Behaving Faithfully

By Abu Khaliyl Jadd Sylvester
Transcribed by Aboo Uthmaan [1]

Many people believe that because Muslims talk about laws, we are not allowed to do this, we have to fast this month, we have to pray at this time and so fourth, they think that we are just people of “works,” and they will quote to us that you can’t get into heaven with “works” alone. This is not the case in that Muslims are not just people of “works,” rather…

We have faith and we believe in faith, and in order to understand what is meant by that most of our teachers teach us that faith is something that is in the heart, that we say upon the tongue and that we do with the limbs, that is that it is not just merely what we think about with our mind, it is also something that we say and is something that we do and this is behaving faithfully.

I always give the example of the man and the wife. We say in the English language that the one who is faithful to their marital ties is the one who does not commit adultery. So we call such a person who is faithful to their ties of marriage “faithful” because they have not breached that trust. This does not mean that they do not know or believe that they are married, in other words, believing that they are married is one thing and acting faithful to the covenant is another.

So this is clear in the English language, similarly in the Arabic language and in our religion that a person who claims to believe in something, it is not enough that he merely just claims it, but rather he has to speak on it and act accordingly. Everything that we do that is taught in our religion, speak upon, be it ordered or recommended and everything that we do with our bodies, be it ordered or recommended, all of these are acts of faith.

Our faith includes not only what is in the heart, but what is upon the tongue and the limbs. The idea is that when there is true faith in the heart God will guide the speech and actions of the person correctly. This brings us back to what I said is the objective of our religion (Islam), that is to worship God as though you see Him and although you see Him not He certainly is constantly watching you.

The creatures of God thus become the people whom God is pleased with, the people that He will love because they have proven that they love Him, not only have they said that they love Him, not have only have they thought about that in their hearts, but they have acted in accordance with what He has ordered them to do. The person who is faithful to their covenant is one who does breach their covenant and who does not act treacherously with it.

If I give you some money and I ask you to keep it for two weeks and I come back and you have given it away then you have behaved treacherously and have been unfaithful to the covenant that you have taken or the agreement that you have made. In the same way a person who claims to believe may behave unfaithfully, he may sin and the sin that he commits will tarnish and darken the light of faith that is in his heart, but the more good deeds he does, the more good things he says, the more he remembers God, the more he gives in charity, the more he prays and the more he reminds himself of God and calls upon Him seeking to be spiritually closer to Him then the more God will guide his heart to do the right thing.

In this way it is like a person who lifts weights, he can not just go out and lift all of this weight today, 500lbs, he has to work his way up, he lifts 100lbs 10 times each day and then 150lbs and so fourth and then his faith becomes stronger, his strength becomes stronger and he can take on more weight, and similarly with faith in our religion. The concept of faith is merely the guidance of God and when the heart is guided by Him it is reflected upon the tongue and upon the limbs.

Likewise, a sign of the weakness of a person’s faith is when what is upon their tongues and what is upon their limbs is contradicted by their behaviour, when they behave unfaithfully, then this is an indication that such a person has a problem with his faith, and God knows best as to the reason for it.

It is very important to indicate that our religion is a way of life; it is not merely something that we think about. In other words, what is common today is that religion has been relegated to philosophy, what is your philosophy about this and your philosophy about that. This is not what we mean when we say religion; our religion is Islam, that is we believe in Islam which means to submit, the act of submission is submitting to the decrees and orders of God.

We submit to what God orders us to do out of love, fear and hope of Him, wanting to draw closer to Him and by doing that He enlightens our heart and guides us to the right way if we are truthful in that, if we do not breach this covenant and act in accordance to what we have been ordered. On the other hand, if we act contrary to that then we will suffer in this life and in the Hereafter.

So our faith is not merely something that we think about and we do not believe that everyone has the right to just think whatever he wants about anything. We believe that God Almighty has the right to tell us what is right and what is wrong and that human beings do not have the right to compete with Him in that arena. The Almighty God knows how everything was constructed and made and He knows what is best for everything and that human beings that are creatures that were created by the Creator do not know better than Him what is best for them.

Footnote:

[1] I (Aboo Uthmaan) transcribed (albeit not a verbatim transcription) this text from a lecture entitled “An Introduction to Islam” by Abu Khaliyl Jadd Sylvester. Any mistakes in this transcription are from me, and the Shaykh is free from them.