The contemporary problem is that people think their tenets constitute faith,
‘We have faith in the Messenger of God. He is divine light’.
This tenet of yours shall fail you.
Or ‘we are the followers and admirers of Maula Ali (a)’.
This is your tenet.
Where is your spiritual connection with Maula Ali (a)?
The Difference Between Tenet and Faith
In this verse of the Qur’an,
God provides evidence of the fact that he is the sole Creator.
God is providing evidence to the infidels who believed in multiple gods.
‘Is there, from your partners,
one that produces creation and then reproduces it?
Say: Allah produces creation, and then reproduces it’.
So, this is evidence.
[However], when it comes to belief -
- that’s where there is a problem, with belief.
For instance, I say, ‘I believe in you’.
Now, this is what causes a problem.
Let’s suppose I say,
‘Paradise looks like this and paradise has that’,
you haven’t seen it.
I said it so you believed it.
If I have lied then your tenet is likewise false.
If I have been truthful, your tenet is also correct.
Now, all those who believed in multiple gods
had not actually seen those gods.
They believed in them as a result of what they had learned from their ancestors.
This is why there is a sign to recognise an authentic religion.
An authentic religion is one which is not only intellectually understood
but also spiritually sensed.
For instance, for divine energy to settle in your heart.
Once divine energy settles in your heart, it strengthens your faith.
If divine energy does not settle in your heart and you have only made a verbal declaration of belief, your tenet,
in that case, can be changed at any time.
Possessing a strong faith is a trait of those
whose spiritual hearts are immersed in the benevolence of divine energy,
the divine energy in their hearts generates heat
and increases their faith.
Then they cognitively believe in and affirm God, too.
Now, there are two types of religions.
One type of religion is man-made,
for example, Buddhism is a man-made religion.
God did not establish this religion.
As for Gautam Buddh -
- he was a good man.
He was searching for God
but could not find any path leading to God,
so he became a jungle recluse.
The problem is with making people believe,
telling the truth is a difficult task.
If someone is adamant about not believing,
you can make thousands of attempts but they will not believe it.
So, there is the man-made religion
which consists of verbal affirmations and declarations,
it has nothing to do with the transformation of character
nor do you spiritually receive anything from the Lord.
It’s basically useless.
Then there is the religion established by God
and it consists of two types of knowledge:
material and spiritual.
Material knowledge develops your cognitive belief
and spiritual knowledge develops your spiritual belief once divine energy settles in your spiritual heart.
Once the spiritual knowledge of any religion has expired,
the religion becomes the same as the man-made religions.
Even within Islam, people have created their own religions.
God did not create Wahhabism.
God did not create Sunnism.
God did not create Shiism.
But no matter how hard you try,
those who want to become Shia will become Shia.
You could bang your head against the walls after providing a plethora of evidence from the Qur’an and Ahadith
but a Shia will remain a Shia
because they are destined by God to be disgraced.
A Barelvi will remain a Barelvi
because they are destined to be disgraced.
A Sunni will remain a Sunni.
But just think, out of all these sects - there are 72 or 73 sects -
- not one of them was sanctioned by God or his Messenger,
so how can they be guided?
Each sect has latched onto something,
some latched onto the Household of the Prophet (s)
but these were not the teachings of the Prophet’s Household.
We have also studied the teachings of the Prophet’s Household.
They made use of a word, ‘admirers’.
‘Our shia’.
Our shia means ‘our admirers’.
Anyone could be their admirer,
but this was not a sect.
Shia means admirer.
Similarly, the Wahhabis.
Wahhabism was founded by
Shaikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab Najdi.
They are not Muslims, are they? They are Wahhabis.
The tenets of Shaikh Abdul Wahhab Najdi then reached India.
There is a city in India called Deoband.
There was a madrassa in that city
which was frequented by the likes of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi,
and they were sold.
Abdul Qayoos Gangohi, Abdul Qayyum.
All such people were sold;
they accepted the Wahhabi ideology.
That’s where they coined the term ‘Deobandi’.
It started from that madrassa.
So, all these concepts are man-made.
Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaat, Shiism,
Wahhabism, Deobandi, Ahle Hadith -
- these are all created by human beings.
They have no guidance.
The only source of guidance is whatever God and his Messenger have prescribed.
Therefore, such people
either belong to a religion which has been corrupted…
How many religions have been corrupted?
All religions.
Judaism has been subject to corruption.
Christianity has been subject to corruption.
Islam has been subject to corruption.
Sikhism has been subject to corruption.
Hinduism has been subject to corruption.
No one is prepared to believe this
and in that case, you may carry on doing whatever you want.
The stubborn nature of people today
will be rectified in their graves
when they realise how wrong they were.
Spirituality is the reality
because it is the soul that shall ascend,
the body is not going to ascend.
The body shall remain here, either cremated or buried.
What ascends is the soul.
If the soul is awakened
and the soul has engaged in Zikr Allah, it knows God,
then it shall be beneficial.
There are two dominant sects in the world,
the Sunnis and the Shias.
These are the dominant sects.
There are 32 sects within the Shia sect
and the Sunnis also have 19 or 20 sects.
Someone should ask the Shias,
‘You believe in Maula Ali (a) so why are you divided into 32 sub-sects?
Which of your 32 divisions are guided and which are misguided?’
The Prophet (s) declared, ‘One sect shall be heaven-bound while the remaining 72 shall be hell-bound.
The contemporary problem is
that people think their tenets constitute faith,
‘We have faith in the Messenger of God. He is divine light’.
This tenet of yours shall fail you.
Or ‘we are the followers and admirers of Maula Ali (a)’.
This is your tenet.
Where is your spiritual connection with Maula Ali (a)?
This is just a tenet.
Or if a Jew were to say,
‘I am a follower of Moses and that’s enough for me’.
Or if a Christian were to say today,
‘I am a follower of Jesus, I am greater than John the Baptist’
- they have just verbally declared they are followers of Jesus Christ.
Do they have a spiritual connection to Jesus Christ?
They don’t.
No one is willing to accept it.
Why is no one willing to accept it?
Because hellfire awaits them.
These sects are only the pretext for them to enter hellfire
because they are destined to go to hell.
And the one destined to obtain faith,
when the truth is being proclaimed,
they come running to heed the call.
All those who have joined us
are those who have been extracted from various sects
because they were destined to obtain faith.
Were you not destined to obtain faith, you would still be trapped in the quarrels of sectarianism.
People say the Jews and Christians are enemies of Islam.
There may be many Jews and Christians [this applies to],
but let me tell you who inflicted the most damage on Islam.
The Muslims.
Who slayed the grandson of the Prophet (s)?
What kind of Muslims were they?
What kind of a companion was he who waged a war against Maula Ali (a)?
What kind of a companion was he?
If one remains to be a companion having waged a war against Maula Ali (a),
well, we are not interested in such an Islam.
We do not want such an Islam.
One in which you are permitted to draw your sword at your Maula, we are not interested in such a religion.