Wahab
04-30-2007, 02:36 AM
SACRIFICE
The Making of a Muslim
WHAT IS SACRIFICE?
Part 1a
Tangible Sacrifices
By Khurram Murad
WHAT IS SACRIFICE?
Let us now look at what sacrifice means. What should we sacrifice? What sacrifices are more difficult to make? What sacrifices deserve to be called great?
The Two Types
Sacrifice, as we have seen, simply means to give up things which we love and hold dear, which in our eyes have some value for us. We may possess them now or hope and aspire to have them in future. The things may be tangible and concrete or intangible and abstract. Important among con crete things are time, money, worldly possessions, physical abilities, life. Important abstract things may include our ties of love and affection, especially familial, likes and dislikes, preferences and prejudices, views and opinions, desires and aspirations, pleasures and comforts, status and roles, or merely our ego.
Let me state here three basic principles which, in my view, are important to understand if we want to have a full understanding of sacrifice.
Firstly, giving up something deserves to be called a sacrifice only when we love and value it. Hence, it is difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between the concrete and the abstract. In the final analysis, every sacrifice is a sacrifice of our love or value. When we give away money, or life, or a familial tie for the sake of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala, what we realty give up, and that makes it a sacrifice, is our love for money, life or a relative, not the object itself.
Secondly, it is more difficult and more necessary to sacrifice abstract things rather than the concrete.
Thirdly, we can give up something we love and to which we attach value only for something we love more and to which we attach greater value.
Tangible Sacrifices
We need not dwell here for long upon the sacrifices of concrete things. We know, we realize and we recognize very well the need and importance of such sacrifices, even if we are at times unable or, quite often find it hard, to make them. But, once we dedicate ourselves to a cause, each one of them may be required to be given at its own time and place. Hence, we should pause to note certain of their more important characteristics.
Time
Time is our most precious commodity. Nothing we covet and desire in life can be obtained except by spending time, and spending it properly, in its pursuit. We maybe spending our time to seek pleasure, to earn money and worldly possessions, to work, to enjoy, or we may simply idle it away - doing nothing.
Time is the first thing that Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala demands of us. It takes time to fight in the way of Allaah. It takes time to pray. It takes time to do Da`wah. It takes time to read the Qur`aan. It takes time to visit the sick. Every moment should be spent in seeking His pleasure, in fulfilling our commitment to Him. But, if you reflect more deeply, you will realise that what you are really required to sacrifice is not your time. It is the things in whose pursuit your time is being spent, things which may be contradictory to your goals in life, meaningless, unimportant or less important compared to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala’s cause. Therefore to give your time for Islam, before anything else, you must be ready to sacrifice many other things which claim your time.
How can you bring yourself to sacrifice these things and devote your time to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala?
Remember that time is one thing you cannot hold on to even for a moment. It must continuously slip away from you, in whatever way you choose to spend it. Its value to you is simply what you gain from it. Time will melt away, what you earn will stay.
Remain ever-conscious that every moment in time, depending on how you choose to spend it, will turn into either eternal bliss or an endless misery. Remembering this will strengthen you most in sacrificing your time. The moments you cannot hold on to today will return to you tomorrow, never to go away. Why should you not sacrifice earning something which you will only find turning into a never-ending misery and remorse?
So, while time passes by, reckon deeply: what are you gaining - something transient or something abiding? Will it be a remorse or a joy? What preference has Islam in your time? What proportion of it is devoted to Allaah?
"Let every person look to what he has forwarded for the morrow" (Al-Hashr 59:18).
Sacrificing time for the sake of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala is the essence of Islam: whenever summoned, you must respond. Hence you should continuously train yourself to give up everything by giving your time to the cause of Allaah. Five times a day this quality is ingrained in your character. On Fridays, you have been instructed thus to respond:
"O Believers! When the call to Prayer is sounded on the day of Congregation, hasten to Allaah’s remembrance and leave all worldly commerce. This is for your own good, if you but knew it" (al-Jumu‘aah 62:9).
Worldly Possessions and Money
Most of your time is spent in the pursuit of money or worldly possessions obtained through money. Their desire and love is ingrained in our nature.
"Alluring unto man is the love of worldly desires - women and children and heaped up treasures of gold and silver, and horses of high mark, and cattle, and lands" (Al-‘Imraan 3:14).
This love and desire of worldly things, let us remember, is neither condemnable nor even bad or evil. The world is not inherently evil; such is not the teaching of the Qur`aan. Money and wealth are not despised; it is called the khayr (good). And quite logically. For the path to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala, and to the other-worldly blessings, passes through this-world. If we abandon this-world, we have nothing left by which to gain those priceless treasures. Hence, indeed, it is the only source and basis of gaining Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala’s Pleasure and the other-world.
What makes this-world evil is when we forget that all this has been placed at our disposal for the duration of this-world only, as a means to real and eternal goals, which are better than anything whatever and everything this-world may have to offer. When means become ends, they bring misery by diverting us away from what is of real value to us. The above quoted Qur`aanic verse, therefore, continues:
"All this may be enjoyed in the life of this world; but Allaah - with Him is the best of all goals. Say: Shall I tell you of something better than that? For the Allaah-con scious there are, with their Lord, gardens through which running waters flow, therein to dwell forever, and spouses pure, and Allaah’s good pleasure . .. ." (Aali-`Imraan 3:14-15)
Worldly possessions are not easy things to give away in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala; so many falter and fail when confronted with real choices. What will help you to offer these difficult sacrifices is to constantly remember certain things.
Firstly, nothing belongs to you; everything belongs to Allaah Almighty. When you sacrifice something in the way of Allaah, you are only returning it to the rightful Owner. "To Allaah belongs everything in the heavens and the earth."
Secondly, whatever great value you may attach to worldly possessions, these will become naught with your last breath.
"All that is with you comes to an end; but what is with Allaah is everlasting" (Al-Nahl 16:96)
"And tell them the parable of the life of this world: it is like water which We send down from the skies, and the plants of the earth absorb it; but [in time] they turn into straw which the winds scatter; and Allaah is Omnipotent over everything. [Remember] wealth and children are the adornment of this world’s life …." (Al-Kahf 18:45-6)
Thirdly, only by giving it away for Allaah can you receive it back, increased manifold.
"Lend unto Allaah a goodly loan. Whatever good you shall forward on your own behalf, you shall find it with Allaah, as better and richer in reward" (al-Muzzammil 73:20)
"The parable of those who spend their possessions in the way of Allaah is that of a grain out of which grow seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains . . ." (Al-Baqarah 2:261)
Think for a while: What worth can your claims of committment to Islam have if you spend more money on meaningless pleasures, like smoking and eating, than on your cause? Of what value is your faith in the promises of Allaah, when the slightest hope of profit in this world makes you invest all your savings in a business transaction, but the promise of at least seven hundred-fold return, never to be taken away, cannot force your purse-strings open? You may measure what place Islam occupies in your life by looking at what proportion of your wealth you spend in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala.
Sacrificing wealth has never been easy. But ours is an age when a better standard of living, enjoyment and pleasure, consumerism and material gains have become the only objects of life. Hence you should watch carefully lest you fail in this respect.
Life
A time may come when you will be required to sacrifice your life for the sake of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala. To so lay down your life is the highest act of doing shahadah; you then deserve to be called shaheed. Life is your most precious possession. To sacrifice it means you have to sacrifice everything which life gives or makes possible, all concrete and abstract things that have been mentioned earlier.
You can indeed become eager to die in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala as soon as you realise that your life does not belong to you but to Him, and you must render to Him what is His due. You should also remember that death you can never escape or avoid, that it will always come at the appointed hour and place, in the appointed manner (Aali-‘Imraan 3:185, 144-5, 154-6 ; Al-Nisaa’ 4:78). You should also know that those who die in the way of Allaah attain a life, for themselves and their community and their mission, which transcends their death:
“And say not of those slain in Allaah’s way, "They are dead”; Nay, they are alive but you perceive it not." (Al-Baqarah 2:154)
Let there be no love of this world, let there be no fear death.
Only then can you attain the strength necessary to sacrifice your life. Only by being ready to die can you overwhelm hostile forces. Only then the door of success shall open. By dying you attain life, both for yourself and for the community. Unless you are prepared to die you forfeit the right to live especially as a community.
Not that everyone of us will be called upon to give away his life. But the yearning to do so must burn in every heart.
"One who does not fight or even thinks of fighting in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala will die the death of a hypocrite", said the Prophet, sall Allaahu`alayhi wa sallam (Muslim). He also said: "By Him in whose hands is my life, I love that I die in the way of Allaah and made alive, that I die again and again given life, I again die and once again given life, only to die again in the way of Allaah." (Bukhaari, Muslim)
The Making of a Muslim
WHAT IS SACRIFICE?
Part 1a
Tangible Sacrifices
By Khurram Murad
WHAT IS SACRIFICE?
Let us now look at what sacrifice means. What should we sacrifice? What sacrifices are more difficult to make? What sacrifices deserve to be called great?
The Two Types
Sacrifice, as we have seen, simply means to give up things which we love and hold dear, which in our eyes have some value for us. We may possess them now or hope and aspire to have them in future. The things may be tangible and concrete or intangible and abstract. Important among con crete things are time, money, worldly possessions, physical abilities, life. Important abstract things may include our ties of love and affection, especially familial, likes and dislikes, preferences and prejudices, views and opinions, desires and aspirations, pleasures and comforts, status and roles, or merely our ego.
Let me state here three basic principles which, in my view, are important to understand if we want to have a full understanding of sacrifice.
Firstly, giving up something deserves to be called a sacrifice only when we love and value it. Hence, it is difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between the concrete and the abstract. In the final analysis, every sacrifice is a sacrifice of our love or value. When we give away money, or life, or a familial tie for the sake of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala, what we realty give up, and that makes it a sacrifice, is our love for money, life or a relative, not the object itself.
Secondly, it is more difficult and more necessary to sacrifice abstract things rather than the concrete.
Thirdly, we can give up something we love and to which we attach value only for something we love more and to which we attach greater value.
Tangible Sacrifices
We need not dwell here for long upon the sacrifices of concrete things. We know, we realize and we recognize very well the need and importance of such sacrifices, even if we are at times unable or, quite often find it hard, to make them. But, once we dedicate ourselves to a cause, each one of them may be required to be given at its own time and place. Hence, we should pause to note certain of their more important characteristics.
Time
Time is our most precious commodity. Nothing we covet and desire in life can be obtained except by spending time, and spending it properly, in its pursuit. We maybe spending our time to seek pleasure, to earn money and worldly possessions, to work, to enjoy, or we may simply idle it away - doing nothing.
Time is the first thing that Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala demands of us. It takes time to fight in the way of Allaah. It takes time to pray. It takes time to do Da`wah. It takes time to read the Qur`aan. It takes time to visit the sick. Every moment should be spent in seeking His pleasure, in fulfilling our commitment to Him. But, if you reflect more deeply, you will realise that what you are really required to sacrifice is not your time. It is the things in whose pursuit your time is being spent, things which may be contradictory to your goals in life, meaningless, unimportant or less important compared to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala’s cause. Therefore to give your time for Islam, before anything else, you must be ready to sacrifice many other things which claim your time.
How can you bring yourself to sacrifice these things and devote your time to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala?
Remember that time is one thing you cannot hold on to even for a moment. It must continuously slip away from you, in whatever way you choose to spend it. Its value to you is simply what you gain from it. Time will melt away, what you earn will stay.
Remain ever-conscious that every moment in time, depending on how you choose to spend it, will turn into either eternal bliss or an endless misery. Remembering this will strengthen you most in sacrificing your time. The moments you cannot hold on to today will return to you tomorrow, never to go away. Why should you not sacrifice earning something which you will only find turning into a never-ending misery and remorse?
So, while time passes by, reckon deeply: what are you gaining - something transient or something abiding? Will it be a remorse or a joy? What preference has Islam in your time? What proportion of it is devoted to Allaah?
"Let every person look to what he has forwarded for the morrow" (Al-Hashr 59:18).
Sacrificing time for the sake of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala is the essence of Islam: whenever summoned, you must respond. Hence you should continuously train yourself to give up everything by giving your time to the cause of Allaah. Five times a day this quality is ingrained in your character. On Fridays, you have been instructed thus to respond:
"O Believers! When the call to Prayer is sounded on the day of Congregation, hasten to Allaah’s remembrance and leave all worldly commerce. This is for your own good, if you but knew it" (al-Jumu‘aah 62:9).
Worldly Possessions and Money
Most of your time is spent in the pursuit of money or worldly possessions obtained through money. Their desire and love is ingrained in our nature.
"Alluring unto man is the love of worldly desires - women and children and heaped up treasures of gold and silver, and horses of high mark, and cattle, and lands" (Al-‘Imraan 3:14).
This love and desire of worldly things, let us remember, is neither condemnable nor even bad or evil. The world is not inherently evil; such is not the teaching of the Qur`aan. Money and wealth are not despised; it is called the khayr (good). And quite logically. For the path to Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala, and to the other-worldly blessings, passes through this-world. If we abandon this-world, we have nothing left by which to gain those priceless treasures. Hence, indeed, it is the only source and basis of gaining Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala’s Pleasure and the other-world.
What makes this-world evil is when we forget that all this has been placed at our disposal for the duration of this-world only, as a means to real and eternal goals, which are better than anything whatever and everything this-world may have to offer. When means become ends, they bring misery by diverting us away from what is of real value to us. The above quoted Qur`aanic verse, therefore, continues:
"All this may be enjoyed in the life of this world; but Allaah - with Him is the best of all goals. Say: Shall I tell you of something better than that? For the Allaah-con scious there are, with their Lord, gardens through which running waters flow, therein to dwell forever, and spouses pure, and Allaah’s good pleasure . .. ." (Aali-`Imraan 3:14-15)
Worldly possessions are not easy things to give away in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala; so many falter and fail when confronted with real choices. What will help you to offer these difficult sacrifices is to constantly remember certain things.
Firstly, nothing belongs to you; everything belongs to Allaah Almighty. When you sacrifice something in the way of Allaah, you are only returning it to the rightful Owner. "To Allaah belongs everything in the heavens and the earth."
Secondly, whatever great value you may attach to worldly possessions, these will become naught with your last breath.
"All that is with you comes to an end; but what is with Allaah is everlasting" (Al-Nahl 16:96)
"And tell them the parable of the life of this world: it is like water which We send down from the skies, and the plants of the earth absorb it; but [in time] they turn into straw which the winds scatter; and Allaah is Omnipotent over everything. [Remember] wealth and children are the adornment of this world’s life …." (Al-Kahf 18:45-6)
Thirdly, only by giving it away for Allaah can you receive it back, increased manifold.
"Lend unto Allaah a goodly loan. Whatever good you shall forward on your own behalf, you shall find it with Allaah, as better and richer in reward" (al-Muzzammil 73:20)
"The parable of those who spend their possessions in the way of Allaah is that of a grain out of which grow seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains . . ." (Al-Baqarah 2:261)
Think for a while: What worth can your claims of committment to Islam have if you spend more money on meaningless pleasures, like smoking and eating, than on your cause? Of what value is your faith in the promises of Allaah, when the slightest hope of profit in this world makes you invest all your savings in a business transaction, but the promise of at least seven hundred-fold return, never to be taken away, cannot force your purse-strings open? You may measure what place Islam occupies in your life by looking at what proportion of your wealth you spend in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala.
Sacrificing wealth has never been easy. But ours is an age when a better standard of living, enjoyment and pleasure, consumerism and material gains have become the only objects of life. Hence you should watch carefully lest you fail in this respect.
Life
A time may come when you will be required to sacrifice your life for the sake of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala. To so lay down your life is the highest act of doing shahadah; you then deserve to be called shaheed. Life is your most precious possession. To sacrifice it means you have to sacrifice everything which life gives or makes possible, all concrete and abstract things that have been mentioned earlier.
You can indeed become eager to die in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala as soon as you realise that your life does not belong to you but to Him, and you must render to Him what is His due. You should also remember that death you can never escape or avoid, that it will always come at the appointed hour and place, in the appointed manner (Aali-‘Imraan 3:185, 144-5, 154-6 ; Al-Nisaa’ 4:78). You should also know that those who die in the way of Allaah attain a life, for themselves and their community and their mission, which transcends their death:
“And say not of those slain in Allaah’s way, "They are dead”; Nay, they are alive but you perceive it not." (Al-Baqarah 2:154)
Let there be no love of this world, let there be no fear death.
Only then can you attain the strength necessary to sacrifice your life. Only by being ready to die can you overwhelm hostile forces. Only then the door of success shall open. By dying you attain life, both for yourself and for the community. Unless you are prepared to die you forfeit the right to live especially as a community.
Not that everyone of us will be called upon to give away his life. But the yearning to do so must burn in every heart.
"One who does not fight or even thinks of fighting in the way of Allaah Subhaanahu wa Ta`aala will die the death of a hypocrite", said the Prophet, sall Allaahu`alayhi wa sallam (Muslim). He also said: "By Him in whose hands is my life, I love that I die in the way of Allaah and made alive, that I die again and again given life, I again die and once again given life, only to die again in the way of Allaah." (Bukhaari, Muslim)