How Does One Enter Paradise with an Atom's Weight of Faith?
Introduction: The Son's Question and a Quick Experiment
Peace be upon you, dear audience. One day, my son came home from school and told me that his teacher had mentioned a hadith in which Allah, the Most High, says that He will take out of the Fire those who have in their hearts the weight of a grain of mustard seed of faith. My son asked me: Does this mean that these people have doubt in their hearts? They believe in the existence of Allah but with doubt?
I told him: No, of course not. Okay, what is the meaning of the hadith? Before I answer you, I conducted a quick experiment and asked some people: What does it mean that Allah takes out of the Fire those who have in their hearts the weight of an atom of faith or a grain of mustard seed of faith? The hadith is authentic.
Some of them said: It means they believe in Allah but with doubt. They believe in the existence of Allah but with doubt. I told him: This is not faith, because faith is a firm conviction. By its definition, it is a firm conviction. He fell silent. Some of them said: It means they believe in the existence of Allah but do not do anything else.
Meaning of the Hadith: Acts of the Heart
The hadith is authentic, mentioning that Allah takes out of the Fire those who have in their hearts the weight of an atom of faith or the weight of a grain of mustard seed of faith. The hadith, my brothers, is about the acts of the heart. What do the acts of the heart mean? They mean loving Allah, relying on Allah, glorifying Allah, fearing Allah, and hoping for Allah's mercy, the Most High.
The acts of the heart are not all at the same level.
The Origin of Love
For example, if we take love. There is the origin of love. The origin of love is also called absolute love. There is a measure of love. A person loves Allah but very weakly. Notice, he does not hate Allah. He is not negative. Nor is he neutral or zero. He does not love Allah nor hate Him, of course, he has love, but very weak love.
This love saves him from disbelief from this perspective and will enter him into Paradise in the end. If you want to be saved from sin and saved from sin and punishment, you must have this obligatory love. There is a higher rank called the perfection of love or absolute love, a higher rank possessed by the prophets, the righteous, and the foremost of the foremost.
The Origin of Glorification
For example, if we talk about fear or glorification of Allah, the Most High. Some people have absolute fear or they have the origin of fear, the origin of glorification, absolute glorification. This person has glorification of Allah, notice he does not have contempt for Allah, nor does he mock Allah. If he were like that, he would be negative. Nor is he zero, he is not neutral, he does not glorify Allah nor does he show contempt for Him. This person has glorification but weak glorification, he has absolute glorification.
So that he may be saved from sin and not just from disbelief, he must have the obligatory glorification that drives him to perform the obligations, abandon the major sins, and repent from the minor sins and from sins in general. So that he may be saved, he must have the perfection of glorification or absolute glorification. And so on with the rest of the acts.
Therefore, this is what is meant, my brothers, by the weight of an atom of faith or the weight of a grain of mustard seed of faith. The speech here is not at all about conviction. Of course, conviction and certainty have degrees, but the conviction mixed with doubt is not called conviction, this is not called faith.
Of course, my brothers, we have not spoken here about the issue of including actions in the name of faith, this is another topic with other evidence. Therefore, there is no room to remove actions from the name of faith, but here the entire hadith was about the acts of the heart. And Allah, the Most High, knows best. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.