Between Toiling Toward Allah and the Excuse of Ignorance

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Between Toiling Toward Allah and the Excuse of Ignorance

This sermon opens from the Qur’anic truth that every human being is laboring toward his Lord and will inevitably meet Him. From that starting point, it presents life as a journey whose purpose is not vague spiritual aspiration, but worship, tawhid, and arrival before Allah with a sound heart.

Because this path is full of trial and satanic opposition, the sermon makes self-accountability one of the believer’s essential stations. A servant must review himself before, during, and after deeds, asking whether the action is sincerely for Allah and whether it conforms to the Sunnah. In this setting, the danger is not only open sin, but also self-admiration, heedlessness, and a false sense of religious safety.

The article then identifies three serious measures that become visible when a person truly examines himself: the greatness of Allah’s right over him, the gravity of his own negligence and disobedience, and the destructive danger of vanity and looking down on others. These are presented as antidotes to a shallow religiosity that performs deeds without inward truthfulness.

Its most pointed warning comes in the second half, where it distinguishes between excusable ignorance and wilful turning away. Ignorance may be excused when proof has not reached a person or when he genuinely cannot learn, but turning away means neglecting to learn despite the clarity of the truth and the ability to reach it. The sermon therefore rejects using “ignorance” as a blanket excuse in matters known necessarily in the religion.

The conclusion is both pastoral and firm: the door of repentance remains open, but divine mercy must not be turned into an argument for persistence in error. The proper path is knowledge, repentance, self-accountability, and honest return to Allah, not self-deception under the name of excuse.

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