HADITH FORTY: LOVING IMAN AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
When the polytheists left on the Day of Uhud, the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم said, «Form straight rows so that I can praise my Rabb.» They lined up behind him and he said, «O Allah, all praise belongs to You. O Allah, none can contract what You expand or expand what You contract. None can guide whom You misguide nor misguide whom You guide. None can give what You withhold or withhold what You give. None can bring near what You put far nor put far what You bring near. O Allah, grant us abundance from Your blessings, mercy, favour, and provision. O Allah, I ask You for the lasting blessing that does not change or depart. O Allah, I ask You for blessing on the Day of Poverty and security on the Day of Fear. O Allah, I seek refuge with You from the evil of what You gave us and what you withheld. O Allah, make us love Iman and beautify it in our hearts; make us hate disbelief, rebellion, and disobedience; and make us of the guided. O Allah, make us die as Muslims, live as Muslims, and join us with the righteous, neither disgraced nor tempted. O Allah, fight the disbelievers who deny Your Messengers and deter people from Your path and send Your severe punishment over them. O Allah, fight the disbelievers who were given the Book, O the True Ilah.»
Reported by Ahmad (15492) and al-Hakim (1868). Al-Albani declared it sahih (Sahih
al-Adab al-Mufrad, 541)
Commentary
What we love and hate determines the paths we take. Loving Iman and piety is essential to following the truth and resisting temptations. Asking for this love should be one of our frequent prayers.
Praising Allah at all times
This du‘a is remarkable! What makes it even more impressive is the circumstances surrounding it. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم prayed it right after burying the dead of Uhud. He said it while the battle wounds were still fresh and the emotional pains even deeper. It is precisely because of all of this that this du‘a was needed.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم began the du‘a with praising and thanking Allah. It was the common practice of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to praise and thank Allah all the time, no matter what.
When the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم would see [or encounter] what he loved, he would say, «Alhamdulillah by whose bounty good things are done.» And if he would see [or encounter] what he hated, he would say, «Alhamdulillah in every situation.»
Reported by Ibn Majah (3803) and al-Albani declared it hasan (Sahih Ibn Majah, 3803)
It is easy to see why we are thanking Allah during good times. But for the bad ones too? Yes, even the bad times. Allah deserves our gratitude no matter what is happening at any moment. What seems like hardship and misfortune is, in fact, a blessing. It is just that the blessing is hiding beneath the veneer of the test. Does Allah send anything bad, or could anything bad come from Him? Are our sins not forgiven through hardship?
Do they not teach us patience and humility? Do they not open our eyes and send us back to Allah? Hardship transforms us into better Muslims and humans. It is just difficult sometimes to see this and appreciate it while in the midst of it. Praising and thanking Allah reminds us to look for the hidden blessing, to extract it, and turn every misfortune into a gift.
Consider the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم praise of Allah right after the pain of Uhud. Were not so many Muslims just killed? Was this not a defeat? It is a defeat only if it defeats you and steals you away from Allah. Were those killed not martyrs, blessed with such
death? Were they not happier with Allah than they ever were on earth? Their departure was sad, but their destination is beautiful. When you thank Allah despite your pain, He allows you to see the other side of the story. Uhud taught Muslims a valuable lesson. It taught them the necessity of listening to the commands of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. If you disobey him, you would be leaving Allah’s care. It taught them to put the Hereafter before worldly gains and the Will of Allah before their desires. It prepared them for the death of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم so they could carry the message after his painful departure. These are lessons for us too. This is why he stood up and thanked Allah, dedicating all praise to Him. Even if you cannot see the benefits of a test, they are there. Thanking Allah opens our hearts and minds so we can see them.
Surrendering before Allah
It is such a beautiful du‘a! The Prophet continued his praise of Allah by enumerating His Perfect Qualities, contrasting them with our weakness. He is the only One who gives and the only One who guides. If He holds something back, no one else can grant it. If you want something that is far, He can bring it near. And if you want something near to be gone, Allah can take it away. So, ask Him alone for what you want. And accept and submit to Him when He decides.
Surrendering to Allah is the best way to deal with a setback. It allows you to accept that what happened was destined and inevitable, so nothing could have been done to stop it. Regret and self-blame are meaningless when something cannot be avoided. The second thing it does is that it supplies you with hope and energy, coming from your faith in Allah and reliance on Him. Whenever you fall, you can get back up because Allah is always there, willing to help, and promising the best. Allah is bigger than any setback.
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم would rush to Allah whenever something distressed him.
When something would distress the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, he would pray.
Reported by Abu Dawud (1319) and al-Albani declared it hasan (Sahih Abi Dawud, 1319)
Praying unburdens us from worry and sadness. And it injects us with energy and the hope that it all will be better with Allah’s help. Salah redirects our attention to the Hereafter. When one’s gaze is focused solely on this world, their problem gets amplified, especially when no solution and compensation seem possible. But the Hereafter opens the door wide open for a resolution to our problems. First, all worldly problems have expiration dates, so a day will come when your problem and the hurt you feel will end. Second, whatever we lose or lack here will be available there. You see this refocus on the Hereafter in the Hadith. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم asked Allah for the eternal blessing, highlighting the shifting fortunes of this world. If we lose some of Allahs’ blessings here—as they did in Uhud—remember that this is the nature of life on earth. So, set our eyes on the Hereafter, where Allah will compensate you for your losses, and you will never experience another loss. Suppose you experience fear and lack of security—like what happened in Uhud. Remember then that the Day of Judgment is far more terrifying. If Allah saves you from it, you will never be afraid again. Worldly problems pale in comparison to the rewards and trials of the Hereafter. This is another benefit of hardships: they expose the sour reality of our worldly life and ask us to set our sights on the Hereafter. The du‘a of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم alerted the Companions to the Hereafter as their pursuit and destination. As long as they lived seeking Allah, all the hardship they encountered on the road to Allah was minuscule. Remembering Allah makes everything easier. Remembering Allah takes your problems away.
Praying for love
I will not be telling you anything new when I say that life is challenging. As long as you are alive, you are going to keep facing things that you like and things that you hate. You will be tempted in so many ways to stray away from Allah’s path and pursue something else out of greed, lust, frustration, doubt, and anger. And unless Allah saves us, we will be lost. Unless we love Iman, we will not pursue it. If we do not distaste disbelief and disobedience, they will drag us to Hell. Thus, the prayer of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to make Iman beloved to us and disbelief and sin hateful.
Loving righteousness is one of Allah’s greatest favours. Allah said:
But Allah made Iman beloved to you and beautified it in your hearts, and He made disbelief, major sins, and small sins hateful to you. Those are the guided ones.
Al-Hujurat (Q49:7)
This is what makes following Allah and His Prophets easier. This is what makes turning away from temptations possible. It is in our nature to love righteousness, a divine gift of recognizing the truth and desiring it. When we pursue the truth, our love for it grows. But there are obstacles on our path. And our hawa (desire) stands in the way. So do the whispers of Shaytan and the pressure from our environment and friends. If our love for
the truth is not greater and stronger, we will surrender to other influences and become another victim of Shaytan.
The problem with sin is not only the act but also how it changes us. It transforms what was abhorrent and unthinkable before to something likeable and desirable. One of the evil consequences of sin is the inability to see it as sin anymore, the collapse of the moral and ethical fences that kept it safe from Allah’s anger. When sin becomes a practice—a new normal—its love settles in the heart. If that happens, we will hate the Iman that forbids it. Loving sin is the greatest misfortune. Allah said:
I will turn away from My signs those who are arrogant without right on earth. And if they were to see every sign, they would not believe in it. And if they were to see the path of guidance, they will not follow it. And if they were to see the path of misguidance, they will follow it. This is because they disbelieved in Our signs and were heedless of them.
Al-A‘raf (Q7:146)
Those people earned their blindness; they willingly chose it! When one walks away from the straight path, they start liking corruption and hating piety. This is the calamity when the heart turns towards sin and away from Allah. The prayer to make Iman beloved to us is a plea to Allah to save us from the temptations that lie ahead and keep our hearts close to Him. He is the only One who can save us.
As we go through life and face its tests, we will have to keep making the right choices. We will make these choices based on what we love. If Allah grants us the right love, we will make the right choices. And every time we do, we will discover more of Allah’s love. Worship becomes an opportunity to get closer to Him, another act of love that fills our life with meaning. And we would see sin as it truly is: a deprivation of love that destroys everything around it.
Love vs. morality
The last part of the du‘a was reserved for those who oppose Allah. At the time, Muslims had just finished fighting the disbelievers. They stood up to their corruption and injustice, trying to please Allah, and it cost them. They saw firsthand the danger of the enemies of Allah when they attempted to extinguish the light of faith. If they had their way, they would have obliterated Islam and Muslims, up to the last person. Stopping
their evil was a necessity; in fact, a great benefit to all. It is to the advantage of the disbelievers when their aggression stops: they cease accumulating sin. And it saves everyone else from their misguidance and torment. Not only do they reject the truth, but they deter people from it and punish them when they follow it. The du‘a of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم against them is a request for their evil to cease in a way that teaches them and everyone else the folly of opposing Allah. When they see the disastrous outcome of their evil pursuits, they will rethink the choices they make.
Does asking for punishment contradict love? This question is a subset of the greater discussion of the relationship between love and hate (see Hadith One and Appendix II). Consider the following question: does the fact that Allah punishes contradict the fact that He loves? If we see a contradiction, it stems from our definitions and assumptions.
There is a divine definition of love, and there is the human attempt to define it and understand it. And the two do not always agree. What we think and conclude is love is not always the love that Allah desires for us. Love, for some, is a permissive state that allows everything. They claim that as long as love is making people happy and is not hurting anyone, it should be celebrated. The question is, however, how do we know that it is not harming anyone? Righteous love is loving the truth, and it is Allah who teaches us what the truth is. And Allah truly knows what is harmful. Loving falsehood and oppression—though technically love—is hardly a thing that any decent person would praise. Not every choice based on love can be celebrated. Love cannot decide its own parameters of morality. If love is letting everyone construct their morality, if love justifies everything and is the embrace of everything, then this would lead to the
dissolution of love itself. Love must have boundaries. If you love something, you must hate its opposite. If you claim to love something and its complete opposite, then you love nothing at all.
Love operates within the natural boundaries Allah made, and cannot transcend them. Love is connected to an array of other emotions and operates in tandem with them. We love something and fear losing it, and we become angry when someone attempts to take it from us. We cannot extract love from this web of emotions, which includes hate. In addition to natural boundaries, there are divine boundaries. If we argue against divine moral boundaries, we lose the ability to set any permanent moral codes in life. Everything then would be up for grabs: what is wrong today is right tomorrow and vice versa. If we accept divine boundaries, we must oppose transgressions against them. Love would require it. If I love the best for others, I would wish that they follow Allah. But would they be able to follow Allah without a deterrence that anticipates and stops
transgressions? Without us seeing the dire consequence of going against Allah? The du‘a of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم for punishment is a protection and preservation of the truth. He made that du‘a because he loved Allah and loved the best for people. And if the only way to stop some falsehood is through punishing those who champion it, then such punishment is a consequence of love and not its opposite.
When Allah created this earth, He placed on it things He loved and things He did not. Its purpose was for Allah’s beloveds to change what He hates with what He loves. Striving elevates us, allows us to reach heights in Allah’s love that would not be
possible without struggle and sacrifice. Those who sacrifice attain the love of Allah. And when they receive Allah’s love, there will be no limit to the favours they will see.
DR. ALI ALBARGHOUTHI
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