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Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah. Brothers, in our series to build certainty, we will begin with proving the existence of Allah the Almighty, for this is the foundation upon which everything is built. A Muslim follower may say, "Alright, I believe in the existence of Allah; therefore, this talk is not for me." In reality, brothers, even the one who believes in the existence of Allah with deep faith needs these episodes. Why?
I will mention six important benefits that we can title as: deepening the roots, having good thoughts about Allah, forming motivation, steadfastness and reinforcement, recognizing the blessing, and reviving dignity.
The first benefit, brothers, is deepening the roots. Certainty is in degrees, not just one degree. How? Is a person either a believer, a doubter, or a denier? Is certainty a decisive belief without any doubt? Yes, but this belief, in turn, is in degrees. When you believe in the existence of Allah with a decisive belief without any doubt, you have passed the required line, meaning you have escaped the gravity of doubts and hesitation. However, people after that vary in their flight.
Enter a garden and look at its trees. All of them are living trees standing on their trunks, yes! But are they the same? No. You will find a tree standing on roots close to the surface of the earth, so it is easy to uproot. While you will find another, deep-rooted, difficult to uproot, and you will find another more rooted and deeper; there is no hope of uprooting it at all, it may be cut, killed, but it will not be uprooted.
Similarly, certainty in the souls, there may be a group of Muslims all of whom have living certainty, like these living trees, but there is a difference in their stability... a difference in their stability if they are exposed to trials. Also, these trees are not the same in their fruit-bearing at all; some benefit only themselves, and some drop their fruit on the people, and they seek shade under its shadow. Similarly, certainty.
Therefore, even the possessor of certainty needs to water the tree of his certainty; lest it dries up and dies, but rather grows, bears fruit, benefits, and strikes its roots deep. And the most important of its watering is contemplation, which our Lord has encouraged with His saying: "And they reflect" [Al-Imran 3:191]. And the greatest contemplation is contemplating the evidence of the existence of Allah, the Almighty: "And Allah increases those who have guided guidance" [Maryam 19:76].
Abraham, the friend of Allah, peace be upon him, realized the difference in the degrees of certainty, and he, with his strength of certainty, still wanted its highest degrees: "And when Abraham said, 'My Lord, show me how You give life to the dead.' He said, 'Do you not believe?' He said, 'Yes, but that my heart may be at ease'" [Al-Baqarah 2:260]. Meaning: I have faith and certainty free from doubt, "but that my heart may be at ease."
Ibn Ashur said in his interpretation of "that my heart may be at ease": "Meaning: that my knowledge may be confirmed and verified, and it may move from the treatment of thought and consideration to the simplicity of necessity with the certainty of witnessing, and the disclosure of the known disclosure that does not need to repeat the proof and remove the doubts from the mind." Meaning, as if Abraham, peace be upon him, says: I want to strengthen this foundation "the truth of resurrection after death," I strengthen it, to build upon it, and to enjoy the coolness of certainty, and my soul does not return to reopen the subject and the need to prove it, and answer the questions. This series is to enjoy the coolness of certainty and its reassurance.
The second benefit: having good thoughts about Allah. Our way of dealing with the evidence of the existence of Allah the Almighty will not be dry, but the purpose of it, in addition to deepening the certainty of His existence, is also to deepen the love of Allah the Almighty and the certainty of His justice, wisdom, and mercy. Every time you look at the evidence of the existence of Allah, then at the evidence of the soundness of His religion, you will increase in certainty of His mercy, glorified be He, that He has established all these signs, and you will say to yourself: "Wow, all these signs! All these evidence! How merciful is my Lord to His servants!"
You will increase in certainty of the justice of Allah the Almighty, when He punishes people who disbelieved in Him after all this, and you will know for sure that there is no excuse for people with Allah after all this, nor any justification. There are Muslims who are certain of the existence of Allah, but they have a real problem in this matter, and they are haunted by the feeling that: "Why is the disbeliever punished who did not convince himself of the existence of Allah or the soundness of Islam?" And this puts the servant who is certain of Allah, it puts him in bad thoughts about the mercy of Allah and His justice.
Faith in Allah, brothers, is composed of: belief, heart works, tongue works -meaning speech-, and members' works. Belief -we said it is not in one degree-, and it needs empowerment, consolidation, and watering by contemplating the evidence of His existence, glorified be He. And the works of the hearts are the love of Allah, the certainty of His justice, and good thoughts about His wisdom and mercy, these also need contemplation of the evidence of His existence, glorified be He. If you have belief, while the works of the hearts are blurred, and the thought is not good, and there is distress in the chest, the light of belief will remain veiled.
Therefore, the certainty we are talking about is two certainties: certainty of the existence of Allah, and certainty of the evidence of His existence that they are sufficient, healing, clear, binding, and the argument is established upon them for the creation.
The third benefit is forming motivation. Certainty -in the sense we have explained- is your driving force for everything after that. It is the engine that, according to its strength, you launch and are able to overcome obstacles and climb mountains. The more you strengthen the matter of certainty, the only thing left for you is work, and launching with enthusiasm and vitality on the path to Paradise. And the springs of your stored energies will burst forth in the service of the religion of Allah, steadfastness on His command, and calling to Him with determination, steadfastness, and perseverance. The more you water certainty, the more activity is renewed and lethargy fades away.
Therefore, the first description with which Allah described the righteous in His noble Book at the beginning of Surah Al-Baqarah is: "Those who believe in the unseen" [Al-Baqarah 2:3]. Those who believe in the unseen, this is the engine of everything, while if there is a defect in the roots, the effect will spread to the fruit.
The fourth benefit, my brothers: steadfastness and fortification. We are in an era of trials, and how many people have these trials stripped of their faith! It is the duty of the Muslim to fortify himself, to plant the roots of his certainty in the ground so that he may stand firm against the storms of trials, and to fortify those around him.
Reflect with me on the words of Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him: "Most people, when they embrace Islam after disbelief or are born into Islam, and adhere to its laws, and are among those who obey Allah and His Messenger, they are Muslims, and they have a general faith. However, the entry of the reality of faith into their hearts only happens gradually if Allah grants it to them. Otherwise, many people do not reach certainty, nor do they reach jihad. If they were to be made to doubt, they would doubt, and if they were commanded to jihad, they would not fight. They are not disbelievers nor hypocrites, but they do not have the knowledge of the heart and its certainty that repels doubt."
Therefore, these are people who have a general faith but it is not deep within them, so they are in danger. Even if you are content, my brother, with your certainty, what about your children? Can you help them to fortify their conviction and certainty? What about your family, loved ones, and surroundings? We are in an era of intellectual war that strikes at the foundation and roots, to make Muslims doubt their Lord, glorified and exalted be He. We often hear these days about people complaining that their children, brothers, or loved ones have been affected by doubts. Can you bear it if a loved one dies in disbelief or doubt?
Allah, the Most High, says: "And We made from among them leaders giving guidance by Our command when they were patient and were certain of Our signs." [As-Sajdah:24]. By elevating the ranks of certainty, you qualify to be among the leaders whom Allah supports with the religion. You may be presented with a doubt about the existence of Allah from a seeker of an actual answer, or a doubter of your religion who wants to embarrass you. There is a difference between stammering or evading, or answering with nervousness or superficiality that this doubter will rejoice in, and achieve a false victory over your religion through you. On the other hand, you have the decisive answer that restrains the intent, guides the perplexed, and heals the hearts. Therefore, roll up your sleeves, come forward, and join us!
The fifth benefit for you as a Muslim from reviewing the evidence of the existence of Allah, the Most High: is realizing the blessing of Allah upon you. And you see the great difference between the believer in the existence of Allah and the denier of Him. You feel, as you have not felt before, the meaning of many verses: "And not equal are the blind and the seeing, nor are the darknesses and the light, nor the shadow and the heat, and not equal are the living and the dead." [Fatir:19-22].
You understand deeply the meaning of His saying, the Most High: "Have you not considered those who dispute about the signs of Allah how they are turned away?" [Ghafir:69]. You understand it while you see the consequences of denying Allah, how its possessor falls into a deep place; this increases your holding fast to your religion, inclination towards it, and realization of the blessing of Allah upon you.
Ibn Taymiyyah mentioned in Minhaj as-Sunnah that Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, said: "The bonds of Islam are only severed one by one, when there arises in Islam one who does not know Jahiliyyah." Yes; for these people do not realize the greatness of the blessing of Islam, and the distances between truth and falsehood in their beings have diminished, so how easy it is for the bonds of Islam to be loosened for them and they fall into the valleys of doubt and loss.
The sixth benefit: is reviving dignity. With contemplation of the evidence of the existence of Allah, you feel dignity and harmony with yourself, and you display the rites of your religion and call to it; because you realize that you are upon the clear truth, and that what you display and call to, the weakness of others in the rites of your religion, your call, your enjoining of good, and your forbidding of evil, that all of it is fundamentally based on the great and high truth that does not doubt its correctness for a moment.
You will not need to adjust your appearance, or hide the features of your Islamic identity to be accepted. You will not need to adjust your hijab or behavior to be accepted. You will not feel like a stranger even if you walk against the current, for you feel that you are the original, because you are upon this truth. The tongue of your condition: "O people, do you not see what I see? Do you not see this sun at midday!" Personally, my brothers, every time I look at the evidence of the existence of Allah, I feel this dignity, this harmony, and this desire to guide people to the obedience of their Lord, glorified and exalted be He.
For all these reasons, these episodes in which we discuss the evidence of the existence of Allah, the Most High, will not only be beneficial and important for the doubter or denier seeking the truth, but for every Muslim to deepen your roots, improve your opinion of your Lord, strengthen your motivation, stand firm, fortify, realize the blessing of Allah upon you, and revive dignity within yourself, by the permission of Allah, the Most High.
In the next episode, we will begin with you, by the permission of Allah, with the natural evidence of His existence, glorified be He. Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah.