How to Become A Good Muslim? - Dr. Bilal Philips

[Music] muhammad and on all those who follow the path of righteousness until the last day now the topic which was scheduled for this evening was on the importance of the muslim family however in light of the audience i felt that this topic was probably not that suited it would be like preaching to the converted you know i mean i'm sure you all being you know fathers and mothers etc are very much aware of the importance of the muslim family if i were talking to a group of young people then this would make sense for them to know their duties to their parents and the importance of not breaking family ties etc etc or to a group of non-muslims who you know would like to know something about islam this is one of one of the the high points or one of the good points of islam which could possibly attract people to islam i know people have been attracted due to the way in which muslims you know regard family the importance that they place on family etc so seeing that neither of these two audiences are present i felt that it was probably better for me to choose a topic which was a little more relevant which would contain uh some information which would be of more benefits to you all so the topic i chose was how to be a better muslim how to improve one's islam this is something i feel we all can use some reminders some suggestions uh since inshaallah we're all trying to please allah trying to to worship him in the best way we can and you know any advice which we could get which could help us in that process i think would inshallah be useful and the um i will present it by looking at basically four statements of prophet muhammad because the best advice with regards to islam how best we can practice islam the best advice will naturally come from the prophet muhammad himself so i've chosen from his statements four hadiths or four statements of his in which he has given advice as to how one comes closer to allah how does one worship allah to the best that he or she can [Music] the first statement is one which was reported by abu hurairah and this is collected in sahih al-bukhari in which he stated that allah's messenger quoted allah that is this statement is what they call hadith putsi this is where the prophet muhammad is quoting revelation directly from allah which is not found in the quran in it allah says [Music] i have declared war against whoever acts with hostility towards a friend of mine [Music] to allah my servant does not come closer to me with anything more beloved to me than what i have made obligatory for him allah here promises that he will defend those who become his close friends who love allah and allah loves them and then allah describes how does one become among those who allah loves and who loves allah he said my servant a worshiper of allah does not come closer to allah with anything more beloved to allah than the things which he has made obligatory on him in other words there are no shortcuts very important principle because you have many people under the name of islam under the guise of islam offering shortcuts people tell you if you do this you do this you will be on the heights of spiritual you know levels you'll be so close to allah you don't even need to do the salah anymore because your own heart just when it's beating it's remembering allah if you do these exercises you do these things you do this do that you have people offering this and what this is telling you this is allah's statement directly to us through prophet muhammed that this is light these are lies there is no shortcut this is from satan those people who are offering you shortcuts there are people who have come under the influence either willingly or inadvertently they have come under the influence of satan because the only way to allah is through the things which he has made compulsory on us he has made compulsory five times daily prayer that is what is most beloved to allah so it means anybody gives it up anybody says we don't need to he is not loved by allah this is the starting point five times daily prayer has to be established in their correct times for males in the masjid in jamaa congregation this is the foundation we want to come to allah and we have to follow the steps that allah has set for us and we can never and there never comes a time when a person no longer needs to do the compulsory acts because prophet muhammad sallallahu wasallam he did the compulsory acts till he died on his death bed he was still praying you know doing whatever was required of islam distributing the the the sadhaka everything which was required of him he was doing it till the last moment and if anyone says that he has reached a level where he no longer needs to do then he's claiming that he's reached a level which is higher than that of prophet muhammed his companions we seek refuge in allah from those kind of statements because definitely this is statements of the devils because no one can reach a level higher than prophet muhammed and his companions they were the best of generations and we have no record of any of them ever giving up the compulsory [Music] so after establishing the prayer and the point that we need to understand in terms of prayer is that allah has said in the quran establish the prayer for my remembrance he didn't say sallu li vikri pray for my remembrance he said akim is salah establish the prayer two different things though both of them involve prayer whether you say sallu or you say salah both of them mean that you must pray however if you just said sallu it could mean you pray on fridays you know you don't pray during the week you'll pray on fridays remember allah on fridays or you come during ramadan like you have some people they come they only pray in ramadan the rest of the year they don't pray and you have some people even to some extreme they only come to pray on leila turkada that's the only day in the year that they'll pray so if it were sallu then they would be fitting under the heading of praying yes they are praying remember allah however what allah has said and what we know of the five pillars of islam we say it is a karma to salah establishing the prayer meaning that the prayer becomes the framework of the believer's life his life is organized around prayer when he gets up in the morning the first thing that he does in the morning is he remembers allah he prays then he does the other things that he needs to do he eats to feed his system he bathes strengthens clean the system goes out to work when he breaks at noon he breaks at noon not to feed his system again for his material needs no he breaks at noon to remember allah then he feeds the system so that he can work and earn his needs same thing the afternoon sunset the night so his day is organized around the worship the remembrance of him critical for him to attain righteousness because it is with the remembrance of allah that man is righteous when he forgets allah then he becomes unrighteous satan comes to him the agents of satan come to him they make suggestions when he has forgotten allah and he goes so islam provides for the believer a framework for his daily life to help him or her to stay in remembrance of allah throughout the life that is the foundation and that must be established doing that that is what is most beloved to allah that is most beloved following that allah went on to say to [Music] [Music] [Music] that is if he continues to come close to me with voluntary acts after doing the compulsory which brings him close to allah he continues the worshiper of allah the servant of allah he or she continues to do the voluntary acts these voluntary acts have been prescribed by prophet muhammed for all of the compulsory acts every compulsory act that we have to do there is a voluntary version of it [Music] we have the sunnis before the compulsory prayers we have the the sunnah fasts after ramadan we have sadaqah as opposed to zakah we have umrah as opposed to hajj all of the required things of us in islam there are voluntary versions of them that have been placed there to help us to help us to make good the compulsory to strengthen the compulsory because of course none of us are able to do the compulsory acts perfectly there will always be some weaknesses there we lose some concentration in our prayer in our fasting we may have made some bad statements or said some things that should not have been said you know we're damaged in one way or another we damage our acts of worship so the voluntary acts are there to help to strengthen the compulsory because after the the compulsory allah on the day of judgment will ask about the voluntary he asks first about the compulsory acts of worship and then he asks about the voluntary acts [Music] and in this way what is deficient in our compulsory can be made up by our voluntary activities when a person establishes the compulsory and goes on to do the voluntary regularly establishing it throughout his life then he continues to become closer and closer to allah and allah says that he will love that person this is the last promise [Music] and allah goes on this is a lot loving the person we should also relate that to the verse in the quran where in the last month [Music] allah told the prophet to tell the people that if they wish to love allah if they believe that they are loving allah then that love is only acceptable to allah if they follow the messenger of allah or when they do so allah will love them so we take this along with this statement of allah here that the voluntary acts are not voluntary acts of our own creation and we make up our own voluntary acts because you have people who make up voluntary acts they say well listen here um you know i am a spiritual doctor you know like you go to the medical doctor when you're sick the medical doctor prescribes for you certain uh treatment some people claim to be spiritual doctors [Music] they know what is wrong with your soul when you come to them and they can prescribe for you voluntary acts which were not prescribed by prophet muhammad that is again deviation deviation because allah said in the quran that if you believe you want to come closer to allah you want to love allah the only way is by following the messenger of allah whatever he has provided for us whatever voluntary acts he has shown us this is the way [Music] this is the only way and this is what is meant you know when you have christians sometimes when you're talking to them about islam you're trying to clarify to them that jesus allah was a messenger of allah a prophet of allah not allah or the son of allah he was a messenger of allah and that he was showing the people he was a guide to them they will quote a verse from the bible in which jesus was supposed to have said i am the way i am the way the life the light no one comes to the father except by me say okay this is what jesus said he's the way the life the light no one comes to the father except by him so we have to pray through him but we explain to them no this is not what was meant by that statement when jesus said he is the way all of the prophets of god they were the way [Music] that's the sunnah that's what sunnah means the way they were the living sunnah the way to allah not that you worship them to get to allah no the way which they set the example which they gave that is the way to allah is the one path that leads to allah that's what jesus told them and that is the essence of our understanding of the sunnah in islam when the prophet sallam said i left with you two things if you hold on firmly to them you'll never go astray the book of allah and my sunna this is the way the only way so voluntary acts of worship are the voluntary acts prescribed by the messenger of allah very important point for us to stress because i said there is much in our cultures in our cultural practices of islam which have been given to us as voluntary acts of worship which do not have the authority or the authorization of the messenger of allah and we have to understand that these acts of worship are not acceptable to allah they are not pleasing to allah [Music] because prophet muhammad he said matarak to shayan i did not leave anything which would bring you closer to allah except that i told you to do it nothing nothing is pleasing to allah no act of worship which is pleasing to allah which will bring us closer to allah there are none which the prophet muhammed did not tell us to do this is how we determine [Music] the root the sunnah the way to allah we have to use this guideline which is given by allah and by his messenger for us to determine what is the correct way because there are so many things that's it that people are doing and saying we're doing this out of the love of allah and out of the love of the messenger of allah but they have not been sanctioned by allah or his messenger and as such they are not acceptable to allah and our intention doesn't make them acceptable if they are not sanctioned they are not acceptable they are rejected by allah very very very very important point [Music] allah goes on to say and when i love him when i love that servant who has established all of the compulsory acts and has followed that by the voluntary acts i become his hearing with which he hears now some people have looked at this hadith and have mistakenly thought that this means that they become allah in ignorance a person could draw that allah says he becomes the hearing with which he hears the eyes with which he sees the hands with which he touches the feet with which he walks it means that when the allah becomes you become so beloved to allah that allah becomes you you become allah no this is this is total deviation this is like the christians believing that jesus was god no different if you believe that you can become allah then you're like you're worse actually than the christians because at least they said the prophet was allah they didn't say everybody else was you know you've gone worse than the christians no no human being can ever become allah the human being is created his soul is not a part of allah because this is another mistake that people hold that each human being this old rule that he has is a part of allah's rule is an idea very common amongst people but it's false no the is created the spirit is created by the command of allah allah said be and it was allah is not a spirit he does not have a spirit the spirit is created it was put into man by the angels into adam by the angel this is the correct islamic understanding but that deviant view where the person's soul is actually a part of the soul of allah which promotes then the idea that what we are supposed to be striving to do is to make that soul again one with allah we again become allah we disappear in allah people will call it by names one of the terms that you will hear to be to disappear and to be absorbed by allah this is hindu nirvana the hindu beliefs where the human soul is it dies and is reborn and it dies and reborn and the more good it does it gets higher and higher and higher till it reaches the stage where it becomes one again with the world soul this is hindu beliefs hindu as well as buddhists both because buddhists remember buddhism is a reformed movement of hinduism buddhism is a reformed movement of hinduism so the basic beliefs of buddhism you find their origin is in hinduism and this idea of course this is in reincarnation etc is of course not accepted by islam but the idea of reuniting with god becoming one again with god this is totally abhorrent in islam man cannot be god and god does not become man very important concept to understand especially when you're discussing with christians because you're here in a christian land it is your duty to carry the message of islam to them and it has to be carried to them [Music] in a logical and reasonable manner because this is what islam is islam is logic and reason is there throughout islam when you see allah describing and discussing with the disbelievers in the quran he is showing them logically reasonably able to do all things and of course we have in the quran allah is able to do all things so then you will answer yes and then they will ask you well why can't god have a son when we say allah can do anything [Music] we mean allah can do anything which is in keeping with him being allah not anything which makes him less than allah no this is not included not included when we talk about allah being able to do anything we're not talking about anything which makes allah not allah no these are impossibilities they're not included in the category those those other things are impossibilities things which are not included why because if allah god means the creator the creator man is his creation the creation is in need of a creator the creator is not in need of anyone or anything [Music] so when you say the creator becomes the creation this is a contradiction in terms [Music] because you are saying the creator now becomes in need of a creator this is a contradiction you can't say it doesn't fix to say god had a son [Music] came into existence when god means the one who always existed who has no beginning for you to say can the one who has no beginning have a beginning no it's nonsense can the one who never dies die no this is nonsense these are all nonsensical questions we don't include them in the concept of allah being able to do all things so when we speak then of allah becoming the hearing with which a man hears as allah has explained here [Music] it doesn't mean we said allah becoming the man's hearing it means that the man hears what allah wishes him to hear what is pleasing to allah he sees what is pleasing to allah he avoids looking at things which are displeasing to allah he has control over his senses all of his senses he uses them in a way which is pleasing to allah this is the sign of one who allah loves [Music] who is a close friend of allah so from this hadith actually the end of the hadith allah goes on to say [Music] and if he asks of me that one who is loved by allah i will grant him and if he seeks my protection i will protect him this is allah's promise [Music] that the way in which we can improve the quality of our islam is by establishing the foundations of our islam firmly those things which allah has made compulsory for us we make them unshakable we establish them firmly we do them regularly on time as prescribed and then we seek to do building on them gradually the voluntary acts which are recommended from all of these various compulsory acts and at the same time we have to also avoid the fabricated acts the ones which are not prescribed by the messenger of allah because when we do these we corrupt the good that we are doing when we do things which are displeasing to allah and we do things which are pleasing to allah you see the ones who are displeasing to allah are affecting the ones which are displeasing to us which are pleasing to allah so we try to remove as much as possible that which is displeasing to allah a voluntary acts is what we're trying to do so that allah so that what we hear is what allah wants us to hear what we see is what allah wants us to see we're doing trying to do all the things we're doing which are pleasing to allah some of them which the community alhamdulillah from what i've heard is you know basically extracted itself from was that of celebrating the birthday of the prophet muhammad [Music] you see this is one of those acts which is displeasing to allah which became very widespread which was introduced by the enemies of allah [Music] it's a big big issue affecting much of people's lives much materials have been prepared people use it and you know i've read many of the different poems and things that are recited during these gatherings so much of it filled with shirk [Music] so much of it filled with attributing to prophet muhammed things which he never attributed to himself elevating him to a status where he becomes like a demigod he's no longer human [Music] one book i remember reading which uh came from pakistan i still keep it with me his book is called the shadowless prophet a book of some 300 odd pages describing how prophet muhammad didn't have a shadow [Music] what is this he's not a human being anymore if he doesn't have a shadow everybody when the light shines you have a shadow when the light shot on him there was no shadow means he's something else not from this world and then there are the fabricated stories that were given about him you know about about the first thing which allah created was the light of muhammad called muhammadi it was created from allah's light and this light passed down through the prophets and it was in the hips of moses and and and abraham and this lies lies about prophet muhammad not true he said in authentic tradition that the first thing which allah created was the pen this is the authentic tradition and allah commanded the pen to write and the pen asked allah what should it write and it allah told it to write everything that was and would be that's that's the authentic tradition as to noor muhammadi mafi there is no such thing it's a lies and unfortunately the lies didn't stop there you had lies which were fables which were built up around prophet muhammed and when he was born he came out of the womb in siddha i read this in these stories peace fables and the prophet muhammad said whoever lies about me will find his seating place in hell very unfortunate [Music] very important for us to get back to the basics what is islam the foundational teachings the compulsory acts and the true information as to what is required of us who prophet muhammad is what is required of us with regards to him obedience he was not an object of worship that we should elevate him because he said uh do not be excessive in your praise of me as the christians were in the case of isa the son of mary but call me abdullah rasulullah just call me slave of allah and the messenger of allah stay there don't be go go beyond that because if you do you end up like the christians did with isa he became an object of worship [Music] and in christianity for the first 300 years after the time of jesus it was forbidden for them to celebrate birthdays period including the birthday of prophet jesus birthdays in general as well as the birthday of prophet jesus for the first 300 years after the time of jesus the christian church held that it was prohibited haram because the celebration of birthdays was a pagan practice done by the romans the greeks the persians the hindus etc these are people who are doing this those who followed revelation of moses david the prophets they'd never celebrated birthdays [Music] but what has happened after that time the celebration began of of jesus birthday and a lot a lot of the pagan rituals of europe etc are included and became celebrated all over and muslims not to be outdone [Music] this is a shameful thing feeling that well prophet muhammed is greater than prophet isa so if the christians can do that for prophet isa we should at least be doing this for prophet muhammad so in competition they started doing what they our beginning point is with what allah has made compulsory for us we continue to become closer to him to do acts which are pleasing to him by doing the things which the prophet muhammad has recommended for us to do [Music] the second tradition also reported by bukhari and and narrated by ibn abbas was that prophet muhammad said reported that allah's messenger said there are two blessings about which most people are deceived health good health and their spare time [Music] good health and spare time [Music] people often times put off doing what they should do of islam of righteousness because they feel that they will live to such and such a period of time hajj you're supposed to do hajj when you are able as soon as you have the means economic physical means are available you're supposed to go make hajj right away but you will find people generally speaking they want to leave hajj until the latter years of their lives why because they believe hajj you know when you make hajj if it's accepted by allah then all of your previous sins are erased you return like one when he was first born like a newborn child this is prophet muhammed's promise however if one has not been practicing islam steadily you know this has become a part of his lifestyle etc when he goes to make hajj he has been living a deviant corrupt life do you think that he can make hajj which will be acceptable to allah no it's a delusion feels i'll make hajj when i get older you know that's the time you make hajj because then you know you make up for all your sins as a young person but who has the guarantee this is the health he feels he's in good health now he'll live at least till he's 90 well you know make hajj around 80. no we have no guarantee of tomorrow this is this good health can delude us we reach a stage you know things can happen to us where many of the things that we are able to do now we cannot no longer do so very important for us that we recognize that the blessing of good health that allah has given us now we have to take advantage of it and to do whatever we can whatever has been prescribed for us and recommended of us we should try to use our good health now to do as much as possible before there comes a time when we have no chance our health fails us we're no longer is used up in trivial matters which are of no benefit for them in the next life and they do not engage in the worship of allah so though they may manage to gather around themselves nice house car you know good life enjoyable life in fact they have destroyed the next life for themselves there is no reward for them in the next life [Music] very important that we use our spare time for seeking the pleasure of allah in fact there is no such thing in the vocabulary of the muslims known as holiday the day off in early times muslims didn't have any weekend stopped work in time for making uh salah or making juma and you carried on there was no holiday after that the day after the day before weekend no whatever spare time we have we use it in doing things which are pleasing to allah it means if we go to the park with our families and there's nothing no islam that say you can't go to the far part with the family because the system here they give you a weekend saturday and sunday they give it to you you i mean to say i don't want the weekend no no islam doesn't say you have to reject it no you accept it they give you that those days where you don't have to work but what do you do with those days do you use it like the way they use it they work hard all week and they're just waiting for the weekend the weekend they just it's just a blast of pleasure you know you get drunk you get high you doing out pleasures that's the weekend no is that the approach no for us as muslims when that weekend comes if we use it we take our family to the park then we take them to the park and what are we talking about there the dunya no we talk about allah we remind them about allah we use that occasion as an as a an opportunity to educate the family to remind them about allah we try to keep that as a part of our daily life we're traveling in the car we're not talking about just oh that's a nice car that's a nice home or you know no we're reminding them about allah you know allah has been merciful to give us this car we remind remember to use the dua of traveling let the family know what that do is let them learn it they haven't learned it subhanallah let them learn it what it means let them understand the significance so we use our spare time always in ways which improve our lives but in the material sense as well as in the spiritual sense the third tradition [Music] of prophet muhammed is reported by abu hura in which he quoted allah's messenger saying this is collected by both bukhari and muslim the hellfire is veiled by desires and paradise by dislikes and calamities [Music] the hellfire is veiled by desires that is there are things which many things which we don't like to do because it's not easy we don't feel comfortable with it whatever but oftentimes those things are the things which improve our lives spiritually and help us to paradise [Music] but the path to paradise is not the smooth one the smooth one is the one heading for hell no effort all you have to do is just enjoy that's the one will take you to hell the one to paradise is one you have to work for you have to struggle with it you have to be patient so it means that when we find difficulties in our life and so and so by being patient with it this is helping us to paradise [Music] we should not think simply that if some things don't go right in life we have some difficulty so and so that uh you know allah is not pleased with us [Music] no in fact prophet muhammed he said that those who are most beloved to allah have the most difficulties in this life [Music] you

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Keywords: How to Become A Good Muslim?, islamic lecture bilal philips, Khutbah, Aspire Mosque, english sermon, digital minbar, bilal philips, islamic online university, iou, islam way of life, Masjid Aspire, islam online, Dr. Abu Ameena Bilal Philips

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Length: 51min 14sec (3074 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 17 2014