocrisy is to be seem differently than it supposed to be, performing works for showiness rather than Allah’s consent, and being double faced. It is one of the issues and maybe the most important one, damaging and weakening our faith.

Rasulullah (s.a.w) ordered in respect of hypocrisy that:

"Hypocrisy is small shirk." [Tabarani]

For this reason, not to be died as an unbeliever, we should always keep away from these two spiritual diseases, lie and hypocrisy, weakening, ruining, and destroying our faith. We witness that lie and hypocrisy are acquired a habit and often repeated by some people. This is a very dangerous affair. It is very difficult for those people to keep their faith when they yield up the ghost.

# We should keep away from major sins

Dear Readers,

Not to die as an unbeliever, one of the issues to be aware of is to keep away from major sins.

It is needed to keep away from every kind of sin.

Rasulullah (s.a.w.) ordered that:

"To keep away from the smallest sin is better than the total worships of all gin and human." [R. Nasihin]

It is ordered in the verses from the Qur’an that:

"Eschew all sin, open or secret: those who earn sin will get due recompense for their earnings." [Anaam, 120]

"For He loveth not any ungrateful and wicked." [Baqarah, 276]

Dear readers, surely it is not an easy issue at all to keep away from every kind of sin for us as incapable servants owner nafs. The most important issue on this respect is that human should be sincere to his Creator on his loyalty, take control of his own behaviors, and return to his Creator by repenting and pleading for mercy and demanding the forgiveness from his Creator whenever he sins. Islam is belief and trust of human to his Creator and surrender himself to Him. If faith and resignation are constituted completely, Allah (swt) forgives small sins of person with variety of occasions and excuses. He doesn’t load anybody more than he can be able to carry. Even if he can’t be able to keep away from small sins, he should attempt at least to keep away from major sins.

It is ordered in the verses from the Qur’an on the qualifications of a Muslim that:

"Those who avoid the greater sins and indecencies, and, when they are angry even then forgive;" [Shura, 37]

"If ye (but) eschew the most heinous of the things which ye are forbidden to do, We shall remit your evil deeds, and admit you to a Gate of great honor." [Nisaa, 31]

# Illicit deeds keep us away from our creator

Dear readers, as well as practices of religion close us up to the creator by conducing to remember Allah and His benefactions for us, on the other hand, getting something illegally, performing works prohibited by the religion, briefly sins keep us away from our Creator. Every sin is a poison for our faith. Antidote of this is repentance. Rasulullah (s.a.w) ordered that:

"A black stain occurs in heart when a person sins. It is cleaned when he repents. If he continue sinning, that stain enlarges and covers entire heart." [Nasai]

Darkening of a person’s heart causes heart to die spiritually over time, in other words it causes him to lose his faith.

Every repeated behavior becomes a "habit" over time. If these repeats continue, habits turn into indispensable "passion" . It is a big disaster for a person that the behaviors being major sins turn into major such habits. Such a person, even if he is man of faith, his heart is constantly restless like the heart of an unbeliever.

Since the habits like drinking, smoking cause physiological addiction by affecting energy metabolism directly, it is more difficult to give up them. Because due to the resulting energy gap, in case giving up them, person gets into "depression" within hours. If person is nourished with nutrients such as flour products. honey, eggs, lentil soup, beans, apples, oranges rich in terms of glucose, proteins, B and C vitamins, citric and malic acid in depressed times, and he continues that for a few days, he can easily get rid of these habits without professional help. Most of the addicts can’t leave these habits since they can’t be able to take distresses for a few days. Moreover, at the expense of destroying their lives… In reality, all issue is to want to leave these habits sincerely.

# We should repent and after that do a favour when we sin

Dear readers, major sins were brought out in my article with headline "The golden rules of an eternal happiness" People don’t get out of religion by committing major sin. Getting out of religion means losing faith, and falling into unbelief.

Rasulullah (s.a.w) ordered that:

"Don’t say unbeliever to those saying Lailahe illallah due to their sins! Those saying unbeliever to such people become unbeliever themselves." [Bukhari]

"I will intercede to every believer committed major sins." [Nasai, Tirmidhi]

But, the faith of a person committed a major sin gets too weak. If he doesn't repent after committing a major sin, love of Allah in his heart, which is "divine light of faith“, get lost. Especially if he is away from worships, over time, he doesn't care about religious values and do not recognize his Rab. This takes him out of the belief. That's why people should repent immediately if he committed a major sin. If he cannot cope with his nafs, at least he should not leave his practices of religion, namely worships. So at least merits of his worships will compensate the committed sin.

Rasulullah (s.a.w) ordered that:

"Do a favour, perform a meritorious action immediately after the sin you have committed so that your good deed could destroy that sin!" [Bayhaqi]

Thus, person get rid of these sins over time by means of his worships and favours. There are many examples related to this issue. People should not go to his death in various sins, without feeling any remorse.

Be entrusted to Allah.