Supplications go Unheard due to Shirk & Bida’h in our deeds

Assalamualaikum (Peace be on you), Dear Readers,

It is quite amazing to see how people end up following innovations in their religion, thinking that it is a part of the revelation of Allah. What amazes me is that in the worldly aspects or work, people question so much about the authenticity of certain financial deal or transaction and get to the bottom of it to ensure no one cons them or take them for a ride. But when it comes to following Islam, people tend to perform rites and rituals without questioning its authenticity!

Why are we so careless in the matters of our Akhirah? Do we prefer this temporary life over the eternal life? And guess what, I find top notch elites of the society committing Bid’ah (innovations) in Islam. These people are otherwise known as the most qualified and intelligent people in the society like the IPS officers, doctors, successful businessmen, teachers etc.

How much time does it take to question a Mullah or Moulvi or Shaykh asking him whether the rites or rituals we are performing are according to Quran and Sunnah? How much time does it take for us to ask for a Proof from them and hence verify it? We are moving from worst to becoming pathetic day by day and no wonder why calamities are striking our Ummah all around the world.

Yesterday night, after the Tahajjud salah in Masjid-e-Nabawi, I was pondering over the Dua made by the Imaam, who profusely cried asking Allah for help to protect the Muslims around the world (like in Burma, Syria, Iraq, Palestine etc). I was wondering, did Allah forsake us and if yes, why? Or are these just tests so that we become better Muslims? Or maybe these are ways in which he must be punishing us in this world itself!

I then concluded that surely this has to do something with our own deeds. When I glance over the Muslims around the world, I find most of them involved in some kind of Shirk or Bid’ah. 90% of Asian Muslims alone are into different types of Shirks or innovations and have forgotten the Sunnah. I wonder how many in middle east or Americas or Europe are into this grave error. Shirk is the most hated sin by Allah. In a land where Shirk or bid’ah are committed, surely Allah’s punishment is bound to arrive, especially if it is done by Muslims. Allah has warned about this repeatedly in the Glorious Qur’an.

Imagine this, Allah revealed his laws through the Quran and authentic Sunnah. He sent Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) to guide us and teach us these laws. We learnt it from him and started following it. Then slowly as he went away, we started introducing new things into Allah’s laws maligning it to such an extent that many have deviated from the right path to such an extent that Allah’s laws are no more available in their religion. Now this act committed by us Muslims, isn’t it something like telling Allah, “Your laws were not good enough Allah, so we changed them or introduced new ones. And we consider our Ulama, moulvis, shaykhs more reliable than you”!

Sounds weird? Well this is actually what we are doing in our lives today, following an Islam which is full of innovations!

Just like the Jew, unfortunately the Muslim in general has become used to the idea that simply because he is known to be a Muslim, somehow he is guaranteed deliverance from the Fire of Hell, and like the straying Christians, he fumbles around in the darkness of ignorance setting up his own ideas, values and practices, in the destructively mistaken hope that he is doing better than his counterparts from among the pagans and the hollow hypocrites.

This is because the common Muslim in the street is hardly bothered to learn and take his Deen (religion) from the sources which constitute sure unadulterated knowledge, the Qur’an and the blessed Sunnah contained in the true hadiths, and instead content himself to avidly absorbing all that is given in out from the ignoramuses and the wicked, deviated, corrupt, self-seeking so-called ‘Ulama’ who happen to form the bulk of the people who are recognized to be our scholars.

What good is there in hiding from the reality or our situation? Who benefits from it, the pious seeker of the Truth or the crooked unprincipled individuals who wish to impose their own version of Islam?

Either we admit against truth and evidence that in the practice of Muslims we have a genuine reflection of the Islam as it was during the time of the noble Messenger Muhammad (pbuh) and his Companions or we bow our heads in shame that so much of what we do in the name of Islam for Allah has nothing to do with what He has taught us through His Messenger and are quite contrary to the behavior and attitude of the Companions.

Are we to perhaps conclude as some fools believe, Islam changes with time and that is what Allah intends, or perhaps we now have an understanding of it superior to that of the very Companions themselves?

Even if for the sake of argument we accept that Islam needs to be modified by adding new rituals, methods and invented regularized set ways, from time to time, and certain beliefs need no longer be entertained, or a few of the Sunnah could be allowed to die away, then we want to know who do you take your Deen from? Who among you or your scholars receive revelation that Allah has altered certain aspects of the Deen or has instituted new practices after Muhammad (pbuh) or certain of the Sunnah have now been abrogated and replaced by new manners etc.?

Rather the innovators are the enemies of Allah and His Messenger and we would do well to recognize what is an innovation and what is according to the correct way. i.e., the Sunnah, and be grateful in doing those things which secures the blessings and reward of Allah.

Too many of these so called experts of the religion have vested interests to maintain their positions of power and supremacy, and quite a large number of them are criminally responsible for accommodating ignorance (Jahiliyah) by discouraging studying of the Qur ‘an and the Sunnah from the Hadith books, that we need to exercise maximum caution with respect to what we come to know to be our Deen by constantly verifying what is given to us against the proof to be found in the two complementary sources, namely the generous Qur’an and the blessed Sunnah.

Undoubtedly the more the people become learned in the one and only True Way the more the self-seekers stand exposed and shaky in their thrones of lording it over the others, thus the struggle for the pure acceptable way of worshiping Allah will not be much helped from within our own community, let alone from what is exterior to it.

It is a duty involved in the enjoining of goodness and the forbidding of evil that the Truth is made absolutely clear and those who reject stand separated after the evidence has been established.

It is a duty that the innovators who wish to undermine the Sunnah and replace it with their fancy and whimsical behavior are known and avoided, because like fool’s gold these innovators ensnare the unsuspecting simple well-meaning Muslim by their dazzle of hypocritical manners and tireless show, while placing in front of them nothing of worth to Allah in his Deen.

The innovators are the friends of Shaytan (Satan) since they give maximum pleasure to him as explained by Imam Sufyan ath- Thawri: “Innovation is more pleasing to Iblees (Satan) than sin, since a person makes repentance from sin but does not repent from innovations!”

This is because he regards the innovation as being something good for which he receives reward from Allah and therefore will not repent from it, whereas he who commits a sin knows that it is wrong and Insha’ Allah will repent from it.

May Allah guard us from introducing any innovations in Islam and give us the knowledge (Ilm) to identify the innovations and shun them! Ameen.

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