Messenger Audio 24.2 (17-Dec-1982)

Idol worship past can turn to credits when you become a believer. If you intentionally sin, be ready for payback. Anything you want in Heaven. Hajj rights passed down but also mentioned in Quran.

(0:02) Then God will change their sins into credits, for God is forgiving, merciful. (0:09) Let us say you are in a state of idol worship for ten years, and you commit sins and you repent, (0:20) but you cannot be forgiven, you see. (0:23) And then all of a sudden you come to the realization that you should not be an idol worshiper, (0:27) and you come out of idol worship and all your sins can be forgiven and converted to credits. (0:34) We should take this verse at face value. (0:37) This is the description of the believer. (0:51) 63, let's start at 63, page 249, starting at 63. (0:57) And for the servants of God most gracious, who walk on earth humbly, (1:02) and when the ignorant speak to them, they only utter peace, (1:06) and who spend the night before their Lord, prostrating and standing, (1:10) and who say, Our Lord, spare us the agony of the therein, (1:15) surely its restitution is agonizing, it is a miserable abode, a miserable destiny, (1:19) and when they spend, they are neither extravagant nor stingy, they are moderate, (1:26) and they never set up besides God any idols, (1:29) nor do they kill anyone except in the course of justice, (1:33) nor do they commit adultery, anyone who does these is wicked. (1:38) The retribution will be doubled for him on the day of resurrection, (1:41) he abides therein in eternal humiliation. (1:44) As for those who repent, believe, and work righteousness, (1:47) then God will change their sins into credit, for God is forgiving and merciful. (1:53) Whoever repents and works righteousness, God redeems him a complete redemption. (2:01) So, all these are good news to us. (2:06) In other words, the fact that you have to go out of this life sinless is not a formidable and impossible thing, (2:13) in fact it's attainable by the believer. (2:15) You just have to bear in mind that you continuously repent, (2:22) and be ready to go anytime and make sure that you are sinless, repenting all the time. (2:36) And if you are to fall in sin, be ready to pay, (2:39) if you think this is wrong and you are going to do it anyway, be ready to pay. (2:45) Could I suggest also, maybe that, the way this word is conjoined, (2:52) the phrase work righteousness is conjoined with repentance, in 17:71, (3:00) maybe the suggestion I'm offering is that, (3:03) suppose you harm someone, and therefore you have disobeyed Allah, (3:10) and you ask Allah for forgiveness for what you have done, (3:15) you see, this might not be enough, you have to work righteousness, (3:18) you might have to make amends regarding the person whom you have hurt, (3:26) because I know the Quran is always put belief and work, (3:31) always together, it's not just an isolated thing, (3:33) it's always all over and so on. (3:37) I do remember, years ago, there was this problem of discussion or something, (3:46) and our teacher, one of the strict men, he said, (3:51) if you insult a man, later on you regret, and you say, (3:55) Allah, I'm sorry I insulted you, our teacher used to say, (4:00) if that man really is repentant, and if he meant what he said, (4:04) then it's not Allah, I'm sorry that I insulted this man, (4:07) he should go to this man and apologize, (4:09) that's right and that's still doing what Allah wants him to do, (4:14) so there is the social aspect. (4:18) This mode of discussion also brings into focus the importance of the duties, (4:23) the salat, the hajj, why should we save money and take the trip to Mecca, (4:28) and go through the hardship, (4:31) also the five prayers a day, and the fasting of Ramadan, (4:35) obviously those are, God is trying to help us wipe out all the sins. (4:47) It's another answer to the question, why should we pray five times a day, (4:54) because of the inadvertent sins that we do all the time, (4:57) because of the laziness that we may exhibit, (5:04) because of the sins that we cannot help. (5:09) So all the prayers and fasting and these things provide us with the means of erasing the sins. (5:18) But you see, when you go to heaven, you will not have all those sins that you are ashamed of, (5:24) you will not have any record, unless you do a personal investigation on your own, (5:29) that you yourself see, you are going to travel in time, go back and review your life and go to death, (5:33) you will do it, you can do it if you want. (5:35) But nobody answers you, because the pain is erased. (5:45) Whatever you want, see. (5:47) In heaven you get anything you want. (5:49) If you want to look back and review your life, only you can do it. (5:54) If you don't want anybody else to see it, only you decide that. (5:57) You are going to be in the kingdom of God, and God says you do whatever you want. (6:02) There is absolutely no embarrassment, no humiliation, (6:08) there is nothing but dignity and happiness and love and perfect perfection, (6:14) and more than perfection in heaven. (6:19) So these are the means of editing the faith. (6:22) repentance and righteous work. (6:29) Okay, back to our lesson. (6:32) Sammy and Beth we were on page 21, verse 4:96. (6:37) It's a book about hajj pilgrimage. (6:41) And I was explaining the things that you do. (6:46) Again, like all the other practices, it's a form where you are enforcing your mastership over your body. (6:56) Because with the vast majority of people, the body is the boss. (7:03) They do everything in this life to please the body, (7:06) to give it a good job, good money, good house, good spouse. (7:11) The body is whatever they cater to the body's desires. (7:14) That's all they want, that's all they do. (7:17) And it is the most stupid thing anybody can do, (7:20) because the body vanishes, becomes dust. (7:24) And then you stand by yourself. (7:29) People, you can imagine the person after shedding the body, they say, (7:32) My God, I spent all my life caring for this thing, which is rotting now. (7:41) I went to school, took tests to get a good degree and have a good job. (7:50) I just spent my life caring for this thing. (7:53) What did I do for myself? (7:54) Now what you do for yourself is a spiritual tool, (7:59) the prayers, the fasting, the charity, the righteous work, worshipping God, remembering God. (8:05) Because your soul is part of God. (8:12) But if you are ill or suffering some head injury, (8:15) then you may cut your hair and expiate by fasting or giving a charity or some other form of worship. (8:21) During the normal times of peace, if you break the state of sanctity between Umrah and Hajj, (8:26) you expiate by offering a sacrifice. (8:31) When we were making Hajj, my father wanted to break ihram between Umrah and Hajj. (8:39) Because it makes it, we were there early. (8:42) We were there on the first day of the month, dhul Hijjah. (8:47) And then the day, the official day of Hajj is the eighth day. (8:51) Everybody must be in Mecca on the eighth day. (8:58) This is the day of Hajj, the eighth of dhul Hijjah. (9:02) On the ninth day, everybody must be on Mount Arafat. (9:05) So we went on the first to finish the Umrah on the first. (9:08) Now we have eight days. (9:11) And my father wanted to relax, change his clothes, shave, whatever he wanted to do. (9:16) So he had to sacrifice a sheep. (9:20) And this is what the verse says. (9:23) I chose not to break the state. (9:26) So I continued with my Ihram. (9:28) I'm sorry. (9:30) Sheep. (9:31) Yeah. (9:32) When you go to the Kaaba, the Quran is like - (9:36) does it say in the Quran that you have to go to Arafat and search for the Kaaba. (9:42) most of the practices come to us like Salat through Abraham. (9:45) But actually most of the Hajj is mentioned here. (9:50) The encircling of the Kaaba is mentioned here. (9:54) The running to Safar al-Marwah is mentioned here. (10:01) Arafat is mentioned in verse 198. (10:04) 198? (10:06) In Muzdalifah. (10:08) In Muzdalifah it's mentioned. (10:09) 198. (10:11) Yeah, that's right. Arafat is mentioned with Muzdaliafah. (10:14) So Arafat is mentioned in Muzdalifah. (10:17) So almost everything in Hajj is mentioned in Quran. (10:22) Now, when you go around the Kaaba seven times, it will seem like idol worship. (10:32) Because you're going around the building. (10:36) And people will ask, are you worshipping this thing? (10:40) That's why the language of the Quran is very important here in Arabic. (10:43) Because God says it is perfectly all right to go around the Kaaba. (10:47) You are not committing a sin by encircling the Kaaba. (10:50) This is how Ahmed Barouni raised that question the other day about the Safar al-Marwah. (10:55) The language of Quran is like God said, it's perfectly all right for you to fall prostrate before Adam, to the angels. (11:02) Are they worshipping Adam? (11:04) Or what? (11:05) So it is by permission from God that you're doing this. (11:09) You're doing this because in obedience to God. (11:12) And the angels fell prostrate before Adam, not because they worshipped Adam, but in obedience to God. (11:18) And this language of the Quran is very, very careful and very significant. (11:25) So if anybody tells you that this is a form of idol worship, you say it's an order from God. (11:30) That's why it's all right. (11:32) The specific words of the Quran are, you are not committing an attempt by... (11:37) Let me see a good example here. (11:43) You shall commemorate that during the specified days after Hajj. (11:47) Thus, we complete this in two days, we commit no error. (11:53) And if you can only commit…