The Defining Virtue of Islam

If we stood today

in front of a group of people,

a random group of people in our society, if we gathered a group

of average people,

and we asked them, for instance, what is bravery?

What is the definition of bravery,

they will give you some sort of definition, maybe not the perfect definition, but a type of definition, they will be able to give you, they might even be able to give you some examples of people who have exhibits exhibited bravery.

If we ask them, What is loyalty,

they would also be able to give you some sort of definition of loyalty,

and maybe even examples of people acting upon loyalty.

If we ask them about honesty,

a group of average people would tell you some sort of definition of what is honesty, some conception of honesty.

And they might be able to give you some examples of it.

Even if the average person himself or herself, are not brave, or not loyal, or not honest, they have some conception of it. They have some understanding of these concepts,

even if they themselves are lacking, or not perfect in acting upon these characteristics. And you can continue through the examples. If we ask people about compassion, or generosity. Again, they'll give you some conception, some definition, some understanding of it. Even if they don't practice these virtues, they will at least have an understanding of the virtues.

And they will say these are things we want.

Even if the average person admits I'm not very loyal. I wish I were not very brave. I wish I was not very honest. I wish I couldn't be.

But if we gathered the same number of people, we ask them a question.

We said what is modesty?

They would struggle to provide even a definition of it.

They would struggle to provide any examples of it.

And this is because we live in a society where modesty is not known. And it's not appreciated.

Modesty is not highlighted. It's not glorified. And it's not pursued.

When it comes to the other virtues, even if they don't have it, they want it, they pursue it. But when it comes to modesty, society is not even interested in pursuing it. In fact, it is denigrated.

It is looked as though it is a weakness and not a virtue.

This is why

here in western countries in particular, especially for youth who grow up here in the West, we actually take abuse, for modesty.

When a young man lowers his gaze, when he refuses to look at that which is haram for him to look at.

When young women wear hijab, and they cover themselves, as Allah has ordained for them to cover themselves. We take abuse from society over this.

We may hear things, people telling us things like you are oppressing yourselves. They might tell you, you're not living your life. This is something we hear a lot. You're not living life.

You're not allowing yourself to live life by doing all the things you want to do, such as unveiling your body or looking and gaining the delight and the pleasure

of looking rather than restriction and abstinence. They tell you the restriction and the abstinence is you not living your life. It's prevented you from you being yourself. It's prevented you from being truly liberated from live from living a real true authentic life.

But Islam tells you something very different.

Islam tells you that actually by restricting yourself in the ways that Allah subhanaw taala has instructed you to do so opens you up for things that are

a greeter

that it is the unleashing of the human appetites and the human desires that truly restricts the person and damages the person and harms the person.

And the only true freedom is found in surrendering to our Creator subhanho wa taala.

And this is the defining virtue of the SNAM Hya.

Now, the translations for hya sometimes be modesty,

or shyness or bashfulness words along these lines. And even though these English terms

can represent components of the meaning of hierarchy, none of them actually fulfill

the breadth of this word hierarchy that we use in Arabic.

So, how do we understand hey,

I want you to reflect over a verse, Allah subhanaw taala says, while the Quran Napanee Adam, we have honored the Children of Adam.

If you really understand this verse, you understand the concept of Hyah. Hyah means that your soul abstains, it holds itself it restricts itself from evil. And it does not tolerate for itself to fall into that which is haram.

And it does not allow itself to fall short of the rights of other people. And those who are around you, including your Lord subhanho wa Taala

have been hydrosis and hire a whole lot about Sahaba who are there he now but

we're not going to talk see, if you happy they happen. He said higher as the virtue which causes the possessor to avoid all that is vile and evil, and prevents the one who has it from falling short of fulfilling the rights of others.

When your heart cannot tolerate committing a sin, because it cannot bear to see your own soul humiliated in front of Allah subhanho wa Taala who it knows sees its

meaning you have so much respect for yourself. You understand that Allah has honored you, as a child of Adam. Your soul become so valued in your eyes. You refuse to see it being debased.

You refuse to see that soul fall into misdeeds.

This is higher

than your soul becomes enticed with this passion

that lifts it above obscenity. Above anything that is vile, above sinfulness above any displeasure of Allah azza wa jal.

So when someone comes to you, and they try to get you to sin, your soul rejects it. And it says, I am too No go for this. I am too honorable for this. How can I respect myself in front of Allah azza wa jal and in front of others in front of myself.

And the interesting thing and this brings us back to our introduction,

that people will tell you you're not living your life.

When you restrict yourself, what is interesting is that this term Hyah, that our prophets Allah, Allah, wherever he was, Selim uses, it is linguistically connected to higher to life.

When a person refuses to commit an evil sin, we say, Julius, Steffi, the man is too modest to do this. He has too much higher.

In reality, the man because of the life in his heart,

the life inside of his heart, does not allow him to fall into sins. And so there's a strong connection and firm connection between higher between life in the person's hearts, and between heights in the person's character. The more life you have within your heart, the more modesty and shyness and bashfulness you have within your character.

And so despite what people may say about this person,

despite that, they may tell you, you're not living your life in reality.

By cultivating this virtue of Hyah, you are living life to its extents. And the people who do not have it. There as Allah described in the Quran, and watch when

they are dead and they're not alive. They're dead, not living.

Allah is describing people who are walking this earth

but he's calling them dead and not alive. Because they're high yet died. Their heart die.

it and it's as though they are spiritually lifeless.

And they will call you Moroccan Allah to Allah he says, a committed nurse Hyatts the people who are the most perfect the most complete in their life. A commando whom higher are the ones who are most perfect in their high app in their modesty

will not sell higher than noxa and the shortcoming of a person in their height that is a shortcoming in their life, their life is missing something, their life is falling short, in its connection to Allah azza wa jal, their life is probably leading them to depressions and anxieties and harms in their soul because they're lacking that higher. The more higher you have, the more life in reality you have. And because when the heart dies, the spiritual life dies with it. And when that die is That's it.

Nothing becomes evil in your sight anymore.

Everything reprehensible becomes Okay. Zina becomes Okay. Homosexuality becomes Okay, watching videos where people are half naked dance around it becomes okay. Everything becomes okay that self respect within the person has died. That passion we were speaking about inside that person has died.

That feeling that I'm too noble to debase myself has died.

The person's heart has died.

And this is why we see in our faith hierarchy is coupled with something essential. Eman

we see throughout the words of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there's a connection between these two things. The Prophet alayhi salatu salam he says Eman Be thou Subaru Nashua, will hire short and permanent Eman. He said in and faith

is 70 Odd branches. There's 70 Something branches of faith.

Now the Prophet doesn't tell us the exact number because he doesn't want us to have the checklist. He wants us to go through the process

of finding and exhibiting Eman.

He says Eman is something 70 Something branches. And then he says well higher will show up. And higher is one of the branches of faith. What are the other 70 He doesn't tell you, he just tells you one of them higher is a branch of faith. And another Hadith he tells you have one will have

the best of the branches

of faith, the highest the most important is to say La Ilaha illa Allah. And this is why and the lowest of the lowest category of faith branch of faith is that you remove something harmful from the path. And then he tells you even in this hadith, will higher short above in an email. Higher is one of the branches of email.

He specifies for you. One of these branches of Eman is higher.

First of all, he's drawing a connection between the importance of your faith and its connection to Iman and its connection to hijab.

And from the scholars have derived that hijab is something essential to all of the branches of faith. Because every branch of faith relies on the person's sense of hierarchy,

their shyness, their modesty, their bashfulness their prudence.

So a person

wants to be good to their parents. Can you be good to your parents without HYAH without feeling a sense of shame and modesty. You can't be good to your parents until you remember. I was a child who knew nothing and couldn't take care of myself.

And my parents were sacrificing their time and their energy and their money and the things they wanted to do to take care of me to be there for me to teach me to raise me. I feel modesty. I feel modest, to not be there for them, to take care of them to serve them. When you have that feeling in your heart. Now you can fulfill this other branch of Eman to be good to your parents. Can you go to Hajj without having higher

How can you go how will you go for Hajj and sacrifice the time and the effort the physical tool, the financial tool to go there.

Except that you think within yourself I've committed so many sins and Allah knows I've committed so many sins and I feel modest

Just to be living my life and I have all these blessings around me when I've committed all of these sins, I have an urge to go and perform my Hajj to attain the forgiveness of Allah azza wa jal that comes out of a feeling of shame and modesty.

And this is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said what email?

Adina Jamia and for either raffia how to whom Allah Allah, He says higher modesty

and Eman and faith are intertwined. They're interconnected. When one of them is removed, the other one is removed along with it. If one of them is lacking, the other one is lacking alongside with it.

And we see this Subhanallah you can see this happening in front of your eyes

when people's lack of Eman in Allah subhana wa Taala when that goes down

their self respect goes down

when people's Eman in the people goes up, they have Eman in the people they want the people to love them to appreciate them to give them views to give them clicks to give them all of this attention and appreciation when their Eman in the people goes up. Their self respect goes down. They start taking off their clothing. They start doing silly things. They start recording themselves doing things that no one would imagine doing for any other reason except that they want people's appreciation. Their Eman in the people has gone up there has gone down when your Eman and Allah goes up. You want the appreciation of Allah.

You want the love of Allah subhana who is I don't know your Eman your self respect goes up. Why will I debase myself?

Why will I uncover my outer? Why will I do these things when I have Eman and Allah azza wa jal

and this is why the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam tells us in the Nima adelakun, nas McCallum and the water cooler, IS LM tester for SNAP machines. He said, What has survived from the sayings of the prophets before us was the saying, either lamp tester if you do not feel higher, if you have no higher than do as you wish. This is not a commandment of the prophet, saying if you don't have higher, go do whatever you want. No, this is a threat. This is telling you that when you lose HYAH

you lose the defense mechanism that prevents you from committing sins.

In other words, not having higher, not feeling shame or modesty or a bashment in the face of evil sins means that there's nothing left to prevent you from falling into the sins. And we see this reality in our society.

Only a generation ago things that were only a generation ago were repulsive,

were considered twisted, are now mainstreamed into movies mainstreamed into television,

even things that were

would only be happening in perverted clubs.

Maybe on the outskirts of the city.

Today, they want to bring them into the classroom.

parents will bring their children to watch these things. And if you object

then you are approved.

And worse, you're a bigot and you're narrow minded. Why? Because we live in a society that is driven by people who have no higher

people will have no sense of modesty or shame or things like that. In fact, more than that they consider the concept of shame and modesty to be evil.

And, and they see them as things that need to be defeated.

Meanwhile, our Prophet Sall Allahu Akbar they will send them tells us what He says I'll hire Willa T in Libya hi, hi yah brings nothing but goodness, it does not come except with goodness. Sometimes there are good characteristics that have taken to an extreme that can be a fault but the prophet tells you higher nyati Illa behind only comes with goodness, and our Prophet sallallahu wherever you send them tells us in an equal Levine and Qualcomm every religion has a defining traits a defining virtue wellhow local Islam will higher and the defining virtue of the SNAM is higher. The most beautiful, the most magnificent characteristic that shows us the beauty of this ruling

digit that reflects the honor of Islam is the characteristic of hijab.

When a young man lowers his gaze, when a young woman wears hijab, we are reflecting the honor of this religion, the beauty of this religion,

the defining traits of this religion. So we ask Allah subhanaw taala to bless us with this most beautiful character and to shine through us, the light and the beauty of his religion falcoda already had those who would have come through in order for him.

Smilla hamdulillah Sato Salam, ala Rasulillah, who are early he will be here woman wider.

We know the famous hadith of our Prophet Sall, Allahu Allah, he was in them when he was one day sitting in his home and Abu Bakr enter to sit with him and I'm about to enter to sit with him and our Prophet was sitting in a very casual manner. And when Hadith his shin was exposed, in another event, his knee was exposed. He was sitting casually maybe,

you know, not paying attention that his dough was up a little bit. And he's speaking to a bucket into aroma. And then Earth man asked permission to enter. And when Earth man asked permission to enter the profit setup rates, and he put his clothing together, make sure that it was all in place. And he said, Let him enter. We're working on Omar said, Why did you you know, show this respect this excellent treatment for Earth man and not for us. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,

Stephanie minerals, Man Should I not feel higher in front of Earth man, that Corrado ancestor, human human Africa is that that is the man that even the angels feel a sense of hate towards him. But the Allah who had an Earth man himself was a person of shyness, right, a person who had this characteristic and this virtue of higher. Now realize in this hadith, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi, WA send them and many other Hadith, he links clothing, to hire to the concept of hijab dressing, properly dressing, well covering the IRA. All of this is connected in many Hadith towards higher, because the way we dress reflects that internal status within us, reflects that internal self sense

of self respect, right, and so abiding by what Allah subhanaw taala has asked us to dress with, to wear loose clothing, to wear clothing that covers that. It reflects that internal self respect that Allah azza wa jal sent us with. But there's also higher it goes more than just the clothing that we wear, the clothing is the reflection of what is deep inside of us. And there are different levels and different stages of HIA. For us to consider.

If you will call him he says there are three stages of higher. He says the first stage is the lowest level, which is feeling Hyack feeling modesty and shame from the people

so that you know that other people are watching, so you hide your sins, you know that other people might be looking at you. So you don't want them to see you doing something that is object objectionable. This is the lowest level of hate, but it is a level of higher and it is a level of faith. Why am I saying this? Because sometimes Shavon may come and whisper to you, or not even chiffons people might be saying this to you.

They might say, you're such a hypocrite. You're such a hypocrite. You do this sin when no one's watching. But in front of the people, you pretend you don't do it. So he tells you, you're such a hypocrite. What does he want you to do? He wants you to do this. And now that you're doing in private, do it in front of people.

But no, no. When we hide our sins from other people, this is actually a sign of faith. This is a sign that I know that this thing is vile and evil, even though I'm weak when I'm alone. I know it's vile and evil. So I don't want people to see me doing because I have at least this level of self respect. I don't want anybody to see me doing it below this, the persons that facet, when they're doing evil sins in front of people. This is the lowest level where you say, I know the sin is evil. And I have too much respect for myself that I don't want other people seeing me do it. And I don't want to be responsible for them doing it after they see me do it. There's no lowest level. He said

the next level is that you feel higher from yourself.

If you're hired from you yourself, it's not that other people are watching you. It's just you say I feel shame. I don't want to cheapen myself by doing this. I feel too much self respect in front of myself to do this deed

and to debase myself to that

level, this is the second level. And the third level which is the highest level is the person has Hyack with Allah azza wa jal. They know that Allah sees them and you know that Allah sees you. And so you are modest in front of Allah Silja in front of your Creator. And in this of course, I am then mentions, eight different categories of the types of hire, we can have in front of Allah, we don't have time to go through them, maybe a couple of them quickly, we can touch on one of the higher end geneia which is the higher of feeling shame in front of Allah Zoda that when you commit a sin, you feel shamed in front of Allah. Hi, Soulja even Taymiyah says, well for them, the alignment of the

person's happiness with his sin is actually worse than the sight of Allah and this in itself. So just to feel shame when we've committed a sin, this is a type of higher in front of Allah Azza higher booty to worship Allah azza wa jal

that you worship Him, because you understand that you are a slave in front of Allah and Soulja

and that knowing that you are his slave makes you feel modesty in front of him. How can I follow other than what he tells me to do? How Yeah, I see that you remind yourself modesty of knowing I'm not doing enough no matter what I do, I'm not doing enough. The prophets of Allah wa salam would worship Allah all day and nights.

And, and then he would say, Yeah, Robbie in the hood of doom open, Oh Allah, this is an effort that is lacking. And he is also Lux, Allahu Allah. All of us are lacking in our iPads out of Allah azza wa jal, no matter how much we put forward, so we feel modest. I'm actually lacking I need to do more I'm lacking I need to do more and higher of feeling,

the blessings of Allah azza wa jal, Allah has given you so many blessings in life. So you remind yourself, Allah has given me things I do not deserve. He gave me a health I do not deserve I didn't earn it. He provides for me food, I did not really earn it.

Yeah, I worked and I made money and all of that. But what if I was born, you know, in the slums of, of India, or the slums of Brazil or something? Would my hard work have gotten me this food and gotten me all this stuff? No, Allah subhanaw taala gave me things that I didn't deserve. And so when you remember this, you remember how can I disobey Allah when he's given me things? And how can I use the things that He has given me to disobey Him? subhanho wa Taala and of them as well is the higher of loving Allah azza wa jal, that because you love him, you feel too modest to disobey Him. Subhana what Allah and other is the higher of the glory in the power of Allah azza wa jal, when you know His

glory, and you know his power, and you know, His Majesty, and you know how small we are compared to Allah azza wa jal and how little knowledge we have compared to him how little control we have compared to him, then it causes us to respect ourselves in front of Allah Subhana Allah to Allah, we ask Allah to bless us with this characteristic of HYAH and to make us and our children to be of people who have higher in our character