Important words about brotherhood and love for the sake of Allah, and an important warning against the negligence of some righteous people regarding this matter.
By Sheikh Rabee’ bin Hadi Umair Al-Madkhali, حفظه الله.
This spirit, the spirit of brotherhood, affection, and pure love. I see that Muslims lack it. Rather, I see a clear weakness in the elite of people who are affiliated to the Sunnah, the Hadith, and the Salafi methodology, and I see that they don’t give this matter as much as it deserves of attention. The matter of love and brotherhood for the sake of Allah, piety, advising one another and having mutual connection with each other on this basis is a great matter without which the affairs of Muslims will not be established. So how can the best, the closest and most honorable among sects in the eyes of Allah the Most High, be missing it now!? How can this great and important element be weakened in them, which must be extremely abundant and perfect!? Indeed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,
والذي نفسي بيده لا تدخلون الجنة حتى تؤمنوا ولا تؤمنوا حتى تحابوا
“By him in whose hand my soul is, you will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another”
“By him in whose hand my soul is, you will not enter Paradise until you believe: because only a believing soul will enter Paradise, as he ﷺ said in other hadiths and on other occasions,
“And you will not believe until you love one another”: meaning that this faith will not be complete except with the existence of this love and the existence of this caring in the cause of Allah عز وجل and for the sake of Allah تبارك وتعالى. So, this matter, my brothers, I see that it is missing.
The groups that differ from the Manhaj of the righteous predecessors, their love for each other exists, but their love only follows their desires first and foremost, because this love is based on supporting and spreading innovations and cooperating in spreading them. It’s not a love that is for the sake of Allah, even if the shaytan makes most of these groups think that their love is for the sake of Allah which is not the case. So, brothers, we must love one another for the sake of Allah, and this is an obligation, as this hadith indicates.
Therefore, nullifying (complete) faith of us requires that this matter is one of the most obligatory duties that must be performed among us believers. “By the One in whose hand is my soul, you will not enter Paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Should I not guide you to something if you do it you will love one another: spread the greeting of Salam among you.”
Look, he says to you, you will not enter Paradise until you are a believer, and you will not be a believer until you love for the sake of Allah تبارك وتعالى. This love that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ enjoins is for Allah and for the sake of Allah تبارك وتعالى and he shows us the means and causes, that will establish this noble goal for us, including spreading the greeting of Salam. He warns us of the causes that lead to hatred and disharmony, and this is what many of the the people of sunnah and the people of truth ignore, as well as others who have turned away from the right methodology among the people of innovation and desires.
Being close to each other in rows (while praying), placing heels against heels and shoulders against shoulders. This is one of the very strongest causes for harmony, affection and love, but falling short of it and neglecting it is one of the most severe causes that lead to division, hatred, hostility and disunity. This is something that was and is underestimated by many Muslims, even among the major students of knowledge, unfortunately; And many hadiths have been mentioned in this regard, but we do not have the proper understanding of them and if we truly understood them we could have applied them and gain therein much good, and we could have spared the nation great efforts in obtaining the reasons for assembling and bringing people together. Perhaps those who exclaim over the unity of Muslims are the most averse to this Sunnah and the most among people who are neglecting it and many of them may ridicule its people, and we have even heard sermons and lectures in belittling it (this Sunnah) and ridiculing its people.
And this happened because of ignorance and underestimation of these prophetic directives, and at the same time because of the ignorance of what he (the so-called exclaimer) is keen on: “You, my brother, are keen to gather the word of the Muslims, then you are so indulged in negligence, or even fighting against this Sunnah that made you achieve something which great for you and saves you great efforts and perhaps a lot of money that you would spend on bringing people together. {If you had spent all that is in the earth, you could not have brought their hearts together} Allah said this as a favor to His Prophet ﷺ.
And Allah has brought together the hearts of his companions with the causes that they were engaged in, including believing in this Messenger, following this Qur’an, following the Quranic instructions, then implementing his instructions and his directives ﷺ, and among them is what he ﷺ said: “You must either straighten your rows (in prayer), or Allah will cause disagreement to occur among your faces." What did the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ do? After that, they would place heels against heels and shoulders against shoulders under the eye of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The Messenger was watching them, they were applying his guidance and fearing these dire consequences that he ﷺ had warned them against: “So let your ranks be straightened, or Allah will discord between your faces”, and in some narrations: “between your hearts”, meaning that hearts and souls will be filled with resentment; then, dissension and disunity will occur.
So, negligence in this Sunnah, rather in this duty, leads to such corruptions. So why are those who call people to Allah and to be gathered in one row not keen on this? Why are they not keen on implementing this, Sunnah? which saves for them a lot of talking, chatter and elaquent speeches, and it saves for them many other things and make them achieve this goal; Of course, if this call is based on the truth and following the methodology of Allah تبارك وتعالى, these matters lead to achieving this noble goal, which is loving for the sake of Allah تبارك وتعالى. which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told us that we will not enter Paradise after believing in Allah unless we achieve this great thing, because losing it leads to division, dissension, and loss. {Do not quarrel, lest you fail and lose your strength}. So, this miserable and crushing failure that befalls the Muslims and put them in the rear end of nations and made them the most humiliated among nations and caused a fierce battle to take place over their heads everywhere. All of that is because of their distance from the guidance of Allah تبارك وتعالى and due to their negligence of these instructions.
Many of these poor people do not even think of such great Sunnah's that bring them much goodness, and love in Allah, which is a great matter, brothers. “There are three qualities for which anyone who is characterized by them will relish therein the sweetness of faith: he to whom Allah and His Messenger are dearer than all else; he who loves a man for Allah's sake alone; and he who has as great an abhorrence of returning to unbelief after Allah has rescued him from it as he has of being cast into the fire (of Hell).”
The love of Allah تبارك وتعلى and the love for His sake (meaning) the love of the believers for His sake and hatred of disbelief, because this is something that Allah hates which is the opposite of this love of Allah تبارك وتعالى. Whoever has it must taste the sweetness of faith, and if he does not taste the sweetness of faith, then he is the one who has committed evil against himself. So, he should inspect these three things, if there is a defect in them, then let him correct this defect and complete this deficiency, and he has to work hard therein in order to complete the love of Allah and the love of His Messenger ﷺ , so that Allah and His Messenger will be the most beloved thing to him. After that, he must love he who deserves this love for the sake of Allah, تبارك وتعالى; he only loves him for the sake of Allah. Then, he does his best in hating disbelief and all types of disobedience that result from it, until he fully completes all these three things, and at that time, he will feel the pleasure of faith and the sweetness of faith. If he does not find it, he has no one to blame except his own self. If Allah تبارك وتعالى , grants him success, then let him roll up his sleeve to complete it until he tastes the sweetness of faith and is content with the love of Allah تبارك وتعالى; because if you love Allah sincerely and obey his commands, then Allah will (certainly) love you ( in return), and this is a great matter {Say: If you love Allah, then follow me, and Allah will love you}
The companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ were very keen on Allah’s love for them. Have you heard the hadith of the Conquest of Khaybar when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Tomorrow I will give the flag to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him”?
What did the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ do? They couldn't sleep and stayed awake during the night, and each one of them wanted to be the one to whom the flag was given, in order to achieve this great status, which is Allah’s love for him, to the extent that Omar رضي الله عنه -and he was a minister of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and one of the closest to him. That’s why the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to say: “I, Abu Bakr, and Omar entered, and I, Abu Bakr, and Omar left, and I, Abu Bakr, and Omar went, because Omar was accompanying him most of the time.” Omar was not keen on the leadership all his life until he heard these words: “Tomorrow I will give the flag to a man who loves Allah and His Messenger, and Allah and His Messenger love him.” Omar said, “By Allah, I never aspired to be an emir except on that day; for what? Is it for the sake of remembrance?”, so that it will be said that Omar took the flag and conquered Khaybar? Or for something else? (It’s) in order to gain the love of Allah تبارك وتعالى through the testimony of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When the morning came, the Messenger ﷺ said: “Where is Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه ? They said that he had Conjunctivitis (an eye disease), so he invoked (Allah) and spat in his eyes, then gave him the flag and instructed him what to do, and part of his advice to him was that he ﷺ said (to him): “by Allah, if Allah gives guidance to somebody through you, it is better for you than possessing red camels." and the part of this Hadith that supports this meaning is that the perfection of the minds and the perfection of the understanding of the companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, has been made clear (to us) in this incident, which is the fact that they spent their night awake competing, {So, for that let the competitors compete}, competing for this flag in order to gain the love of Allah تبارك وتعالى and (to gain) the reassurance that Allah loves this person who will raise the flag to raise the word of Allah تبارك وتعالى (while being) reassured that Allah تبارك وتعالى loves him.
But if we were told this, we would have spent the night asleep because there is a huge difference between our perceptions, our minds, our keenness, and our seriousness, and between the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and رضي الله عنهم أجمعين. This is what I wanted to say in this good meeting, which I hope will be useful إن شاء الله ; what is meant, my dear brothers, is not the words, but rather the remembrance, then action; and I ask Allah تبارك وتعالى to make me and you among those who listen to what is said and follow the best of it. And may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family and companions.
Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=249153771472140&id=100005261281661&mibextid=v7YzmG
Translated by Abu 'Amr Ibrahim al-Maghribi
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