Tom Facchine – How A Wise Person Worships Allah

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.