Iqbal Gora – Cautious Piety The Mark Of The Righteous

AI: Summary ©
The conversation discusses the moral qualities of praised individuals, including the success of being pious and finding the right fit in relationships, the importance of Halal's deity in Islam, and the importance of the day of Christmas. The speakers emphasize the need for practical ways to avoid being rejected by others and finding blessings in life. The conversation also touches on the importance of buffering during snowy days and the need for practical ways to avoid being rejected by others.
AI: Summary ©
Alhamdulillah, we praise Him, we ask His help
and we ask His forgiveness.
And we seek refuge in Allah from the
evil of our souls and from the evil
of our deeds.
Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and
whosoever He misguides, none can guide him.
And I bear witness that there is no
god but Allah, alone, with no partner.
And I bear witness that Muhammad is His
servant and His Messenger.
O you who believe, fear Allah as He
should be feared, and do not die except
as Muslims.
O you who believe, fear your Lord, who
created you from one soul, and created from
it a wife, and spread among them many
men and women.
And fear Allah, to whom you ask for
help and mercy.
Verily, Allah is ever watching over you.
O you who believe, fear Allah and say
the righteous word.
He will set right for you your deeds
and forgive you your sins.
And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has
certainly won a great triumph.
Alhamdulillah, salatu wassalamu ala Rasulillah.
A question to ask yourself when you think
of piety, when you think of righteousness, what
thoughts do you think about with respect to
the qualities of righteousness and piety?
A person might refer to someone who is
righteous as someone who is praying Salah a
lot, or another person who is fasting a
lot, or another person who maybe his exterior
appearance looks like that of a Muslim.
Maybe he is one who is wearing the
clothing of a Muslim, or has a beard
of a Muslim.
Some people when they think of righteousness, they
may think of these particular elements.
In today's khutbah we'll talk about the early
Muslimin, when they thought of righteousness, birr, what
came to their mind with respect to someone
who is actually close to Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala.
Before we answer this question, we'll talk about
this quality as it pertained to some of
the early Muslimin, and how they exhibited this
special quality of righteousness that is a symbol
of it, that we'll discuss in today's khutbah.
It's mentioned that in the era of At
-Tabi'in, there is a man by the
name of Abu Hanifa, and we should all
know who Abu Hanifa is, he's one of
the major Imams of Fiqh.
And it's mentioned once that Abu Hanifa was
at his neighbor's house, and on this hot
day while he's at the house of his
neighbor, he's taking some shade under his balcony
or his house.
Then in the same gathering or the same
meeting, his neighbor needed some money, so Imam
Abu Hanifa lent him some money.
The next day he goes back to this
neighbor's house, or this friend's house that he
had.
And he goes to this friend's home, and
while he's there, then on this occasion instead
of sitting under the shade of his friend's
house, instead he sits far away under the
sweltering heat of the sun.
His friend asks him, he says, Ya Abu
Hanifa, limadha tajlis ba'idan?
Oh Abu Hanifa, why are you sitting so
far away?
Then Abu Hanifa responds by saying, he says
that khiftu an yakuna dhalika lawnam min riba.
He said that I feared as though my
sitting under the shade of your house would
have been a type or a sort of
riba, a type of interest.
This is story number one.
Now what we can gain from this story
right away, is likely it was not riba.
But there was something within Abu Hanifa that,
because of the fact he lent him some
money, he did not want to take extra.
Because as we know, riba is when you
give money for money with an increase in
return.
Story number two.
We have a case of the Prophet ﷺ
himself.
And this hadith is found in a sahih
of al-Bukhari.
That once al-Nabi ﷺ, he went to
his bedside.
And on his bed he found that there
was a date there.
So al-Nabi ﷺ, he picked it up.
He looked at this date.
He commented and he thought that perhaps this
date could have been sadaqa.
Maybe it was a gift, but perhaps it
could have been sadaqa as well.
And then he decided against eating it.
And as we know the anbiya ﷺ, they
can take a gift.
But it is haram for them to take
sadaqa.
It is haram for them to take zakah.
The third story we'll discuss is with respect
to Ibn Umar ﷺ.
The son of Umar al-Khattab, Abdullah ibn
Umar ﷺ.
It's mentioned that on one occasion there was
a person, Abdullah ibn Umar.
And Abdullah ibn Umar was wearing some clothing
that could have been replaced.
It was clothing which was something which was
old and it could have been replaced.
So his friend, he gives him a fine
material.
He gives him some really nice new clothes.
Abdullah ibn Umar ﷺ, he looks at it
and he feels it.
And he says to his friend, is this
made of silk?
His friend says, no, it's made of cotton.
Abdullah ibn Umar, when he sees this nice
article of clothing, then he says that I
do not want to wear this because Allah
ﷻ says in the Qur'an, إِنَّ اللَّهَ
لَا يُحِبُّ كُلَّ مُخْتَالٍ فَخُورٌ I fear as
though if I wear this, then Allah ﷻ
would perhaps consider me as from those in
this ayah.
And what is this ayah referring to?
That Allah ﷻ does not love a person
that exhibits the quality of being مُخْتَال and
being فَخُور.
Now these can both be translated as being
arrogant.
But there's a slight difference between the two.
The word مُخْتَال refers to a person who
exhibits the quality of عُجْب.
Because of something Allah ﷻ gave him.
Maybe his nationality, maybe his looks, maybe his
money, maybe his strength.
Because of something that Allah ﷻ gave him,
he is a person who exhibits a quality
of being narcissistic.
There's people trying to make space and sit
down.
So please try to move forward.
تَفَسَّحُ فِي الْمَجَالِسِ فَفْسَحُ يَفْسَحِ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ Please
try to make space for the brothers at
the back.
اتَّاكُمُ اللَّهُ خَيْرٌ So مُخْتَال refers to a
person that has the quality of عُجْب, of
vanity, of being narcissistic.
And the word فَخُور refers to a person
that takes this quality and he applies it
to others.
Meaning he feels he's better than other people.
As we know in the famous hadith, the
Prophet ﷺ says, ذَا لَا يَدْخُلُ الْجَنَّ مَا
كَانَ فِي قَلْبِهِ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ مِّنْ الْكِبْرِ That
a person will not enter Jannah if they
have an atom's weight of كِبْر in them.
And the Sahaba, they asked the Prophet ﷺ
that we like to have nice things.
And the Prophet ﷺ says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ جَمِيلٌ
يُحِبُّ الْجَمَالِ Allah is beautiful and He loves
beauty.
What is كِبْر?
It is two things.
بَطْرُ الْحَقِّ وَغَمْتُ النَّاسِ First point is that
when the truth comes to you, you know
something is true, but for whatever reason your
ego can't accept it.
Usually in our relationships with our family members,
sometimes we do this.
We know it's true, but we can't accept
it.
This is بَطْرُ الْحَقِّ And the worst type
of this is when you do this against
the deen of Allah ﷻ.
Allah says something is حرام or حلال, and
you have a way that you're acting arrogantly
against this.
Allah ﷻ says, a person who exhibits this,
they will not enter Jannah.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآيَاتِنَا وَاسْتَكْبَرُوا عَنْهَا They have
كِبْر against the verses of Allah ﷻ and
they belied them.
لَا تُفَتَّحُ لَهُمْ أَبْوَابُ السَّمَاءِ The skies will
not open for them, nor will they enter
Jannah.
حَتَّى يَلِجَ الْجَمَلُ فِي سَمِّ الْقِيَاطِ Until a
camel enters the pinhole of a needle.
We ask Allah ﷻ protection from this.
So He said that بَطْرُ الْحَقِّ وَغَمْتُ النَّاسِ
And looking down on others is the other
aspect.
When you think you're better than someone for
someone else.
So عَبْدُ اللَّهُ مِنْ عُمَرٍ رَضِي اللَّهُ عَنْهُ
He decided against wearing this, although it was
not made of silk.
The next example, the fourth example mentioned and
this hadith is contained in the Suhihayn.
It's متفق عليه.
And it's mentioned that the Prophet ﷺ, he
said that there was once a man in
the nations before.
And this person, he sold a plot of
land to another person.
Now when this person who bought this plot
of land received it, he found that in
this plot of land was a jar of
gold.
Then he told the person that he bought
it from, that I bought the land, I
didn't buy the gold.
SubhanAllah, we see how things have changed in
terms of people's morals.
We buy something and there's some extra in
it.
We buy a car and the person left
something extra and the person wants it back.
Then we fight tooth and nail and we
sometimes even sue them for that aspect and
we tell them we bought the entire product.
This person said I bought the land, I
didn't buy the gold, take the gold back.
The person who sold him the land, he
said that I sold you the land and
everything on it.
And he said that I don't want this
gold either.
So both of them or neither of them
wanted this jar of gold.
SubhanAllah, we need to go back to these
qualities of being selfless like this.
Eventually a person had to come in between
and judge between these two people.
And what he told them is he said
to the first individual, do you have a
son?
He said yes.
He asked the second person, do you have
a daughter?
He said yes.
Then this person advised that the two of
them get married and this money is spent
on the two of them and if there's
anything extra, it could be given in sadaqah
as well.
Now what we learn from all of these
stories is that the quality we'll discuss in
today's khutbah which is a quality which is
extremely rare and in fact it is in
many cases almost extinct in this ummah is
the quality of having al-wara.
What is al-wara?
Al-wara, it is called or translated as
cautious piety.
Al-wara, it is al-ijtinab min ash
-shubuhaat, khawfan min al-muqoo' fil-muharramat.
Leaving those things which are doubtful, fearing as
though you will fall into something which is
haram.
And there are many ahadith where an-Nabi
ﷺ, he tells the sahaba like in the
famous one, he tells Abu Hurair radiAllahu anhu,
Ya Abu Hurairah, O Abu Hurairah, Kun wariAAan,
Takun a'abudannas, O Abu Hurairah, Be someone
who exhibits the quality of having cautious piety
and you will be from those that are
the most obedient and worshipping of Allah subhanahu
wa ta'ala.
And we see that the Prophet ﷺ in
another narration he also mentions that if he
wants to be from the muttaqeen, La yablaw
abdun min al-muttaqeen, Hatta yadaAAa maa la
ba'sa bihi, Hadhran lima bihi ba's.
And the Prophet ﷺ he says, you will
not attain the level of being a person
who has true level of taqwa until you
leave things that have no problem in it,
there's actually nothing wrong with it.
But you fear that there might be something
wrong with it, so you leave it.
Umar al-Khattab radiAllahu anhu as well, it's
mentioned that he would say that from the
sahaba, he said that we used to leave
9 tenths of what is halal, 9 tenths
of what is halal, fearing falling into haram.
And we see that in today's era, we
do the complete opposite.
We look for any justification, any fatwa to
tell us this is okay and then we
will go for it.
And we also find going back to the
initial point that we mentioned, with respect to
a person's righteousness, that there was one from
attabi'een by the name of Habib ibn
Abi Thabit, rahim Allah.
And he said that, لَا يُعَجِبُكُمْ كَثْرَةُ الصَّلَاةِ
امْرَأٍ وَلَا صِيَامِهِ Do not be impressed by
a person's excessive praying and their fasting.
وَلَكِنْ أُنظُرُ إِلَىٰ وَرْعِهِ But rather look at
his cautious piety.
And he says that if this aspect of
cautious piety is found within him, إِن كَانَ
وَرْعًا مَعَ مَا رَزَقَهُ اللَّهُ مِنَ الْعِبَادَةِ That
if this quality of war'a is what
Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala blessed this person
in terms of that person's allotment of righteousness,
هَذَا عَبْدٌ لِلَّهِ حَقَّ This is a true
worshipper of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
So we need to try to revive this
quality of being cautiously pious.
And to understand how important this quality is,
there's one of those that compiled the books
of hadith.
One of those that authored the كتب ستة
of Abu Dawood al-Sajistani.
He mentions that after compiling all of his
hadith, he says after looking at all of
these hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, he says
الإسلام يدور على أربعة أحاديث Islam in its
entirety revolves around four hadith.
You can summarize all of the deen of
Islam into four hadith.
One of those that he chooses is the
famous hadith where النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم
he tells the Ummah of Islam.
He says إِنَّ الْحَلَالَ بَيِّنُ وَالْحَرَامَ بَيِّنُ وَبَيْنَهُمَا
أُمُورٌ مُشْتَبِهَاتٌ لَا يَعْلِمُهُنَّ كَثِيرٌ مِّنَ النَّاسِ فَمَنْ
اتَّقَعَ الشُّبُهَاتِ فَقَدَ اسْتَبْرَأْ لِدِينِهِ وَعِرْضِهِ وَمَنْ وَقَعَ
فِي الشُّبُهَاتِ وَقَعَ فِي الْحَرَامِ And Nabi ﷺ,
he tells this Ummah He says, Halal is
clear and Haram is clear.
And there are ways we can tell something
is clearly Halal.
For example, it's mentioned in clear-cut words
in the Qur'an and the Sunnah.
It's clear, it's قَطْعِ فِي الثَّبُوتِ قَطْعِ فِي
الدَّلَالِ It's clear-cut.
There's Ijma'ah, the Ummah has agreed to
it.
It is something which is مَعَلُومٌ مِّنَ الدِّينِ
وِالضَّرُورَةِ Muslim and non-Muslim, they know this
is part of Islam.
If you deny these things, this would take
you out of Islam.
Halal is actually clear and Haram is clear
as well.
But between these two matters are some things
which are doubtful.
Maybe some of the scholars might have differed
over it.
Maybe you're unsure of it yourself.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he's advising the Ummah.
He's saying, وَبَيْنَهُمَا أُمُورٌ مُجْتَبِهَاتٌ لَا يَعْلِمُهُنَّ كَثِيرٌ
مِّنَ النَّاسِ Most people don't know.
And he says, فَمَنْ وَقَعَ فِي الشُّبُهَاتِ وَقَعَ
فِي الْحَرَامِ Whoever falls into the doubtful matters
will eventually fall into Haram.
And that is why Allah ﷻ says, In
one version he says, فَلَا تَقْرَبُهَا These are
the limits of Allah ﷻ.
Don't even go near to them.
And the hadith continues by giving us a
parable.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he says that every
king has a sanctuary.
Imagine you're a king and you have an
area, a vegetation, a place where you take
rest, a place where you have your fruit
trees and you don't want anything to damage
this special area that you have.
And he gives the example of a person
who might be a shepherd and he has
a sanctuary as well.
If you're a shepherd and your sheep are
grazing the grass and they get too close
to the sanctuary, eventually they're going to get
into the sanctuary and eat from that as
well.
And that is why as a believer you
need to have a barrier between yourself and
those things which Allah ﷻ made Haram as
Abu Darda ﷺ mentions, that part of your
war'ah, part of your cautious piety is
not to do everything which is Halal but
put a barrier between yourself and that which
is Haram because if you don't do so
then eventually you're going to fall in.
As human beings, we operate on this principle.
If it is a snowy day, we have
a buffer between us and the person in
front.
If we have an important interview, we ensure
we leave half an hour early.
And as a Muslim, we need to have
a buffer between ourselves and those things which
are Haram because if you don't do so,
eventually you will fall into that.
And Allah ﷻ's sanctuary as the ḥarīf continues
are those things which He has made prohibited
for us.
Now, how can we become a person who
exhibits the quality of al-war'ah?
The first point is that we find a
narration that is mentioned by Hassan ibn Ali
ﷺ that he says, حَفِظْتُ مِن رَسُولِ اللهِ
ﷺ He memorized these words from the Prophet
ﷺ.
What is it?
دَعَ مَا يُرِيبُكِ إِلَى مَا لَا يُرِيبُكِ Leave
that which has doubt for that which has
no doubt.
And we'll give some examples of this.
There might be a scholar, another scholar which
differ.
One of them, both of them they agree
is okay.
But one of them, there may be some
doubt in.
If you want to be one who is
not acting on the aspect of the fatwa,
it might be perfectly fine as we mentioned.
Umar al-Khattab sometimes, he said that he
would leave 9 tenths of what's halal.
But if you want to be someone who's
close to Allah ﷻ, do the one which
has no doubt in it.
This is the first way.
Another aspect as well is, once it is
mentioned that a man came to the Prophet
ﷺ, one of the Sahaba by the name
of Wābisa ibn Maʿbād r.a. And he
went to the Prophet ﷺ, and the Prophet
ﷺ, he told him, Ya Wābisa, that have
you come to ask about birr and ithm?
Have you come to ask about righteousness and
sin?
Then he applies in the affirmative.
The Prophet ﷺ, he takes his hand and
he puts it together and he places it
on his chest.
And he tells Wābisa, he says that as
for birr, as for birr, he says, استفت
قلبك استفت نفسك And he repeats this three
times.
Take a fatwa from your heart.
Take a fatwa from your soul.
And he repeats this three times.
And he says, as for ithm, as for
sin, it is something ما حاك في صدرك
Something which your heart does not feel content
with.
Even if people give a fatwa in its
favor.
And we also find as well, Sufyan al
-Thawri, he says, ما رأيت أسهل من الورع
He says, I have not seen something which
is easier than cautious piety.
Whatever I'm unsure about, or whatever you're unsure
about, leave it.
Now again, this is something which is difficult.
And that is why the early Muslims did
not look at a person's Salah or their
Siyam or their Ibad if they wanted to
see someone was righteous.
But they looked at a person and the
level of cautious piety that that individual possessed.
In the last part of the khutbah, let
us mention some practical areas in which we
can apply this quality of being cautiously pious.
One example we can see is with the
holiday season which has just passed.
And Nabi ﷺ, he tells our ummah.
He says, من تشبه بقوم فهو منهم Whoever
imitates a people is from them.
Now as for celebrating the day of Christmas
in and of itself, the day itself, this
is haram no matter how many soccer players
do so.
This is something which is forbidden in the
deen of Islam.
But there could be something which is loosely
associated with it.
Maybe you go to the store and you
find some cookies with some green and red
sprinkles.
And you just want it for the fact
that it maybe tastes good.
But you're unsure.
Could this be partaking in that celebration to
some degree or not?
A person, what should they do in this
scenario when it comes to those aspects of
imitating those that are not Muslims.
Whether it comes to even your appearance.
Whether it comes to your any type of
imitation of them.
The scholars, they may differ as to what
is acceptable and as to what is not.
Apply the hadith that Ali radiyallahu anhu's son
Hassan, he memorized from the words of the
Prophet ﷺ, which is what?
دعم يريبك إلى ما لا يريبك.
Leave that which has doubt for that which
has no doubt.
Another example.
Another example could pertain to the fatawa of
the ulama and it could pertain to what
some ulama deem as bid'ah or not.
As for the issue of bid'ah itself,
the Prophet ﷺ tells us, مَنْ أَحْدَثَ فِي
أَمْرِنَ هَذَا مَا لَيْسَ مِنْهُ فَهُ رَدْ.
Whoever introduces something into this matter of ours
which is not from it, is rejected.
But as for the application of this, a
shafi' has a definition, رحم الله, and his
student, Imam Ahmad, has a different definition.
Sometimes they would differ from the early Muslims
even at that level.
There are some things which are universally agreed
upon that all of the ulama like celebrating
the day of Ashura is completely bid'ah.
But other aspects, the ulama, they might differ.
And the earlier on you get, then the
more tolerant you would be with others that
maybe adopt a different view in terms of
the ummah.
But as for yourself, you might have one
scholar giving one opinion, that this is bid
'ah.
Another one may say that it's perfectly fine.
But a person sometimes should operate from the
paradigm of al-war'ah, not the fatwa
itself.
One of them may have some doubt, and
we know the severity of bid'ah.
The other one, everyone says it's perfectly fine.
دَعَ مَا يُرِيبُكِ إِلَى مَا لَا يُرِيبُكِ We're
not talking from the aspect of fatwa, but
just from the aspect of al-war'ah
or cautious piety.
Another example of this we can give, which
is practical in our application, could be a
person when it comes to their consumption of
meat.
There are some people that only go to
places which have slaughtered in accordance with the
rules of zabiha, of those rules stipulated in
the hadith.
Other individuals might say that we are living
in a land which is from the lands
of Ahlul Kitab, although Canada is 53%
Christian, just for a statistic.
But not operating from the aspect of a
fatwa, because those fatwa do exist.
But if a person wants to practice the
quality of cautious piety, and you have one
which is perfectly 100% according to everyone
halal, the other one, some say it is,
some say it's not.
What should you do if you want to
be one who is close to Allah ﷻ?
Simple.
Not from the angle of the fatwa again.
دَعَ مَا يُرِيبُكِ إِلَى مَا لَا يُرِيبُكِ And
again, this might cause some difficulty and hardship
for us.
But remember that Allah ﷻ will reward you
for this quality.
Another example and an important one as well
is when it pertains to finances.
In one hadith, it is mentioned that on
the Day of Judgment, a person's feet will
not move until they are asked about five
things.
Two of them, they pertain to finances.
One of them is your money and how
you got it.
You might be working somewhere and you don't
know if it's fully halal or not, or
there could be something doubtful in it and
you're seeking a fatwa, and someone might even
give it to you.
Or it could be in terms of your
spending on something which could be a part
of either gharar, which the Prophet ﷺ forbade,
نَهَى النَّبِي ﷺ عَن بَيْءِ الْغَرَىٰ Something in
which there is no certainty in the transaction.
Or riba, something pertaining to this you're unsure.
Again, apply this principle of the Prophet ﷺ
and you'll become من أعبد الناس from those
that are the best worshippers of Allah ﷻ.
And the Prophet ﷺ, he mentions with respect
to riba in one hadith, narrated in Muslim,
in Sahih of Imam Muslim.
He says, the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that لَعَ
النَّبِي ﷺ لَعَنَ رَسُولُ الله ﷺ آكِلُ الْرِبَىٰ
The one who consumes riba, meaning he's charging
other people riba.
The Prophet ﷺ cursed this person.
And the one who also pays into it.
And the one who writes it down.
And the one who witnesses it.
And at the end of this narration, it
says هُمْ سَوَاء They're all the same.
So a person, they might have a fatwa.
And again with certain conditions, maybe it's okay.
Some of the ulama might have said this.
But if you want to be من أعبد
الناس, then try to apply this rare quality
of being cautiously pious and it will save
you from so much.
And Allah ﷻ will bless you in so
many ways.
When it comes to your consumption as well,
this pertains both to your finances and to
the eating of meat.
Remember the fact that your dua could be
rejected based on the fact that you're not
sustaining yourself with halal.
Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas ﷺ is one
example.
It's mentioned that he was so careful of
what he put into his body.
And he was also one that the Prophet
ﷺ said his dua was never rejected.
So let us try to revive this extinct
quality of the ummah of Islam.
Be one who is cautiously pious and you
will see how these blessings will come into
your life.
And Allah ﷻ will categorize you among those
من أعبد الناس which we all want because
we have one life to live to please
Allah ﷻ.
أقول قولي هذا واستغفر الله العظيم لي ولكم
وليس المسلمين والمسلمات فاستغفروه إنه هو الغفور