{"id":20356,"date":"2018-11-07T13:43:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T13:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/khutba-on-trust-truth-and-belief\/"},"modified":"2018-11-07T13:43:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T13:43:57","slug":"khutba-on-trust-truth-and-belief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/khutba-on-trust-truth-and-belief\/","title":{"rendered":"Khutba on Trust, Truth, and Belief"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the world we live in we are constantly bombarded with information from many different sources: television, press, social media, conversations with peers, friends and family or what we have learned from teachers and men and women of knowledge and study.
\nAnd this information is often contradictory, so how do we know what to believe?
\nOn what basis do we accept one discourse or another?
\nI have come to realize that the answer lies in trust, and for that trust to be placed in the right place we have to recognize the truth when we see it and distinguish it from falsehood.
\nIn this way, the two keys to living in this world ‘ala bayyinatin min al-amr<\/em>, with our eyes open, seeing a situation clearly for what it is, are sidq<\/em> and amana<\/em>.
\nHow do we acquire these qualities?
\nThe answer is belief in Allah and His Messenger, peace be upon him.
\nOn what basis do I say this?
\nBased on the meaning of these same words.
\nThe two main Arabic words for belief are imam<\/em> and tasdiq<\/em> \u2013 literally, to have belief or confidence and to affirm or acknowledge the truth.
\nTo have a magnet<\/em> is to put our trust in the one who is worthy of being trusted, and to have tasdiq<\/em> is to see the truth when it appears in front of us.
\nThe purer our belief, the more we put our trust in the right place, not the wrong place, and the more we are able to recognize truth and distinguish it from falsehood, regardless of how reasonable the falsehood may seem, and how strange the truth may seem.
\nThe best example of this is Saidina Abu bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, who was nicknamed as-Siddiq, given his unhesitating statement of the Prophet’s Night Journey when it was told to him; a journey so seemingly ridiculous that idol worshippers thought they had found the ultimate proof they needed to convince the Prophet’s followers to abandon him.
\nWhat was Abu Bakr’s response when, mockingly, he was told cheerfully that Muhammad claimed that he had traveled to Jerusalem and returned in a single night?
\nHe said, “If he has said it, then it must be true.”
\nHe didn’t care what was being said, only who was saying it.
\nAnd the one who said it was as-Siddiq al-Amin \u2013 the truthful one who had never lied, the one who could be absolutely trusted in his words, states and actions.
\nThe man who in his entire life had never told a lie and had never betrayed a trust.
\nThe man whose every word was accepted even by his enemies \u2013 except when it came to matters of the deen \u2013 and to whom they entrusted their wealth even as they plotted their downfall.
\nSaidina Abu Bakr understood; And if we want to make sense of the world we live in and see which path to follow and which to avoid, which narrative to accept and which to reject, we must understand as well.
\nNot all fonts are created equal.
\nTake only from the people of Allah and the heirs of Rasuul, peace be upon him, and what they indicate.
\nAnd the rest… Take it carefully.
\nDon’t make it the basis of your understanding of what’s going on in the world. Most of these sources have a proven track record of being wrong, if not of outright falsehood and disinformation, what has been called fake news<\/em>, either completely false or misleading through the application or omission of emphasis.
\nAllah says: <\/p>\n

You who believe!
\nIf someone who is not trustworthy comes to you with news, make sure first; lest you cause harm to someone through ignorance and then have to repent of what you did.
\n(Private Apartments, 49:6) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This aya,<\/em> was revealed when a man reported that a group of people had left Islam and joined the enemy, but, instead of attacking them, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, sent a group of trustworthy people to check if the information was correct.
\nHe did not automatically believe what he had been told, especially given the source and that a group of Muslims were accused.
\nAnd they discovered that what the man had said was false.
\nThese people continued to be Muslims.
\nWe have to be careful.
\nWe have to be discriminated against, and our default position in relation to other Muslims must be one of good thought.
\nWe must be quick to believe the good and slow to believe the bad.
\nAnother example of this is found in the story of slander against our mother, since she was one of the Ummahat al-mumini<\/em> (mother of the believers) ‘A’ishah.
\nThe lie was spread and instead of doing what the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had done, when he received the information from the fasiq<\/em>, a significant part of the believers spread it.
\nAnd the lie came to be accepted in some circles as truth, and it created such bad blood among the people of Madina that old wounds were reopened, old differences resurfaced, and the fitna<\/em> again showed its horrible teeth.
\nWeapons were drawn and battle lines drawn and disaster was only averted by a revelation from al-Haqq: <\/p>\n

Why did you not say when you heard it: It is not proper for us to talk about this?
\nGlory to You!
\nThis is a huge slander.
\n(The Light, 24:16) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Allah made this situation happen in order to teach us something.
\nDo not accept words as they sound when their source is unknown or untrustworthy.
\nOn the contrary, think the best of your Muslim brothers and consider what you have heard a lie unless and until proven otherwise.
\nWhat is happening with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman is a reflection of this situation.
\nFrom all directions we receive a narrative about who he is and what he has done to make us perceive him in a particular way.
\nAnd the propaganda offensive has been effective, even leading several Imams and groups of Muslims to propagate it in their missives and to their congregations instructing them, among other things, to boycott the Hajj.
\nAbandoning an obligation due to Allah in order to show one’s discontent with one of His creations.
\nThey have taken the bait, fallen on the hook, been caught in their nets, and succumbed, but even if what is said were true, this would not justify their actions.
\nIt would still be ghiba<\/em> \u2013 eating the flesh of a Muslim brother.
\nPutting their trust in the wrong sources has led them down a dark path and away from the truth.
\nAllah says: <\/p>\n

If you obey the majority of those on earth, they would lead you astray from the path of Allah; they follow nothing but suppositions, they only conjecture.
\n(The Flocks, 6:116) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Muslims we are taught to support our Muslim brothers and sisters and to speak well of them, or to remain silent.
\nAs the Prophet said, peace be upon him: Whoever believes in Allah and the Hereafter should speak good or be silent.
\nWe don’t spread the bad things we hear about others, even if we know it’s true.
\nIbn Sirin said: “If you hear something (bad) about your brother, look for an excuse for it. If you can’t find an excuse, then say to yourself, ‘I may have an excuse I don’t know.'”<\/em> And even more so when it comes from sources that we know are not trustworthy.
\nBe very careful what you say and always keep the company of the truthful.
\nAllah says: <\/p>\n

You who believe!
\nFear Allah and speak rightly.
\n(The Allies, 33:70) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who are the truthful?
\nThey are those in whom the inner and the outer are in harmony.
\nThat they do what they say and say they want to say it.
\nThey are the people of Allah, the muttaqin <\/em>and the dhakirin<\/em>.
\nListen to their words and base your understanding of the world on what they tell you.
\nDo this and you will be safe and see the world for what it is.
\nFor you will see it not through the light of the sun, or the moon, or lampposts and lamps, but through the light of Allah and His people.
\nI would like to end the Khutba with a dua<\/em> from the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, which is very important for us in the time of unimaginable falsehood and illusion in which we live, in which nothing is as it seems.
\nThese times that the Prophet described to us when he said: <\/p>\n

There will come a time of great confusion in which the words of liars will be believed and the truthful will be rejected, in which the disloyal will be trusted and not those who are trustworthy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The dua<\/em> is: <\/p>\n

O Allah!
\nShow us the truth as truth and make it our rizq<\/em> to follow it and show us falsehood as false and make it our rizq<\/em> to abandon it. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Khutba delivered by Shaykh Habib Bewley in Cape Town on Friday, October 26, 2018.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the world we live in we are constantly bombarded with information from many different sources: television, press, social media, conversations with peers, friends and family or what we have learned from teachers and men and women of knowledge and study. And this information is often contradictory, so how do we know what to believe? …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[456,655,656,657],"class_list":["post-20356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-khutbas","tag-khutba","tag-cape-town","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-muhammad-bin-salman-en"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/IMG_8947.jpg?fit=4032%2C3024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mezquitadesevilla.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}