O you who believe! Fear Allāh as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.
[Sūrah Āli ʿImrān, 3:102]
Meaning: Except that you bear witness that none has the right to be worshipped except Allāh, and that Muḥammad is His last Prophet and Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam).
You should have a longing and a desire to die as a Muslim, and for your relatives also. For he who dies upon Kufr (i.e. other than Islām), will reside in the hellfire forever.
ʿAbdullāh Ibn Masʿūd (raḍī Allāhu ʿʿʿanhu) said: There are two matters you can be sure of: he who meets Allāh Tabaraka wa taʿālá worshipping Allāh alone – without associating a partner to Him – will enter Jannah. And he who dies ascribing partners with Allāh will enter the Fire. And Paradise is ḥarām (forbidden) for him.
We seek refuge in Allāh from that (the fire).
Don’t sell your Islām for something from the dunyā or desires, or a transitory or temporary enjoyment, bliss or ease – (and thus receive destruction forever on account of that).
The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: Rush to do good deeds before the fitnah comes like pieces of darkness falling upon us, one after another, trials and tribulations until a man wakes up a Muslim and by night he’s a disbeliever. Or he’s a believer at night, and by morning, he’s a kāfir, selling his dīn for something from the dunyā.
Islām is a mercy and grace from Allāh. How we found Islām is only by Allāh’s mercy and guidance. So we don’t want to lose it. We want to hold onto it for ourselves and our children and the (ensuing) generations.
Allāh created us for His worship: I did not create jinn and mankind except to worship Me. (Sūrah al-Dhariyāt, āyah 56) ʿAlī Ibn Abī Ṭālib (raḍī Allāhu ʿʿʿanhu) said it means: yuwaahidoon (to single Him out).
Allāh created us to worship Him for our benefit. Allāh does not need us. Part of this ‘ʿibādah is doing what He commanded, and staying away from what He forbade. Allāh will give us – (in place) for what we leave off – that which is great and spectacular and marvelous.
Ibn al-Qayyim (raḥimahullāh) said: “Because they (the Muslims) gave up listening to music, Allāh will allow them to hear from the Jannah sounds which can not be imagined, which are unequaled, and so beautiful that has not come to the minds of men.”
If Allāh forbids us from something, it is because of the evil that is in it.
Don’t compromise your Islām. Don’t sell your Islām. Don’t give up your Islām.
It’s a matter of sticking to your Islām during all these trials and tribulations. Due to the enmity of the kufār in general, and hatred they have for the haqq (truth), and the envy that they have that the Muslims have the truth and they (the disbelievers) don’t, and the Muslims stick to it, and they (the disbelievers) are not upon it, due to that and due to some of the foolish things that the ṣufāḥa (foolish ones) amongst us might say or do which might bring harm to the general body of the Muslims and put us all in a state of difficulty, the matter is a matter of holding onto Islām.
The matter is a matter of making sure bi idhnillāh (by Allāh’s Permission) to the best of your ability, by your constant duʿāʾʾʾ, by your constant reflection upon this matter, by your constant resolve, by your constant contemplation upon this matter, by your constant striving in this issue, by asking Allāh – al-Wāḥid al-Qahhār (The One, The Irresistible) – by asking Allāh (Tabaraka wa taʿālá) to maintain you upon this matter, by sticking to it with all resolve, by staying strong upon it, by not caring what comes, by not caring what happens. It’s a matter of maintaining your Islām.
O you who believe! Fear Allāh as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.
The Prophet (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) said: If one of you corrects his Islām (he’s not shaky in his Islām, he’s true in his Islām), every good he does will be written 10 times as much with Allāh, all the way up to 700 times. And every evil he does will be written as one evil until he meets Allāh, ʿAzza wa Jal.
Sticking to Islām is a must. Practicing Islām is a must, having knowledge of true Islām based upon the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of His Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and the understanding and implementation of the first generation is a must.
And the call is a call to Allāh, and the Dīn is a connection to Allāh.
In the ḥadīth of Abī Tamīmee: A man came to the Messenger of Allāh (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam) and said: ya rasoolullāh ila maa tad’oo (O Messenger of Allāh. What do you call to)? He said: ad’oo ilAllāh wahdahu (I call to Allāh alone). The One Who – if any harm touches you – He is The One you supplicate to. And He removes it from you. And if you’re lost upon the earth, you call upon Him, and He guides you. And if you’re in a state of starvation – you have no food or drink – you call upon Allāh Tabarak wa taʿālá and He provides for you. Or if you’re in a state of drought, you call upon Allāh Tabaraka wa taʿālá, He will send down the rain and bring about vegetation and food for you.
This is who we call to. We call to Allāh.
Because there are many who don’t call to Allāh. They call to their Hizb, their group, their click, they call to themselves, to their “dominance,” to their “authority,” to their name, to their plan, to their way, to their methodology.
We call to the Book of Allāh and the Sunnah of His Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). And we call from the Book of Allāh Tabaraka wa taʿālá and from the Sunnah of His Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam), not from our pockets, not from our opinions, not from the ideas of men, not from what this one thinks or that one thinks, but rather from the Book of Allāh Tabaraka wa taʿālá and from the Sunnah of His Messenger (ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam). This is Islām, and this is what we call everyone to unite with us. We call to establish the worship of Allāh alone in our lives, in our households, amongst our children and call everyone to this Islām.
Without it; is destruction, madness, confusion, sadness, darkness, and nothing but something very evil (punishment, the hellfire). And not from us, but by The One Who brought them into existence (Allāh, The Judge on the Day of Judgement who will recompense the Muslims with Paradise, and the doers of evil (who associate partners with Allāh) with an evil abode (hellfire)). Allāh, Who sent down The Book, and sent Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh as a mercy to all of mankind.
So this is what we need to dream about: how we can implement our Islām, how we can maintain our Islām, and be closer to Allāh Tabaraka wa taʿālá, how we can get to the Jannah, how we can avoid the hellfire, how we can attain Allāh’s pleasure and avoid His wrath.
O you who believe! Fear Allāh as He should be feared, and do not die except in a state of Islām, whether you are white, black, red, or yellow, no matter what country you’re from, no matter what language you speak. Do not die except upon Islām.
For this is the reason that Allāh Tabarak wa taʿālá brought us into existence.
