What Will You Learn?

• Most of us are familiar with Hadith Jibra’il (peace be upon him), in which Syedina Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) narrated:
• While we were one day sitting with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), there appeared before us a man dressed in extremely white clothes and with very black hair. No traces of journeying were visible on him, and none of us knew him. He sat down close by the Prophet (peace be upon him), rested his knee against his thighs, and said, “O Muhammad! Inform me about Islam.”
• The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, “Islam is that you should testify that there is no deity except Allah and that Muhammad is His Messenger, that you should perform Salah, pay the Zakat, fast during Ramadan, and perform Hajj to the House, if you are able to do so.”
• The man said, “You have spoken truly.” We were astonished at his questioning him (the Messenger) and telling him that he was right, but he went on to say, “Inform me about Iman.”
• He (the Messenger of Allah) answered, “It is that you believe in Allah and His Angels and His Books and His Messengers and in the Last Day, and in Qadr (fate), both in its good and in its evil aspects.” He said, “You have spoken truly.”
• Then he (the man) said, “Inform me about Ihsan.” He (the Messenger of Allah) answered, “It is that you should serve Allah as though you could see Him, for though you cannot see Him yet (know that) He sees you.” (Muslim)
• When the man left, the Prophet (peace be upon him) asked Umar if he knew who that man was. Syedina Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) replied that Allah and His Prophet knew best. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said, “That was Jibra’il – he came to teach you your religion.”
• As the Prophet revealed to his companions (may Allah be pleased with them all), this Hadith contains a summary of our religion. It starts with the outward, the five pillars of Islam describing the obligatory, ritualistic acts of worship. This is followed by the inward - Iman, what we must believe in to be able to call ourselves Muslims. The separation of these two facets of our religion is important, since it is possible someone performs the outward acts without having sincere belief in their heart. Conversely, a person may profess to having Iman but due to weakness of their faith this does not result in performing the obligatory acts of worship incumbent upon us. What this tells us is that true faith will always manifest in our actions, but it is also true that the strength of our faith can increase by steadfastly following the commands of Allah and the example of the Prophet (peace be upon him):
• My slave does not draw closer to Me by anything more beloved to Me than that which I have made obligatory upon him (Fard), and My slave continues to draw closer to Me by doing supererogatory deeds (Nawafil) until I love him… (Bukhari)
• Finally, the Hadith describes Ihsan – which can be translated as ‘perfection’ or ‘excellence’. It is teaching us how to elevate our worship to the level of perfection by describing two states. The lesser of these is to worship Allah while knowing with certainty that He is watching us. If we truly believe this then it would stop us from committing sins, from disobeying Allah, even when we are alone. It would also mean that our worship of Allah is done with true sincerity, just to seek His pleasure and not because we feel we have to, or to show-off to others. As we draw closer to Allah, through our obligatory and supererogatory acts we will reach a stage where during our worship, by His mercy, we will feel we are in the presence of Allah. When this happens the sense of calm and feelings of delight we will experience during our worship will be greater than anything else we have ever experienced. This will make us yearn to engage in Allah’s remembrance (Dhikr’Allah) whenever we can, and for as long as possible. This is the higher form of Ihsan, and one possible explanation of what the Hadith means by saying ‘seeing Allah’.
• The perfect example of this was the Prophet (peace be upon him), who would climb the mountain of Hira to meditate in seclusion within the cave, who would fast without break for days at a time, who would stand for prayer at night for so long his feet would swell, who told us that the coolness of his eyes was the Salah, and who went on the miraculous night journey (Isra w’al- Mi’raj) above the seven Heavens, into the presence of Allah.
• This may be impossible for us, but we are told that the Salah is the Mi’raj (ascension) of the Mu’min (believer who submits completely to the will of Allah), that we are closest to Allah during Sujud (prostration), and that when we recite Surah Fatihah this is actually a conversation between a slave and his Lord; Allah is listening to and replying to every verse.
• The purpose of this book is to help parents teach their children about Islam. This is done through short chapters on the fundamentals of our faith. Each chapter is written in simple, easy to understand English, without extensive use of quotations from the Qur’an and Hadith, instead paraphrasing to help with understanding for even very young children. Although concise, similar to the Hadith Jibra’il (peace be upon him) each topic aims to help parents introduce their child to not only outward aspects of our religion but also the inward. This is through emphasis on understanding the Divine wisdom behind commandments and how fulfilling these will help us draw closer to Allah and His Prophet (peace be upon him), in this life and the next. Questions and activities are included for each chapter, to increase engagement with the material and reflection in the reader as they go about their daily lives.