Abdul Rahman Chao – Jumuah 2024-12-13
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the importance of caution and being cautious in Arabic language, as it is not required for everyone. They also touch on the grey area and the moratorium force behind protecting religion, and how the Prophet is responsible for causing people to fall into the grey area and become corrupt. The speaker emphasizes the importance of being careful and staying away from negative behavior, as it is important to avoid distraction from companions and to stay away from negative behavior.
AI: Summary ©
فَإِنَّ أَصْلَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كَلَامُ اللَّهِ وَخَيْرَ الْحَدِيهَةِ مُحَمَّدٍ
صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ
مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٍ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٍ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي
النَّارِ The Prophet ﷺ tells us the very
interesting story that occurred before his time.
And he tells us of two men who
entered into a business transaction.
One man sold to another man a plot
of land.
And after that plot of land was sold,
the new owner discovered that there was a
buried jar of gold inside that plot of
land.
So he went back to the seller and
he told him, The land that I just
purchased from you, I found a jar of
gold inside of it, and you sold to
me a piece of land and not the
jar of gold.
So take back this jar of gold.
Now the owner could have just simply said,
Thank you very much for your honesty, I
appreciate it, and be on his merry way.
Well clearly, he was not the owner of
this jar of gold, this hidden jar of
gold.
So he said, Verily I have sold you
this plot of land and what is in
it, so you take it.
And so they disputed over this, and they
went to a judge.
And the judge ruled by saying, Do one
of you here, do one of you have
a son, the other has a daughter?
They said yes.
So the judge said, Well since we don't
know whose gold this originally belonged to, and
they are trying to find out who it
belonged to and they don't know, he said,
Marry your son to his daughter, and take
this jar of gold and give it to
the newlywed couple, and let them spend it
upon themselves, and use it as a form
of charity.
Brothers and sisters, from this story, the Prophet
ﷺ is trying to teach us the very
noble characteristic here.
And that is, you see in both individuals,
they were erring on the side of caution.
Neither of them were trying to displace their
counterpart in taking that gold.
Both of them were exercising caution and carefulness
in not taking what doesn't belong to them.
It was considered in the gray area, you
could say.
And this characteristic, brothers and sisters, in Arabic
we call it الورع.
It's a subset of being pious.
It is a subset of having God consciousness.
It's something that is more detailed, more refined.
And you could translate الورع to being cautious,
being careful, having piety.
And also, just fearing Allah subhanahu wa ta
'ala.
And so, the scholars, they have differed over
the definition of what it means to have
الورع.
For today, we will keep it simple as
being careful and being cautious.
They said that to be careful and to
be cautious, is to leave things that you
fear might come to harm you in the
next life.
Even though they are not outwardly something prohibited,
because there is no difference of opinion on
something that is prohibited.
But something you have doubt in, something that
is probably in the gray area, something that
doesn't sit well with you.
And so, as a result, you stay away
from it.
And the scholars, they said, that الورع is
not only limiting yourself to not doing certain
things, or abstaining from certain things, out of
fear, out of abundance of caution, that it
could lead to something haram.
It also includes to do what is right,
even though it might not be required of
you at this moment, but you just want
to do things right.
Like you see in this story, in which
the Prophet ﷺ tells us about these two
men.
And brothers and sisters, this characteristic of الورع,
of being cautious, it's something that some of
us here, we misplace it.
Things that require our caution, we are not
being cautious of.
And things that are not as clear cut,
we are going around and imposing it on
other people.
And so the best way I can describe
to you is, الورع is a personal form
of accountability, and standard that you have for
yourself.
It's not necessarily meant for everyone.
It's for yourself to take your iman to
the next level, to be cautious and be
careful.
So what you are careful of for yourself,
that's good for you, alhamdulillah.
But it doesn't necessarily mean that if the
other person next to you, does not follow
your standard of caution, then therefore that they
are going to *.
For example, alayhadu billah.
But we have to be careful.
The Prophet ﷺ tells us of the framework,
of what it means to be cautious and
to be careful.
And he tells us in an authentic narration,
he tells us, إِنَّ الْحَلَالَ بَيِّنُ وَإِنَّ الْحَرَامَ
بَيِّنُ وَبَيْنَهُمَا أُمُورٌ مُشْتَبِهَاتٌ لَا يَعْلَمُهُنَّ كَثِيرٌ مِّنَ
النَّاسِ فَمَنِ اتَّقَى الشُّبُهَاتِ فَقَدَ اسْتَبْرَأَ لِدِينِهِ وَعِرْضِهِ
وَمَنْ وَقَعَ فِي الشُّبُهَاتِ وَقَعَ فِي الْحَرَامِ كَالرَّاعِ
يَرْأَ حَوْلَ الْحِمَى يُوشِكُ أَنْ يَقْعَ فِيهِ أَلَى
وَإِنَّ لِكُلِّ مَلِكٍ حِمَى أَلَى وَإِنَّ حِمَى اللَّهِ
مَحَارِمُهُ أَلَى وَإِنَّ فِي الْجَسَدِ مُضْغَةٌ إِذَا صَلَحَتْ
صَلَحَ الجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ وَإِذَا فَسَدَتْ فَسَدَ الجَسَدُ كُلُّهُ
أَلَى وَهِيَ الْقَلْبِ The Prophet ﷺ, he says
in this ḥadīth, pay attention, he says Indeed,
what is ḥalāl, what is legal, what is
allowed for you to do is clear and
manifest and what is ḥarām and what is
forbidden is clear But between these two things,
there are some things that are in the
grey area مُشْتَبِهَات لَا يَعْلَمُهُنَّ كَثِيرٌ مِنْ نَاسٍ
Not many people know about them In other
words, some people indulge in them but they
don't really know if it's ḥalāl or ḥarām
And the Prophet ﷺ, he tells us And
whoever stays away from what is doubtful Then
he has saved his religion and he has
saved his dignity and his honor And the
Prophet ﷺ gives us an analogy and he
says It's like the shepherd who takes his
animals out to pasture to let them graze
But he's not grazing in the areas that
are known to be okay for him He's
grazing along the border of an area that
is a sanctuary, that is off limits Maybe
his flock will go into that protected off
-limits area and this shepherd will be liable
Every king has their own ḥimā, their own
off-limits And the limits of Allāh are
those that He has forbade upon us And
then the Prophet ﷺ, he says In the
body is a morsel of flesh If it
is good and sound, then the rest of
the body is sound And if it is
corrupted and spoiled, then the rest of the
body is spoiled This flesh is the heart
So here the Prophet ﷺ is telling us
That it is better for you to stay
away from what is in the grey area
Because you could fall into ḥarām But what
is the guiding force behind you knowing better
to stay away from that it is in
the grey area It is if your heart
is sound But if your heart is disinclined
from doing that Then it will become corrupt
And it will look for those ḥarām things
and it will fall into the ḥarām Brothers
and sisters For those things that are clear
to us There is no issue about it
There is no room for a second opinion
on it As Allāh says in the Qur
'ān وَمَا كَانَ لِمُؤْمِنٍ وَلَا مُؤْمِنَةٍ إِذَا قَدَى
اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُ أَن يَكُونَ لَهُمَ الْخِيَرَةُ مِنْ أَمْرِهِمْ
If there is something that Allāh and His
Messenger have ordained As this is the ruling
that it is allowed or it is not
allowed It is not allowed for you and
me to say Well I don't see it
as such Or in my opinion it's not
as such If Allāh and His Messenger declared
that this is okay Then it is okay
If they declare that this is ḥarām, it's
ḥarām It is not okay for a believer
to say Well the verse on this speaks
to me differently Than it speaks to you
Because every religion is to unto themselves No
There is no room in Islām for that
And so that is why brothers and sisters
You look at the example of the Prophet
ﷺ And how he was careful One time
the Prophet ﷺ He went to his house
And he was looking at his bed And
he found one date fruit, dried date And
he was about to eat it But then
he said If it wasn't because that I
feared That this date was given for ṣadaqah,
for charity Then I would have eaten it
And we know that the Prophet ﷺ And
his descendants is not allowed For them to
consume what is given to charity In another
ḥadīth Authentic ḥadīth, the Prophet ﷺ was one
time Leaving his companions in Asr And after
the ṣalāh he normally would sit And he
would do his adhkār And he would face
his companions But this time he got up
And he rushed into his house And the
companions were so shocked By the speed and
the urgency of the Prophet ﷺ They've never
seen this before And when he came out
he explained to them He said, I was
in ṣalāh And I remembered that in my
house There was a piece of gold or
silver And I did not want it to
be A source of distraction for me So
I rushed home to bring it out So
it can be distributed In other words he
wasn't sure What this gold was exactly Was
it ṣadaqah or was it conditioned But he
knew it had to be distributed But he
had forgotten it So look how careful the
Prophet ﷺ was He rushed home to take
care of business أقول قولي هذا وأستغفر الله
لي ولكم وإساء المسلمين فاستغفروا إنه هو الغفور
الرحيم الحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله
وعلى آله وصحبه أجمعين صلاة دائمة مستمرة وسلم
تسليم كثيرا So some of you might say
Well what about those things That we're not
sure about What is the ruling on that
What should we do During the time of
the Prophet ﷺ A companion by the name
of Wa'b Came to the Prophet ﷺ
And asked him about what is goodness And
what is sin And the Prophet ﷺ gave
him this yardstick And this yardstick is not
meant for Things that are clearly haram Or
things that are clearly haram Or clearly halal
It's for the things that you're not sure
about He said you came to ask about
goodness And goodness in summary is all good
character And a good character with Allah ﷻ
A good character with the people etc And
he said والإثم And what about sin The
Prophet ﷺ described it as ما حاك في
نفسك It is something That gnaws at your
conscience And another narration In your chest في
صدرك وتردد في صدرك It's something that You
are not feeling ease with It's in your
heart There is this uncertainty You don't feel
good about it وكره أن يطلع عليه الناس
And you know that There's a good chance
that if you did it That you would
be called out for it That is the
yardstick That the Prophet ﷺ taught us Brothers
and sisters I once, many many years ago
I owed someone a few hundred dollars In
fact, we didn't even know Between him and
I There was no clear agreement Of how
much the amount was It was something along
the lines of I would pay him half
Or approximately one third to half of the
rent For that month that I was visiting
this person He was a Sudanese brother And
at that time I was very young I
didn't have a lot of money So I
wasn't able to pay him And I had
the intention of paying off this person And
so when I was ready to pay this
person off I couldn't find his phone number
ever I didn't know where this person lived
anymore I tried calling people in his city
And for 17 years I was chasing this
person 17 years I tried to do background
checks on this person Tried to see if
I could find them On yellowpages.com To
see if I could find their I tried
to call every number That was listed on
google.com It was going nowhere Started calling
all my friends Do you know this brother?
Do you know this brother?
And it would all go into dead end
And I know That if I cannot find
this person Forever Well, then maybe I should
just give that Small amount to charity And
Ask Allah for forgiveness And every few years
I would forget if I actually gave it
to charity or not So I would give
it again Fearing that I didn't give it
And Alhamdulillah In this past year I found
him He was in a hospital He was
in Washington DC He was in a hospital
And he was very sick And so I
finally found a brother Who was in charge
of his finances And I said I don't
remember the exact amount But I'm going to
round it up to a higher number This
is the point that I want to talk
about I'm going to round it up to
a higher number And Alhamdulillah And that brother
May Allah have mercy on him Within two
weeks he passed away after that This is
what it means to be careful Brothers and
sisters During the time of Umar Ibn Al
-Khattab R.A He used to have a
servant who used to Make money for him
And he used to take a percentage from
him This hadith narrated by Aisha R.A
Abu Bakr had this servant that would go
make money And as his lord and master
He would take a small percentage from him
And most and almost all the time You
know he had no doubts in him He
was fine And this one young man That
one day he came to Abu Bakr He
said to Abu Bakr That day after he
gave him his share of food And Abu
Bakr had eaten it This young man reveals
Abu Bakr He says you know before Islam
I used to be a soothsayer I used
to fortune tell But I wasn't very good
at it Side note, no one's ever good
at it Because it's all lies He said
I wasn't very good at it And so
I used to make up stuff And so
that person gave me an amount of money
As payment for my fortune telling And that
amount came through today's food When Abu Bakr
R.A heard this He immediately inserted his
finger into his throat And he vomited all
the food out Even though from a legal
perspective It was not haram for him to
consume this food It was not haram to
consume this food It's a sin upon that
young man But Abu Bakr didn't want to
be in that position Imam Nawi R.A
He used to live in the city of
Damascus And there were fruit orchards And he
would never eat from them Because he wasn't
sure if the fruit orchards Were a public
domain Or if some of them were Belonging
to an endowment Intended for orphans Brothers and
sisters This characteristic of being careful And being
cautious in our deen Is something that will
protect ourselves And our children And our religion
We ask Allah S.W.T to give
us tawfiq We ask Allah S.W.T
to forgive us And to give us the
strength to stay away from what is doubtful
Inna allahu malakatahu yusalluna alal nabi Ya ayyuha
allatheena amanu sallu alayhi wa sallim wa taslima
Allahumma salli ala muhammad wa ala ali muhammad
Kama sallayta ala Ibrahim wa ala ala Ibrahim
innaka hamidun majeed Wa barik ala muhammad wa
ala ala muhammad Kama barakta ala Ibrahim wa
ala ala Ibrahim innaka hamidun majeed Rabbana aatinaa
fid dunyaa hasana wa fil aakhirati hasana wa
qinaa athab alnaar Rabbana laa tuziq quloobanaa ba'da
idh hadaytana wa hablanaa millatun ka rahmaa innaka
anta alwahab Allahumma ansur ikhwanana almustada'afina fi
Filastin Allahumma ansuruhum nasruna muazzara Allahumma ansuruhum fi
ghazza Allahumma ansur ikhwanana almustada'afina fi libanan
wa fi alsham wa fi alsudan wa fi
kulli makanin ya rabbal alamin Ibadallah inna allahu
ya'muru bil adli wal ihsan wa itadi alqurba
wa inhaani alfahsha'i wa almunkari wa albaghi
ya'idukum la'allakum tazakkaroon uzkuru allaha al
'ali alkabeer wa shkuruhu ala ni'mihi yazidkum wa
ladhikuru allahi akbar w'allahu ya'allamu maa
tasna'oon waakunin as-salaam