Gardens of the Righteous: Class 17 The Garden of Taqwa - Part 1 12 th October 2014 18 Zul Hajj, 1435 A.H.
The Garden of Taqwa Today we will study the garden of Taqwa. PAGE 1
Taqwa: Definition The word Taqwa comes from the word ووقايیة which means precaution / protection. This means we take precaution in order not to fall into harm, danger or evil. Taqwa means to take the necessary protection and precautions from falling in the punishment of Allah. We need to be cautious about our thoughts, utterances/ speech, and actions Umar bin Abdul Aziz described the one having Taqwa as someone who has a mask or shield on him to prevent him from doing anything random ( acting or reacting in a bad way ). The opposite of Taqwa is to follow desire ; desire can take us far away. The one without Taqwa is either following his desire or the desire of others. People who follow desires don t want to be within the border/ their limits. They think they can do or say what they wish. The Muttaqi (A person having Taqwa) on the other hand accounts for his every deed (speech or action) PAGE 2
Allah created us and only He can tell us the purpose of our life. We cannot live our life the way we want. We are in this life to grow in faith. When our faith increases we have a different perspective about things as compared to the one who does not have faith. Taqwa is happiness. We take precaution and protection; we don t follow our desires and we hold ourselves from the punishment of Allah. The punishment of Allah is severe. No one can punish like Allah and no one can reward like Allah. We need to prefer the Paradise to Hell. Means for Taqwa Taqwa is in the heart. The Prophet SAW said the Tawqa is here (pointing to the heart). However there are certain means for attaining Taqwa that are 1. To do the obligations 2. To abstain from the sins What will protect us from punishment of Allah? When we will follow the way that Allah wants for us. We are slaves of Allah. We will go according to how Allah wants me to be in this life. Not what we want to be or what people want me to be. How I will be in the way that Allah wants me to be? We need to take whatever Allah commands us with a good heart. We need to take Allah s command as a mercy. We should not take the obligations as if it is difficult or as if it is oppression. We need to take our obligations as a mercy from Allah. We don t know and Allah knows. Allah is our creator and He knows what is suiting us. He knows what is the safeguard for the human being and for the society. This includes all that Allah command us (whether obligatory or voluntary) Prayer is a commandment of Allah. When we are praying we are following the commandments of Allah then we are Muttaqi. If we will do the obligations, then we will have the Taqwa, then our prayer will protect us from the sins. It will be a safeguard for us. Anything that Allah commands us will benefit us. Allah does not benefit from the laws not even one percent. These laws are for our happiness, success and salvation. Anything that Allah made obligatory; without it we will be a loser. We should not think of Allah s commands as oppression or restriction. PAGE 3
We need to thank that Allah put the laws and not anyone else. We will be the one to benefit from the laws and the society will benefit. The laws of Allah do not change. Allah guarantees that He will protect the religion. No one can add or delete anything in the religion. Allah, The Most Kind, The Most Merciful, The Most Perfect put the laws for us. The laws of Allah for doing the obligations and to prevent from the sins are to keep us in the boundary and to protect us. This is how we will be saved. We should not take the words of people personally and we need to pardon and forgive them. However we need to take Allah s word personally. When we deal with people we should deal casually but we need to deal with Allah seriously. This is how we will attain Taqwa. We need to have a one to one relation with Allah. There is a lot of mention of Taqwa in the Quran especially Surah Baqarah, Surah Hujrat and Surah Talaq. Surah Hujrat is about the relationship with people i.e. the boundaries between people and us. We are told how to deal with believers, disbelievers, friends, enemies, family, those who are absent and those in front of me etc. When we deal with people we need Taqwa. We need to protect and guard ourselves. We should not let anyone control us. Interaction between people is a cause of lot of sins. Taqwa is like we put our heart in a cage and lock it up and throw the key in the sea. No one should have power over us. Our heart is for Allah. Another Surah where Taqwa is emphasized is Surah Talaq. Talaq means divorce. This is because the cause of divorce is following desire and not having taqwa. People are not perfect and they can exceed their boundaries. PAGE 4
Ayat in the Quran about Taqwa PAGE 5
Surah Aal e Imran Ayah 102 Allah is addressing the believer here. In this Ayah is a command for those who belief in Allah. So if we want to be a believer we need to listen attentively. What is the command? Here Allah is telling us to have Taqwa. So the pre- requisite for the Taqwa is belief. If we don t have belief we will not have Taqwa. What will make us to be around the boundary of Allah? It is Belief and trust in Allah that enables us to not follow our desire and follow Allah to be around the boundary. Faith and Iman is the pre- requisite for Taqwa. When we belief and have faith then we can have Taqwa. We need to have the Taqwa that is truly suiting and is worthy of Allah. What is the right of Allah for Taqwa? Sheikh Saadi described in the Tafseer what are the Rights of Taqwa i.e. what is suiting Allah for the Taqwa. PAGE 6
Right of Taqwa / Haqq of Taqwa 1. To be remembered and never forget We need to remember Allah at all times and not forget Him. When we are praying we need to remember we are doing this for Allah and we want the reward from him. Remembering Allah is a cure and remembering people is a sickness. This is why we have morning and evening supplication. This is our happiness and this is Haqq of Taqwa. When we don t remember Allah we remember people and this is a sickness, as the person will be going around in circles and he is not moving forward. This happens when we follow our desire. The distraction of the Duniya makes us to forget Allah. When we forget about Allah we are restless and we are sad and we don t even know why we are restless/sad. Remembering Allah will help us to be within the boundary. 2. To be Grateful and never ungrateful Another thing we need to do is we need to be grateful to Allah at all times and never be ungrateful. Ingratitude is in the form of complain. People are not enjoying what they have because they are looking at what others have and compare it with what they have. This causes ingratitude. We need to not compare ourselves and be grateful for what we have. We need to enjoy the blessings that Allah gave us and look at the positives in our life. We need to look at the good things in our life. This is also true for relationships. Sometimes ingratitude happens in the marriages because one looks at the faults of his spouse. We need to not focus on the faults but look at the benefits / advantage of the person. This is how the marriages can survive in this life 3. To be Obeyed and Never Disobeyed We need to obey Allah and never disobey Him. This is the right of Allah for the Taqwa. PAGE 7
SUMMARY S.No. Taqwa Desire 1. Zikr Allah Remembering others besides Allah 2. Grateful to Allah Ungrateful to Allah 3. Obey Allah Disobey Allah Lastly in the Ayah, Allah forbade us to Not die except in a state of Islam. We should remain firm on taqwa all our life. We need to be in the boundary all our life. We need to obey Allah and have Taqwa till the moment of our death. PAGE 8
Surah Taghabun Ayah 16 Here in this Ayah we are told to do our maximum effort to have Taqwa. We need to follow the rules, as much as we can i.e. as much as we can we need to be within the boundary. Example 1 - Prayer: We need to have taqwa in the prayer by remembering Allah and having Khusooh. But we may feel we never prayed with 100% focus. Here we are told as much as we can we need to focus on remembering Allah. Example 2 - Zikr: Our mind should be focused on the Zikr but sometimes our mind wanders. Here Allah says as much as we can we need to have the focus. There is Hadith of the Prophet SAW that is a person cannot pray standing (Pillar of faith), he should pray sitting, if he cannot pray sitting then he should pray lying down, if one cannot even pray lying down he should pray with his eyes. Similarly if I cannot fast in Ramadan due to sickness or travel then I need to make it up later. Allah then says in this Ayah that to be around the boundary we need to listen to the word of Allah, we need to obey and we need to spend for the sake of Allah. PAGE 9
Then further we are told the one who protect himself from the greed of himself, he is successful. The human being is only thinking about himself. We need to protect ourselves from the greed of ourselves by thinking of others. This is related to Taqwa. What will make a person not to have taqwa and to follow his desire? This is due to his greed of himself. Surah Ahzaab, Ayah 70 and 71 Here Allah is addressing the believers. This shows we need to have belief in order to have Taqwa. We need to have Taqwa to be around the boundary. What will help us to be around the boundary? To say all that is good. The first thing that shows if one has taqwa or not is the tongue. We cannot say anything we want. We need to filter. Before we say PAGE 10
anything we need to think if it is pleasing Allah or not? We need to think if what we utter will bring us close to Allah or if will make Him Angry. Why tongue? This is because the heart is connected with the tongue. When we control our heart our tongue will be controlled. Before we say anything we need to think if it is even one percent negative we need to not say it. We need to have correct words and good words. Our words are like a weapon or a sword. Once we say it we cannot bring our word back. There is Hadith of the Prophet SAW those who believe in Allah will utter good words or will remain silent. if we say good words we will be benefitted and if we say bad words we will be unhappy. We need to think if what we say will please Allah or not; if anyone will be hurt or not. We should not say anything that we will regret later on. The Mutttaqi will think before he says. This is connection between taqwa and good words. PAGE 11
Fruits of Taqwa In this Ayah we are told what will we get if we are within the boundary and we use good words. 1. Allah will reform and fix our deeds. Our good deeds are not perfect and have faults. When we are in the boundary and saying good words, Allah will reform our good deeds and make us to be among the pious. 2. Allah will forgive our sins Allah will expiate our sins when we are within the boundary and saying good words. 3. He will be a winner The person who is controlling himself will be a winner even with silence. PAGE 12
Surah Talaq 203 For the one having Taqwa, Allah will make an exit for him, from his problems. One of the scholar said if the sky were to fall on the earth, Allah will make an exit ( path ) for the Muttaqi. This tells us that only Allah will take us out from our problems; one cannot think that he can exit from his problems himself. With Taqwa, Allah will take us out from our problems and He will provide us with things we cannot even imagine. PAGE 13