Tom Facchine – How A Wise Person Worships Allah
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People need to get used to the idea
of converting their everyday habits into worship. This
is something Ibn al Qayim, talks about a
lot. For the person who's kind of heedless,
their worship becomes habit. Right? Mechanical motions. Tasbih
but for the wise person, their habits become
worship. So let's say, for example, you go
buy gas. How many times a week do
you buy gas? Probably at least once a
week, maybe. Maybe at least once every 2
weeks, maybe more. Where do you go? What
are the factors that shape your decision for
where to go buy gas? Are you just
going to the place that has the cheapest
gas? Is there one particular gas station that's
owned by a Muslim and one that's not?
Would you choose the one that's owned by
a Muslim over the one that's not, even
if it was more expensive? If there's one
that's owned by a Muslim and he doesn't
sell lottery tickets or alcohol, would you prioritize
that one over the other 2, even if
it was more expensive? Right? Very, very easily.
How we spend our money has ethical dimensions.
We are
too caught up in, usually in North America,
North American Muslim, scene into just getting the
best deal. We want, especially if it comes
from another Muslim, oh, we want the feasibility
discount. We want the brother
we're brothers in the faith, you know, I
should get it for cheaper. Instead of thinking
I have the opportunity to worship Allah with
my money and help this person earn a
livelihood, keep this person in business. We're too
selfish for that right now. We think, what
can I get? What am I getting out
of it? What's my bottom line? There's an
amazing story of Abdu lalaim n Abbas,
where
he sends his slave to the market to
buy a horse for him.
And the slave, he goes and he negotiates
a price and he negotiates a really, really
good price. He he haggles. He talks him
down, and he comes back to Abdul Lebahn
Abbas, and he tells him, look. I got
this great horse. I haggled the price way
down for you. Okay. Abdul Lebahn Abbas says,
okay. You did a great job. Thank you
very He comes to the market to collect
the horse and to deliver the payment. He
sees the horse and he tells the seller
of the horse, he says, what did you
agree to pay for this? And he tells
him the price that he had agreed to
and he said, that's too low. Said I'm
gonna give you more. I'm gonna give you
this much. And the buyer is like, okay.
Well, that's crazy, but sure. Right? Okay. I'll
I'll agree. Who's gonna turn down extra money?
Abdul Eberl Abbas kept on saying, that's not
enough. I'm gonna give you more. That's not
enough. I'm gonna give you more. And he
kept on bumping up the price, bumping up
the price, bumping up the price until it
was more than the seller originally asked for.
The the seller was embarrassed at a certain
point. But Haftel al Adnan Baz, he said
that the reason he did it was because
if I had your horse, this is what
I would sell it for. This is what
I think it's worth. Haftala ibn Abbas was
worshiping Allah with his money. That's his Muslim
brother. His Muslim brother has a family to
support. His Muslim brother has kids to feed,
kids to put in school. He has a
a wife at home. He has all these
sorts of different things. Why are you gonna
squeeze out of him a few extra dollars?
Why wouldn't you be happy to pay the
extra
in order to let him live and have
a decent
livelihood and have a decent life. And if
your intention is
to seek Allah's pleasure, then you're also going
to get rewarded in the afterlife for it.
There's a lot of places, you know, like,
I was recently at ICNA, and you see
a lot of different vendors and stuff like
that. And some of the stuff is very,
like,
I don't want to say cheap quality, but
you can tell it's just like, you know,
it it it doesn't have sustainability in mind.
Mass produced,
synthetic materials,
you know, produced in a factory somewhere, shipped
around the globe. Okay. Is it permissible? It's
not permissible. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about what's ethical. What is the
best thing that we could be doing? Whereas,
if you put your money into something that
is handcrafted, it's from people that you can
actually go and visit and and see the
individuals who are making this and ensure and
ensure that they have a decent livelihood and
that they're paid well and that to the
end of it. Are you gonna pay more?
Of course, you are. But if you have
the right intention, you'll be worshiping Allah with
your money.