Out compete in seeking Allah’s forgiveness and Paradise

This Friday I decided to talk to the congregation about a beautiful Quranic verse from the Sura Al-Imraan, which directs the attention of believers towards their ultimate goal: success in the afterlife.

As Muslims we believe that there are two lives and two deaths. All people come from a state of non-existence to a life known to all of us, followed inevitably by a death process, which must be faced by all men. People have many differing beliefs as to what follows, but Islamic guidance teaches us that all beings are taken care of and placed in a state of Barzakh, a state where the soul is yet to enter into the next world, but is out of this world. Islamic guidance also teaches us that the known world, or rather existence, will come to an abrupt end and return, or fold back, to its creation .

Allah will then, when He decides, create another world and a new existence with new rules. People from all time, from the first man to the last, will be resurrected and brought to account for their deeds in their earlier existence.

Of course, not all people in the world believe in the concept of the Hereafter, and many of those who do believe in it, either believe in Karma, reincarnation or in the resurrection of the soul only.

Islam guides us to a belief that it will be a real physical world, where people will physically exist and enjoy, or suffer, depending on the consequences of their deeds in their first existence, and it will be a world of either total blessings or total suffering. Which world would all of us desire? Of course one would want the former.

Is the receiving of these blessings something to be taken for granted, or is there anything we can do to ensure it?
Of course, Faith or Imaan in God the Creator, and following His Guidance are essential conditions if one is to have any hope of attaining it.

The Quranic verse encourages all believers to compete with each other in the seeking out two things which will ensure a complete and full receipt of Allah’s Blessings in that world: a) the Forgiveness of Allah, and b) Paradise.

Islamic teachings guide believers to seek out the forgiveness of Allah. Why is it so important to do so? Firstly, it reminds us of the two very distinct positions that we occupy; men as the creatures of God, and so His humble servants; and God the Creator, the source of all blessings and power.

Men err, but who do they err against? Who should they be accountable to for their erring? It is God the Almighty to whom they would be accountable. Seeking out God’s forgiveness involves striving to become sinless and asking for one's wrongdoings to be pardoned so that one is not brought to accountability.

This act of seeking out God’s forgiveness elevates a person in the Sight of God for his conscious effort and his belief in God’s authority to be the one to forgive. Seeking forgiveness of God is something that the Quranic verse not only encourages us to do, but further urges us to try to outcompete each other in doing so. Achieving it will spare people their suffering on the Day of Judgement and ensure, with the Grace of Allah, their entry into Paradise, the eternally blessed Garden.

Secondly, the Quranic verse encourages us to hasten to gain Paradise, or rather a Paradise whose width would be the width of heavens and the earth. The length is not described in the verse but is always more than the width of anything. This Paradise is prepared, as the Quran put it, for those who are conscious of God (while they lived their lives in this world) and fear His punishment for the bad consequences of their actions.

A description is given of those people who are conscious of God and for whom the Paradise is prepared in the following verse: ‘Those are who spend of their wealth in good times and in adverse times (in Allah’s ways)’. They never cease to spend in the ways of God and for His sake. It further says: ‘they are those who suppress their anger and pardon people.’ Indeed anger or the state of anger, takes away one's peace of mind, the peace of a situation and peace between peoples. It impairs the ability to arrive at a sound judgement and places barriers in the way of fairness and just dealings. Anger is the source of conflicts and animosity and causes people to err and remove themselves away from the Mercy of God. Paradise is a place of total bliss in contradiction to anger and the state of agitation.

The verse ends by saying: ‘and God loves those who do good’. This is also another description of those people who are conscious of God. What a characteristic of a person! Who would not like to be loved by God? The answer is simple. Be among those who do good to others, goodness that is pleasing to God. A Hadith says: ‘the best among people are those who are most beneficent to others’.

The description goes further: ‘those, who when they commit an act of indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and then seek forgiveness for their wrongdoings, and who could forgive sins other than Allah, and they do not persist in their wrongdoing knowingly. These are the people whose rewards would be forgiveness by their Lord and attain entry into paradise, beneath which rivers flow, abiding therein forever. How beautiful is the reward of those who laboured (in the way of Allah). Sura 3V133-136

What a beautiful outcome! Seek forgiveness of your Lord in all sincerity and it will be granted. Seek out His paradises and you are granted more than one. Indeed God is generous and all welcoming to His servants who repent to Him, do good for His sake and pleasure, and to benefit people. Those who don’t seek a better state of being will not enjoy even the lesser one. The attainment of His forgiveness and entry into His paradise depends on our level of competition and only those who try, and perhaps outcompete others, will be successful.

The Role of a “Beautiful Character”

In my last Friday sermon, I chose to speak about the impact of a good character and how it is invaluable in the shaping of a decent family life and a humane society.

I would like to summarise some of the main points here as a contribution to the general welfare of human society.

The core twin foundations of a truly believing Muslim's personality are described in the Quran as the declaration of their belief in the main principles of Islamic faith, and the basing all of their actions and deeds on the righteousness, virtues and moral framework resulting from their beliefs.

Belief and actions go hand in hand in shaping a truly successful Muslim personality in any society or cultural background. When a person’s personality is infused with these core values, and he practices them in all his deeds and actions, his character will shine through.

So what are regarded as righteous deeds and what are the virtues of human character needed to form the framework of a noble disposition?

Islam calls them ‘husn ul khuluq’ or ‘beauty of characters’. The hadith of the Prophet Muhammad, Peace and Mercy of Allah be upon him, which emphasises on ‘Husn un khuluq’ can be regarded as an amplification of what the Quran spoke of in terms of the two core foundations of a truly believing Muslim personality; faith and actions .

Islam is no idle faith. It is full of meaningful actions and practical solutions to human problems. Based on this principle, the two core foundations have been laid down for developing a truly fruitful human life.

Faith and belief introduce purifying elements to human thoughts and work in complete conjunction and harmony with human actions and practices. Any contradiction would lead to the notion of hypocrisy and dichotomy of character.

In a narrative of a hadith, we are told that a Bedouin came to the prophet and asked him the question: ‘which of the deeds is best? The Prophet then replied to him saying: ‘the beauty of the character’. The person seemed to be bewildered at the reply, came to the prophet from his right direction and asked the same question. The reply was the same. After a while the person, again came from his left side and repeated his question which prompted the same reply by the Prophet. However, seemingly seeking some more clarification, the person returned to the Prophet from his rear asking him the same question at which point the Prophet turned to him and said: What is wrong with you that you do not understand it? It is the ‘husn ul khuluq’; which means that ‘you should not get angry if you could’.

What an amazing guidance from the Prophet to people! The beauty of character is explained as being in control of one’s anger.

Control your anger and you would control your peace of your mind and the environment. Many people may not see any correlation between anger and beauty of one’s character. One only needs to see the consequence of an angry character and its outcome.

Further, the Prophet said to a person when defining righteousness: ‘righteousness is the beauty of character and wrongdoing is that which may make you hesitant in your chest and which you would dislike people to know of’.

What a wonderful definition of righteousness. Mention the word ‘righteous’ or the righteousness’ to some people and you would soon find they are put off. They regard it as some sort of religious jargon; irrelevant and disconnected from their own everyday lives.

However, the Prophet seems to be defining it more widely to cover all of people’s intentional good dispositions as to be righteous ones; giving the word more acceptance in people’s lives.

The Prophet connected the high rank of Imaan and Faith with the most beautiful character of a person, emphasising the obvious connection between the two. However, this connection also works in reverse; if one goes down, it takes the other with it.

Encouraging the believers even further he said: ‘nothing would weigh heavier for a believer in the Balance on the Day of Judgement than his beautiful character’.

When the prophet was asked the question: ‘what would mostly enable people to enter the Paradise? He replied saying: ‘the consciousness of God and their beautiful characters’.

All people, regardless of their culture, national identity and religious values, desire a society with a firm moral framework and high human values. No one would like to live in a society which is morally corrupt, where crime is rampant and people are rude and weak in character, and where society takes no pride in charitable work, caring and kindness and repeatedly fails to display the best of human behaviour.

Islam shows us how to forge a better human society by building the characters of all of us in this world, so that we may benefit in the next. Many Muslim societies seem to be plunging into the abyss of evil and the resultant immoral and corrupt mindset is destroying many people. We should not relinquish our pride as we can only prosper within a truly Islamic framework of faith and beauty of character. That is what we all should strive for.