Speaking on the realization of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and explaining its virtue and importance
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The Shaykh : Peace be upon you, and Allah's mercy and blessings.
The attendees: And upon you, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be.
The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. Allah the Exalted sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, a mercy to the worlds and a model for those who act, and an argument against all those to whom he was sent. He conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, advised the ummah (the Muslim community), and struggled in the cause of Allah with true struggle. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows, O noble brothers, I thank Allah Mighty and Majestic for having prepared for us this gathering, which we hope will be blessed, in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), on the night of Tuesday, the twenty-fourth of the month of Rajab in the year 1412. Then I thank our brother, Shaykh Abu Bakr al-Jazairi, for giving us the opportunity to sit in his place in this assembly. I ask Allah the Exalted to reward everyone and to make the work sincere for Allah and in accordance with the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) of Allah.
O brothers, the ummah (the Muslim community) was, before the sending of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in a blind jahiliyyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance) and misguidance, without guidance, scattered and divided, fighting and killing one another, slaughtering each other and striking the necks of one another. When people were in the greatest need for the divine messages and had a greater need for them than for food and drink, Allah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) at a time when the messengers had ceased and the paths had become dark. So Allah Mighty and Majestic sent him in the Mother of Cities, and the first thing he called people to was the tawhid (the oneness of Allah) of Allah Mighty and Majestic, for which Allah created the creation, as He the Exalted said:[Adh-Dhariyat 51:56] meaning: so that they worship Me alone. And for this purpose Allah sent the messengers, as Allah the Exalted said: [Al-Anbya 21:25].
And for the sake of realizing it, the verbal and physical battles arose between the messengers and their enemies, but victory was for the messengers and their awliya (close friends of Allah), either in this world or in the Hereafter, as Allah the Exalted said:[Ar-Rum 30:47], and He the Exalted said: [Ghafir 40:51-52].
The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) remained in the early part of his mission calling people to the realization of the tawhid (the oneness of Allah) of Allah. He remained upon this for more than ten years; neither prayer nor zakah (the obligatory alms) nor Hajj (the major pilgrimage) was made obligatory upon him. All of this was for the sake of realizing tawhid (the oneness of Allah), because when a person realizes the tawhid (the oneness of Allah) of Allah Mighty and Majestic, the rest of the acts of worship become easy for him, for the acts of worship are to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) as water is to a tree; tawhid (the oneness of Allah) waters it and sustains its life, so it is the foundation. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was raised up to the heavens before the migration, either one year or three years before it, when he was raised up (peace and blessings be upon him), Allah made the five prayers obligatory upon him. When he migrated, Allah made fasting obligatory upon him in the second year of the migration. The second year of the migration represents fifteen years from the mission, meaning that fasting was not made obligatory until after fifteen years from the mission. When Allah opened Makkah in the eighth year of the migration, and Makkah had become a land of Islam after it had been a land of disbelief, Allah made Hajj (the major pilgrimage) obligatory upon him.
So every rational person who understands the gradual implementation of the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) in this manner knows that the most important thing in the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as in the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) of the others, is the realization of tawhid (the oneness of Allah).
The attendees: And upon you, may the mercy and blessings of Allah be.
The Shaykh : All praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our own souls and from the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger. Allah the Exalted sent him with guidance and the religion of truth, a mercy to the worlds and a model for those who act, and an argument against all those to whom he was sent. He conveyed the message, fulfilled the trust, advised the ummah (the Muslim community), and struggled in the cause of Allah with true struggle. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, upon his family and his Companions, and upon those who follow them with excellence until the Day of Judgment.
As for what follows, O noble brothers, I thank Allah Mighty and Majestic for having prepared for us this gathering, which we hope will be blessed, in the mosque of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), on the night of Tuesday, the twenty-fourth of the month of Rajab in the year 1412. Then I thank our brother, Shaykh Abu Bakr al-Jazairi, for giving us the opportunity to sit in his place in this assembly. I ask Allah the Exalted to reward everyone and to make the work sincere for Allah and in accordance with the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) of Allah.
O brothers, the ummah (the Muslim community) was, before the sending of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in a blind jahiliyyah (the pre-Islamic age of ignorance) and misguidance, without guidance, scattered and divided, fighting and killing one another, slaughtering each other and striking the necks of one another. When people were in the greatest need for the divine messages and had a greater need for them than for food and drink, Allah sent Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) at a time when the messengers had ceased and the paths had become dark. So Allah Mighty and Majestic sent him in the Mother of Cities, and the first thing he called people to was the tawhid (the oneness of Allah) of Allah Mighty and Majestic, for which Allah created the creation, as He the Exalted said:
And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.
وما خلقت الجن والإنس إلا ليعبدونAnd We sent not before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that, "There is no deity except Me, so worship Me."
وما أرسلنا من قبلك من رسول إلا نوحي إليه أنه لا إله إلا أنا فاعبدونAnd for the sake of realizing it, the verbal and physical battles arose between the messengers and their enemies, but victory was for the messengers and their awliya (close friends of Allah), either in this world or in the Hereafter, as Allah the Exalted said:
and incumbent upon Us was support of the believers.
وكان حقا علينا نصر المؤمنين(51) Indeed, We will support Our messengers and those who believe during the life of this world and on the Day when the witnesses will stand - (52) The Day their excuse will not benefit the wrongdoers, and they will have the curse, and they will have the worst home.
إنا لننصر رسلنا والذين آمنوا في الحياة الدنيا ويوم يقوم الأشهاد* يوم لا ينفع الظالمين معذرتهم ولهم اللعنة ولهم سوء الدارThe Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) remained in the early part of his mission calling people to the realization of the tawhid (the oneness of Allah) of Allah. He remained upon this for more than ten years; neither prayer nor zakah (the obligatory alms) nor Hajj (the major pilgrimage) was made obligatory upon him. All of this was for the sake of realizing tawhid (the oneness of Allah), because when a person realizes the tawhid (the oneness of Allah) of Allah Mighty and Majestic, the rest of the acts of worship become easy for him, for the acts of worship are to tawhid (the oneness of Allah) as water is to a tree; tawhid (the oneness of Allah) waters it and sustains its life, so it is the foundation. When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was raised up to the heavens before the migration, either one year or three years before it, when he was raised up (peace and blessings be upon him), Allah made the five prayers obligatory upon him. When he migrated, Allah made fasting obligatory upon him in the second year of the migration. The second year of the migration represents fifteen years from the mission, meaning that fasting was not made obligatory until after fifteen years from the mission. When Allah opened Makkah in the eighth year of the migration, and Makkah had become a land of Islam after it had been a land of disbelief, Allah made Hajj (the major pilgrimage) obligatory upon him.
So every rational person who understands the gradual implementation of the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) in this manner knows that the most important thing in the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), as in the Shari'ah (Islamic sacred law) of the others, is the realization of tawhid (the oneness of Allah).