Hosai Mojaddidi – Can I Wear Shab Clothes So I Do Not Appear Ostentatious

We understand that one can still have Austin tation, right, which

is real, it's a disease of the heart where you show off, right?

You're you're performing basically in order for it to be seen

that we can have ostentation, when people purposely go out of their

way to not look boastful. Do you still have ostentation, if you go

out of your way, to not look too good around certain people, an

example is we're basically wearing a mask around men are purposely

dressed and purposely dressed with not the best attire around certain

people at a fear of judgment or being seen by them. So the

question again, that I'm hearing here is, is it still true? Yeah,

if you're trying to basically, you know, kind of tone down your

dress, so as not to attract or to appear a certain way right to

whether it's men or other people. And so I feel like this question,

I just, again, can speak to it, because many, many years ago,

before I even knew what the term ostentation was, which is like a,

you know, a mouthful of a word. Or yeah, we had studied the diseases

of the heart, I absolutely had it, I just didn't know I had it. But a

big part of my focus was on the outward and so wearing certain

clothes to not be perceived, as you know, as as attractive or, or

just to look intimidating was absolutely my game, I went out of

the house with the agenda to intimidate people to look scary,

to not be judged, you know, for for any physicality or anything

else, and to send a message, a strong message. And I thought that

that was, you know, something pious, I actually believed that it

was an active pod to do that. And I've told the story before, but I

don't know how many of you have heard it. So I'll just quickly

tell it because I think it's for me, it was a life changing moment

for me. And it just made me It helped me to shift focus, but I've

told the story. So if you've heard it, you can leave it right there.

I don't want to anyhow, I was this was many years ago. And so as I

mentioned, I used to dress like all kind of military style and

away had to toe black. And I would walk around with like a grimace

and just like not be very pleasant, because I wanted to

intimidate people. So I was at the airport waiting for a ride. And

this

you know, I'm just sitting there people watching waiting for my

ride dressed again, head to toe like that. And a woman she parks

her car right across the street. I mean, on the you know, in the, in

the where all the cars are coming, and she parked her car, and then

she got got out of her car, and she's wearing a tank top and

shorts. And she's, you know, white, I'm assuming white American

woman, but she, she was dressed very scantily. And I just

immediately just judged her and had a lot of negative thoughts,

let's just say, completely judged her. And this happened to me, she

closed the trunk of her car. And she looked right in my direction

as if she was piercing through my soul. And, you know, you make eye

contact with somebody who you're just judging, you know, that's not

comfortable, if you've ever done that before, but she did that. And

she walked directly towards me. And so as she's walking towards

me, my heart is like, you know, because I'm like, What is this?

This is kind of strange. Why is she coming towards me? And why he

she did that she came in, she stood in her tank top and short

shorts. And I'm sitting there and she she put her head down and she

said, said I want to go.

Last words I ever thought I would hear from someone dressed like

that. And she had so much humility it, she had her head to hand the

load the whole time, pretty much she was talking to me. She's like,

I know, I'm dressed so inappropriately, but I am Muslim.

And I want to raise my son Muslim, and I saw you and I thought it was

like a sign from God, that I come and talk to you. Because I want a

book. She's like, I need resources for my son. So she's saying all

this stuff. And I'm just sitting there like completely floored at

what just happened because I know the internal dialogue I was having

in my head. And of course, Allah knows what I was thinking. And he

sent this woman to me, he sent her to me to teach me a very, very

serious lesson that day, which is who do you think you are? Right?

You're walking around as though you are the personification of my

face. And you judge people and you think you're better than people.

And that's who I was for a really long time. And that day I learned

the lesson I am nobody because that woman I'm sure was was far

better than I was in that moment. And I had to sit with that. It was

like a I say it was it was like a punch to the gut. It was but it

was a huge awakening for me that my focus was on the wrong thing. I

was focused on the outward so RIA is a disease of the heart. Where

in both cases where you do something to be seen, or you don't

do something to not be seen. It is real because the focus is on

people. Our focus has to be on Allah subhana wa Tada.

Don't act for to be seen or to not be seen to be judged and not be

judged, to be accepted to not be accepted. That is not the state of

the believer, because people can benefit you and they can't harm

you. Everything is from Allah subhanaw taala so the believer

understands that and that's why if you're going to dress a certain

way, do it for the sake of Allah subhanaw taala don't factor in

people. Do it for the sake of Allah and He will give you tofu

inshallah.