Faith Is a New Birth for Human Life
Faith is something far beyond what many people imagine.
It is not an opinion about a person or a judgment on a
case.
Nor is it a theoretical adoption of philosophy or an
artistic inclination.
It is a serious, profound relationship between two parties:
One being Ever-Living, The Self-Sustaining [referring
to Allah], and a bond that pulls a person from their deepest thoughts and most
prominent states toward the One who created them from nothing and raised them
from ruin.
Just as an unemployed person joins a new job that
occupies their time and secures their present and future, a person joins the
caravan of faith. They wake up and go to sleep preoccupied with the duties of
their new state and the means to fulfill and succeed in it.
Messages Are the Dawn of Humanity
The Glorious Quran has shown that people before Allah's
call were like the dead, and that their obedience to the messengers was the
dawn of a new light in their souls, thoughts, morals, and paths... Allah Almighty says: {O you who
have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when He calls you to that
which gives you life...} [Al-Anfal: 24].
True life is not the image of flesh and blood, nor the
abundance of muscles and strength of movement. No, that is a life shared by
humans, wild beasts, animals, and reptiles. Perhaps the share of livestock in
it is even greater.
True life is this connection that arises with Allah
after knowing Him. It is this new alignment with Allah’s commands and
prohibitions after the tongue has announced this beginning.
By saying: {Our Lord, indeed we have heard a caller calling to
faith, [saying], 'Believe in your Lord,' and we have believed...} [Al-Imran 3: 193].
Indeed, with this gentle declaration, the believer does
not delay in moving to their new world, where they submit their face to Allah
alone and move on the face of this earth according to what their Lord asks of
them.
They are governed in their expansion and contraction,
their love and hatred, their peace and war, by the limits of what is lawful and
unlawful [Halal and Haram], by the promise of reward and punishment, by seeking
closeness to their Lord, and by fearing His rejection.
This faith creates a life that is entirely new.
We consider the lost person in the wilds of Africa to
be very backward compared to their colleague, the atomic scientist, in the most
advanced environments.
The concept of the universe and life for one is
completely different from that of the other, and there is no doubt that the
distance of backwardness between them is vast. This distance is also equal to
the distance of backwardness between a person who knows Allah and another who
is ignorant of Him.
The Unaware Are Lost Animals
That person who is oblivious to their Lord, no matter
how elevated their material status, is a lost animal... They may be an
intelligent animal in some matters, but their ignorance of Allah has brought
them to the lowest of the low. They are not just backward; they are dead, even
if they soar through the depths of space.
Ignorance of Allah is a darkness of deep blackness and
intense loneliness. That is why Allah says: {And is he who was dead and We gave him life and made
for him a light by which to walk among the people like he who is in darknesses,
never to emerge therefrom? Thus it has been made pleasing to the disbelievers
that which they were doing.} [Al-An'am 7: 122].
The difference between the believer and the disbeliever
is clear from this description provided by the verse.
For the believer, there is their light by which they
walk among the people.
What is this light emanating from the life of faith?
It is the light of a conscience shining within, by
which they know good from evil and distinguish what is right from what is
wrong.
And does faith deserve to be preferred and honored
except for this advantage?
Those who are cut off from Allah are only attracted to
the life of this world and its desires. They do not hesitate to kill, deceive,
lie, or cheat.
As for those who are connected to Allah, they are
seekers of perfection, justice, chastity, and piety [Taqwa].
Blessing and tranquility do not spread on earth and in
society except in the shadow of this faith, which carves its path under the
guarantee of heaven.
{And not equal are the blind and the
seeing. Nor are the darkness and the light. Nor are the shade and the heat. And
not equal are the living and the dead.} [Fatir 35: 19, 20, 21, 22].
Faith in Allah Is Life
Yes, faith is life. The Prophet [peace be upon him] likened the effect of faith
on souls to the effect of rain on the earth: "The example of the guidance and knowledge with which Allah has
sent me is like abundant rain falling on a piece of land. Some of it was
fertile land that accepted the water and brought forth vegetation and grass in
abundance..." Was the Revelation [Wahy] called a spirit except because it
revives dead hearts and gives sight to blind consciences? The dividing line
between genuine faith and counterfeit faith is that the first gives a person a
new birth and a righteous life, while the other does nothing.
The first turns into a driving force for doing good and
supporting the truth, just as fuel in a machine turns into rotational motion,
while the other is zero.
The first reshapes the human entity in a way that makes a person a follower of Allah in this world. They act in His name and set out in His name. As for the other, the person is a follower of their whims only.
Combating Counterfeit Faith
Suppose nations fight against the counterfeiting of currency to control the value of things and to combat the idle and the thieves. How much
more worthy are we of fighting counterfeit faith so that genuine certainty [Yaqeen] retains its value, its effects, and
its material and moral benefits? If we were to use our minds, we would know
that preserving the health of faith is more important than preserving the
integrity of gold and silver and
the paper that represents them. Let us list some of the evidence from the Holy
Quran that explains what we are saying. In the life that faith creates, there
is no place for doubt, no matter how
dark the atmosphere or hazy the horizon. Rather, the people of faith must hold
together and be patient: {The believers are only those who have believed in Allah and His
Messenger and then have not doubted...} [Al-Hujurat 49: 15]. The stands of faith are not confined
or limited to a single path, for what the burdens of truth dictate must be
followed, no matter how much the circumstances differ. Some people may be
tasked with moving here or there, while others may be tasked with remaining in
their place and spending from their wealth. And those {who have believed and
emigrated [Hijra] and striven in the cause of Allah [Jihad] and those who gave
shelter and aided [Ansar] - those are the true believers. For them is
forgiveness and a noble provision.} [Al-Anfal 8: 74]. It is impossible, under a life established by faith, for
error to go without being condemned.
Or for crookedness to remain without someone to pursue
it with advice, even if the period is long and the costs are heavy. The essence
of the believers to avoid loss is to advise each other to uphold the truth and
to advise each other to be patient [Sabr].
Some people may be frightened by the tyranny of the
despots and become submissive, or they may be enticed by the softness of life
and become complacent. But genuine faith seeks one pleasure and is troubled by
one anger.
{The believers are only those who, when Allah is
mentioned, their hearts become fearful, and when His verses are recited to
them, it increases them in faith...} [Al-Anfal 8: 2].
And there are those who are preoccupied with
consolidating their own status above any other matter. They want to win
people's hearts with all the talents they possess.
Hypocrisy Is the Destruction of Faith
In our time, the worship of the masses by the
individual and the worship of the individual by the masses have become
widespread.
As for a person to see the face of Allah in what they
do and leave, and to seek their inner self in what they spend and withhold,
there is no place for that in their soul.
This is the hypocrisy [Nifaq] that surrounds deeds and
reveals the devastation of hearts from the meaning of goodness.
Al-Junayd said: "If a servant came with the
humility of Adam, the asceticism of Jesus, the hardship of Job, the obedience
of John [the Baptist], the uprightness of Idris [Enoch], the love of Abraham,
and the character of the Beloved [Muhammad], and there was a speck for other
than Allah in his heart, then Allah has no need for him."
The truth is that the attachment of hypocrisy to a
heart and its dominance over it is a destruction of faith and an annihilation
of reward.
The rain falls on the fertile land and reveals its
readiness for growth and goodness.
It falls on the rock and reveals the dryness, hardness,
and barrenness of its nature.
And so, Allah gave the example for the hypocrites: {So
his example is like that of a smooth stone upon which is dust and upon which is
a downpour that leaves it bare. They are unable to do anything with what they
have earned. And Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.} [Al-Baqarah:
264].
The life that faith creates is characterized by deep
sincerity [Ikhlas] and complete devotion to Allah, Lord of the worlds. Let us
move beyond these scattered examples describing the life that faith creates to
say that faith is a governing action that transforms human instincts and
emotions from one direction to another. A person who is devoid of any religious
or doctrinal identity gets hungry and full, is happy and sad, gets angry and
dreams, becomes arrogant and humble, is kind and cruel, despairs and hopes...
and so on with the other symptoms that purely human nature never lacks.
And faith that is isolated from these symptoms, which
neither stirs them nor pacifies them, is a corrupted faith.
Scholars of education in the past spoke about the
necessity of a person's fear of Allah, their hope in Him, their turning to Him,
and their reliance on Him [Tawakkul]... and other virtuous psychological
states.
This is good, but it is a partial depiction of the
desired truth, or a side view of the life that faith establishes with its vast
canopy.
The perception in this regard came as a result of
people's understandings, and I do not think this was what those great scholars
intended.
We all agree that faith is patience and gratitude [Shukr],
fear and hope.
The Completeness of Faith
However, some people understood that these feelings are
what faith brings into the soul while the soul remains in its general nature,
fearing Allah at one time and fearing others at another.
And hoping in Allah at one time and hoping in others at
another... and so on.
This is not what is intended, nor is it the
completeness of faith and its purity from impurities.
For the believer, in their dealings with Allah and
their acknowledgment of His Oneness [Tawhid], and their awareness of His
beautiful names and attributes that encompass their behavior, they build their
life on complete dedication to their Lord and absolute connection with Him
alone, while ignoring everything else.
Monotheism [Tawhid] is not to disbelieve in stone idols
and then make money an idol, or status an idol, or a woman an idol, or a ruler
an idol, and then turn some or all of our feelings to these new idols. When the
majority of our visible and hidden activity is for them, and only a little is
for Allah, the Self-Sufficient.
With a casual observation, we feel that many people
belittle the Creator with their emotions, while they turn these passionate
emotions to others. What kind of faith is this?
This is the secret behind why some people claim they
hope in Allah, for example, but when you look into their behavior, you do not
find any trace of that hope.
"What is the matter with your religion that you
agree to have it stained, While your garment is washed of all its stains? You
hope for salvation, yet you do not follow its paths, Indeed, a ship does not
sail on dry land."
Many religious civilizations have collapsed because the
title by which they were known differed from the reality in which they lived.
And on the day the reins of the human soul slip from
the leadership of alert faith and fall into the hands of reckless whims, then a
title will be of no use, and the deception will not be permissible.
Disobedience is often born strong because it is backed
by violent emotions. Is it intended that faith should be born weak because it
has a weak connection to the surging emotions in the human soul?
If faith is not a life with deep roots in the depths of
a person, then it is a defective faith that needs a doctor to make it healthy
and upright.
Reliance on Allah [Tawakkul], for example, must be more
established in the heart of the believer than reliance on authority is in the
heart of the proud oppressor.
And preferring the Hereafter [Akhirah] must be stronger
in the heart of the believer than the eagerness of those who rush toward this
world.
And in light of this, you can understand His saying,
the Almighty: {And [yet], among the people are those who take other than Allah
as equals [to Him]. They love them as they should love Allah. But those who
have believed are stronger in love for Allah...} [Al-Baqarah: 165].
But when you see the atheist as more mentally alert,
more sensitive, and more ambitious than the believer, this is a sign of fake
faith.
Literary talents blossom with faith just as flower buds
blossom.
And faith creates from death a life full of strength and growth, worthy of survival and respect.
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Published in the Kuwaiti magazine Al-Wa'i Al-Islami, Issue
(1), Jumada Al-Akhirah (1385 AH), October (1965 CE).
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