Faraz Rabbani – The Rawha #163 The Blameworthy Trait of Appearing Righteous Without Sincerity
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You're listening to the Roha, daily guidance for
seekers with Sheikh Rasra Behni.
In our daily sessions
on the Ruha in which we look at
reminders
on
our relationship
with Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala
and the guidance of his Messenger Sallallahu Alaihi
Wasallam.
We're looking at imam's imam Abu Abdir Rahman,
a salami's
work,
the blameworthy traits of the self
and their treatments.
And this has
been recently published
after a long time,
in a draft mode
by Sheikh Musa Ferber
as the infamies
of the soul.
And it's available
on online,
and it's it's a valuable
translation on an important
topic. So he says,
From the blameworthy
traits
of the lower self, right, of one's
desires
and one's whims
is taking on the appearances
of righteousness
without demanding from one's heart,
sincerity.
In those things
that one has manifested
of
righteousness.
Right?
And this is one of the great
harms
of religiosity.
That a lot of people
it's almost politically incorrect to say, but it's
something that, you know, there's many warnings in
the prophetic tradition about.
That
very often when people
start becoming religious,
they can end up worse off than
than how they were before they got religious.
Why?
Because before they just felt I'm a nobody.
But now suddenly, they decide to become religious,
so
they dress a certain way,
you know, they put on a hijab, they
grow a beard,
they
suddenly buy
an expensive.
They
put on the right perfumes.
You know, they even maybe adopt the right
lingo.
Before everyone was, so how are you doing,
Zane? Now it's, Zane,
how are you, Ustaz. Before, it was just
your friend who knew something about Islam. Now
he's Ustaz.
You know, you you've learned the outward,
you know,
subtleties.
I mean, you go to the nth degree,
you actually burn
high quality,
incense too. You you you don't just do
those funny
incense sticks, you got the real wood.
You know, all these all these things. And
as
a West African friend of mine said very
memorably
when we're together in Indonesia,
says this is not deen. It is decoration.
K? It's decoration.
Right? And
the problem with that decoration
is
that
this is the breeding ground of insincerity.
It is the breeding ground
of
insincerity.
And one needs to know that
the
blame worthy traits of the self,
some of them have clear outward manifestations
that are obvious.
Right? That are obvious. Some things are obvious
but there's others that are subtle.
And those that are subtle
are no less harmful
are no less harmful.
And the blame worthy inclinations of the self,
some of them relate
to things that are sinful. Those are easy
to catch.
Right? Someone has the desire to do something
haram.
Right? Now you deal with that desire,
it's
if you have even a modicum of self
awareness, it's not difficult to deal with. Someone
wants to go,
you know,
eat pork ribs.
Haram.
Right? It's easy to catch if one has
some degree of self awareness that, no, don't
do it.
But
one of the types
of inclinations of the self
that
are potentially much more harmful is when you're
inclined to do something that is apparently good.
Apparently good.
You decide
to pray extra after Maghrib.
But in actuality, you never do it except
in front of other people.
Right?
So there there are many possibilities of what
the intention is.
Because you could actually be doing it because
you feel that you should be acting on
the sunnah
of engaging in extra voluntary prayer, nafil, after
Maghrib.
Right? Sayed Al Hudayfa,
he mentions that he once went
with the prophet
to his home after Maghrib, and the prophet
spent the whole time between Maghrib and Isha
in prayer
at home.
And it's and recommendation has come to spend
between Maghrib and Isha in the masjid. There's
many recommendations
on
extra prayer during that time because it's a
time of.
And the mentioned the praise worthiness of praying
6 rakas up to 20 rakas
of what is called salatulawabin,
the prayer of the penitent. The scholars deferred
is specific specifically
referring to
the mid midday prayer
or
praying between Maghrib and Isha. But that's difference
in terms of the naming.
In general,
the praiseworthiness
of praising praying extra after Maghrib is established.
Now
for you to to do that anytime you
go
to the mosque or come to a religious
place is not necessarily bad because maybe you
realize this something I really should be doing.
You are inspired by the presence of others.
The intention could be good, but it could
also be bad.
Right? And when you're not careful
of these
hidden motives because the motive in doing the
haram
is obvious.
But the but
the motive in in engaging in these kinds
of works could be
devastating.
It could be spiritually devastating.
And there,
one has to,
as he says,
without demanding
sincerity from your heart
demanding
sincerity from your heart. One does not leave
the good. So if you never do extra
prayers after Maghrib, but you get the thought
that why don't I pray 6 rakas?
The solution
is not not to do it. That, oh
my god, I might be insincere.
No.
What we know from the sunnah of our
beloved prophet
is Be avid for what will benefit you.
Does praying extra benefit you? Yes. So therefore
you do it.
Seek Allah's assistance.
Don't deem yourself incapable.
Rather,
make it a sincere intention for the sake
of Allah.
Strive
to to be
sincere
and do it.
The early Muslims said, leaving actions.
So acting for other than Allah,
acting for other than Allah is
showing off.
Right?
Is being insincere.
Right? Is Ria. Ria is showing off or
insincerity.
But leaving actions
for the sake of other than Allah
is also showing off
is also insincerity.
Sincerity
is that Allah free you from both states.
Right? Is that Allah free you from both
states.
You're only safe
if you demand
sincerity
from yourself. You're only safe
if you demand
sincerity from yourself before
you act.
And that's where you have to question your
motives.
Right. Suddenly you decide, okay, I'm going to
go
dressed
in a thawb
and turban.
You always have to ask yourself why.
If you're if the intention is genuinely to
seek the pleasure of Allah, do so.
If it's not,
then
if you can make a sincere intention if
you can strive to make it sincere for
Allah, do so.
If you still can't,
then if it's a voluntary matter
or it's a
it's not
they say if it's a if it's an
emphasized sunnah, struggle with the intention anyways. See
someone, let's say, doesn't do their emphasized sunnas.
They go to the masjid, it's all these
religious people, I might as well do the
sunnah too.
When it comes to emphasized sunnas, you demand
sincerity, you struggle with it. But when it
comes to the sunnahs of habits,
right, the sunnahs of like
wearing a turban, for example,
or
wearing
obviously religious clothing, etcetera. There,
if you can
make a sincere intention, excellent. If you can
struggle to make an intention,
do so because it's something
that is praiseworthy. And you try to multiply
your intention. How am I doing this for
the sake of Allah? Think through the ways.
Right? That that this is from the sunnah
of the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam. It
is modest dress. It is beautiful dress. It
is the dress of the righteous.
I want to be like the righteous.
Right? You ask Allah,
you know, to
you you know that, oh, Allah, I'm
you know, I am trying to make my
outward righteous. I ask you to grant me
assistance in making my inward righteous. So you
work with your intention.
But even then, if you don't find the
intention,
then you have to have extreme caution.
Because insincerity creeps in through this backdoor.
One of the safeguards
of sincerity
is to consult,
is to consult.
Have teachers you may consult, have
friends
who have taqwa,
right, who have iman and taqwa. And that's
why the prophet said
keep the close company only of true believers.
And let your eating companions
be the people of piety, the people of
taqwa.
Right? Because you you you one talks about
one's day to day with them. So you
have this thought, I'm gonna start wearing a
turban to all religious events.
Something like that. Consult.
Consult. Consult your teachers. Right? Like for example,
with that I have a friend who asked
one of you know our a teacher of
ours, he said I want to start wearing
a turban.
He said it's that's a blessed move, it's
because of Sunnah, etcetera. He said however,
said, first, make sure you pray you've prayed
all your obligatory prayers on time for a
120 days.
Because otherwise, it's like you're all dressed up
and nowhere to go.
Right.
Right. Because sincerity has its signs.
Right? Now if that came to I'm thinking
of doing the sunnah of Duhr, but I
always pray Duhr in the masjid, and I'm
worried about sincerity. No. With emphasized sunnahs, with
specific sunnahs, you struggle with sincerity.
But with the general nawafil, etcetera, the other
thing is start practicing them at home.
Start practicing them at home. You want to
start wearing religious dress? Wear it at home.
Allah is more deserving of your
than people are.
One of the other safeguards of sincerity, they
say, is
the of what is entailed by trueness,
which
is to make your
public action
the same as your private action and your
private action the same as your public action.
So for example if you once okay I
wanna start eating when where feasible with my
hands. Just from the sunnah of the prophet
Right? It's a from the sunnah of habits.
It's a recommended matter. It's not an emphasized
sunnah, but it it is there from Islamic
manners.
Now if you wanna start eating rice and
other things with your hands in public,
make this do the same thing in private.
I'd say, oh, no. It's much more comfortable
to eat with a fork. Why is it
more comfortable at home than in public?
Right? So a safeguard is do the same
thing. You want to start doing your emphasized
tinnitus? Make the commitment. If I'm doing it
in public,
you have to question yourself about doing it
in private. Don't leave doing it in public,
but demanding sincerity
entails demanding what is entailed by sincerity and
there's a there
is a
there's an interrelationship
between sincerity
and
and being true.
Why many of the imams of hadith
and those who wrote on Islamic virtues
mentioned
and being true and sincere together.
The chapter on being true and being sincere.
Or they mention them next to each other
because of how closely they're related. You can
look in
of Imam An Nawawi, for example.
So
one needs to be careful about this
with prayer as well. Right?
Praying outwardly
with a sense of righteousness
without demanding inward righteousness
is dangerous.
Which doesn't mean that you don't take care
of the outward, but you also have to
demand righteousness from the inward.
And you have to also be careful about
yourself
because sometimes
self
you know, the the person
very often that we most want to impress
is not other people.
Ultimately, all satisfaction
is self satisfaction.
Because when you impress another,
in reality, whom are you impressing?
Yourself. Right? So that I want to project
righteousness to another,
But ultimately, why do I want to do
that? Because I wanna feel
impressed by myself.
The shortest the shortest
way to that is just by being impressed
by myself.
You you pray at night and say, wow.
Like, I did everything right. Great. You know,
hold on.
Where is the inward in that? Where is
the inward in that? To always think about
those two matters. Everything
that the righteous that being true
as a servant of God
is for one's outward to correspond to one's
inward and one's inward to correspond to one's
outward. It has come in a hadith
related
by it
by by Fatima from Asma, radhiyahu ta'ala,
Anhunna.
That a woman
asked, oh messenger of Allah,
I have
a
a
co
wife.
Right?
So is it okay
if I pretend
that my husband is giving me things that
he hasn't given me?
So that she feels jealous of me.
So the Prophet said,
The one who pretends
to have what they haven't been given
is like someone who's wearing
garment,
you know, fake
clothing.
Is one like one who's wearing fake clothing.
It's not the real thing. It's like someone
puts on the the clothing of the king,
say I'm the king of
of Tompkin.
No. You're not. You're just dressed up.
Right? Just a fake. And it and
and Imam Bukhari
mentioned this in in a chapter heading.
Right? And similarly has been related from,
Saydna,
Saydna Isa Alaihi Salam.
So what is the treatment? He says.
Is to leave outward
outward humbleness
except to the extent of inward humbleness.
Right?
Meaning,
be very careful of all outward improvements
except insofar as you've connected them with inward
improvements. This does not leave, the Ulema tell
us, this does not mean leaving
the sunnahs.
There's a criterion
and you intend in it,
following.
That is
that is,
like, everybody is under that
banner
of.
Right? It is not any type of showing
off to follow the sunnah. Right? So what
does one do? One learns, one acts on
the
obligatory necessary, emphasized sunnah, recommended sunnah. Following those
is not from
showing off.
One makes the intention
of of following the sunnah,
right, of following the sunnah. And never leave
that standard because that's because the the the
fundamental standard of goodness is the sunnah. Implement
that.
But
demand from yourself with the meaning of outward
following, always demand sincerity.
That this is for Allah.
Right?
This is for Allah.
Then number 2,
demand
trueness.
Strive to make your private like your public
and vice versa.
In your worship,
in your adab,
in your proper manners, if you see righteous
ulama, how they dress at home. If you
if you dress in dignified clothing outside,
dress in dignified clothing inside.
Right?
Because ultimately,
all beautification
is for the most beautiful, for Allah Subhanahu
Wa Ta'ala.
Truly Allah is beautiful. He loves beauty. Now,
of course, you may not dress in exactly
the same way, but there's
dignified clothing
for home.
Right? And the same thing as appropriate to
the context.
Right? The hadith that we quoted. Right? The
one who,
fills themselves or
pretends to have that which they don't is
like someone who's wearing
fake clothing.
Right?
So this
this requires attention.
Right? And
one of the grave harms
is
people who begin with their religiosity
with purely
outward
connections
to religious
guidance. Only outward connections to the sunnah.
Strive to have a healthy
religious life
to always be cultivating
your outward religiosity
and always cultivating your inward
spiritual health.
Right? Your sincerity,
your trueness,
the other traits of the heart. And regarding
that, one of the best resources that we
have available in English is a wonderful
podcast series
by our dear friend, Usad Amjad Tarsin,
Soul Food, which you can find at soulfood.fm.
It is very very beneficial. It's now into
its 6th season,
and they're brief,
topical,
very inspiring,
full of wisdom,
and very practicable.
So that's a way of cultivating
this
self awareness,
in a in a positive way, and to
bring that
inward righteousness
that must be cultivated.
Thank you for listening to the daily guidance
for seekers with Sheikh Farazrabani.
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