إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ ,نَحْمَدُهُ ,وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ , وَنَعُوذُ بِاللهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا ,مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ , وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ , وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَنَّ مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ
My brothers and sisters,
There is a hadeeth in Saheeh al Bukhari narrated from Aboo Hurayrah Radi ALLAH Anhu who narrated that the Prophet (SAW) said, “No individual among you will attain salvation only because of his deeds.” The Companions asked, “Messenger of ALLAAH, not even you?” He replied, “Not even me, unless ALLAAH encompasses me with His mercy. Strive to do all that is correct and strive to come as close as possible to what is best.
ALLAAH (the Almighty and Most Majestic), said in the Quran
“You may now enter Jannah as a result of the deeds you had performed.”4 The way these two texts are understood together is that being admitted to Jannah comes about by ALLAAH’s mercy while people’s ranks in Jannah will be in accordance with their deeds: the better and more a person’s deeds are, the higher his rank in Jannah would be. Therefore, we can understand that both admittance to Jannah and performance of deeds come about by the grace and mercy that ALLAAH grants to His servants who have eemaan. This is why those admitted to Jannah will say when they enter it, “All praise is due to ALLAAH who guided us to do what led to this reward. We ourselves could not have attained guidance had Allaah not guided us to His path and kept us steadfast upon it.”
There is no person who does not have sins which he needs Allaah to forgive him for so as to be admitted to Jannah, which is the abode that Allaah calls His servants to. He said,
“Allaah calls to Jannah and forgiveness by His permission.”. We must remain focused on nothing besides Allaah’s favours and blessings to him.
Servants of Allaah, we must also realize that virtues are not attained just by a multitude of physical actions. Rather, they are attained when our actions are performed sincerely for Allaah sake and in accordance with the Sunnah.
May ALLAH SWT bestow his mercy upon us in this world, and the hereafter. He is Rahmaan fid dunia, wa Raheem fil akhirah.
بارك الله لي ولكم في القرآن العظيم ، ونفعني وإياكم بما فيه من الآيات والذكر الحكيم
أَقُولُ مَا تَسْمَعُونَ وَأَسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ لِي وَلَكُمْ مِنْ كُلِّ ذَنْبٍ فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ إِنَّهُ هُوَ الغَفُورُ الرَّحِيمُ
