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Piety
Shaykh Muhammad As-Subayyil [(Jumaadal Aakhirah 7, 1423 (August 16,
2002)]
All praise is
due to Allaah, Lord of all the worlds. May peace and blessings of Allaah
be upon the Messenger, his household and companions.
Fellow Muslims!
Fear Allaah and be dutiful to Him. Be conscious of Him in your public and
private life; for He commands you to be conscious of Him in all that you
say and do. He promised to reform your affairs for you, to forgive you
your sins and to let you attain great reward in the Hereafter. He says,
"O you who
believe! Keep your duty to Allaah and fear Him, and speak (always) the
truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you
your sins. And whosoever obeys Allaah and His Messenger has indeed
achieved a great reward."
(Al-Ahzaab
33:70-71)
In this noble
verse, Allaah commands His believing slaves to fear Him in all their
conditions and in word and deed, by fulfilling His Commandments and
abstaining from all that He forbids.
It is by piety
that a Muslim can achieve good in his religion and his worldly life. It is
also through it that evils can be averted. Whoever fears Allaah and speaks
the truth, Allaah will guide him to words that are good and unto His
Praiseworthy Path. Whoever fears Allaah and uses his tongue to recite the
Qur'aan, make remembrance of Allaah, repents to Him in repentance, seeks
for His forgiveness, enjoins all that is good, forbids all that is evil
and guard his tongue against forbidden utterances that harm people and are
repugnant, Allaah will make things easy for him, guard him against all
difficulties, provide him with good provision and give him security in
this life and the Hereafter.
"And whoever
fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make his matter easy for
him."
(At-Talaaq
65:4)
Brethren in
faith! Fear of Allaah is binding upon man in all his conditions; in his
religion and worldly affairs; in his relationship with his Lord; in his
dealings with family, relatives and neighbours; in his business
transactions; in his covenants; in his work and trust; in fulfilling the
right of Allaah, and the rights of his fellow human beings, with all
sincerity, far from treachery, dishonesty, lying an false testimony. If a
Muslim does not possess all these traits; where is piety then and where is
real Eemaan? The Prophet said, "The believer is the one in whose
trust people put their wealth and lives; and the real Muslim is the one
from the harm of whose tongue and hands Muslims are safe."
How can the one
who neglects the obligations of Allaah be pious? How can the one who
violates the things sanctified by Allaah, attacks people's honour with his
tongue, roams about gossiping, lies, commits sins, eats up usury and
cheats people be pious? How can the one who cheats in the weight and scale
measures and betrays public and private trusts be pious?
Many people
nowadays are afflicted with betrayal and dishonesty. If he is obliged to
others, he will not fulfil it completely; if he is assigned a
responsibility, he would not perform it as it is due; if he owes others,
he would delay the payment, he sometimes, even would not bother to pay up
at all, or when he pays he mischievously withhold some, or takes a wage
for that. Is this not an act of dishonesty? Is this not an injustice to
people? Is this not an act of eating up an unlawful money? Is this act not
far away from piety? Is this not an act of injustice that will be darkness
on the Day of Resurrection?
Injustice
certainly destroys inhabited edifices and blossoming structures. It turns
the conditions of the unjust from bliss to misery and earns for them a
torment that they never imagine. Allaah says,
"For the
wrong-doing of the Jews, We made unlawful for them certain good food which
had been lawful to them and for their hindering many from Allaah's way,
and their taking of usury though they were forbidden from taking it and
their devouring of men's substance wrongfully. And We have prepared for
the disbelievers among them a painful torment."
(An-Nisaa
4:160-161)
Devouring people's properties
wrongfully, doing injustice to them and cheating on them regarding their
rights are among the characteristics of despicable, weak-minded and
faithless people. What will the usurper of other people's rights do on the
Day of Resurrection when he is told, "Return the properties to their
rightful owners."
Let him
remember this great standing in a Day that men shall stand before the Lord
of all the worlds. Let him remember the word of the Prophet when he said,
"Do you know the bankrupt?" The companions said, "The bankrupt among us is
the one who owns neither a dirham not a property." The Messenger of Allaah
said, "The bankrupt among my Ummah is the one who will come on the
Day of Resurrection with prayer, fasting and Zakaah to his credit;
but while he was in this world, he has insulted someone, defamed someone,
eaten up the money of someone wrongfully, shed the blood of someone or
beaten someone. So each of all these will be compensated from his good
deeds. If his good deeds finish before he is through with, his victims
will be compensated by having some of their own evil deeds shed and added
to his evil deeds and he will then be thrown to Hell."
Fellow Muslims!
Fear Allaah and beware of His wrath and punishment. Allaah says,
"Such is the
seizure of your Lord when He seizes (the population) of the towns while
they are doing wrong. Verily, His seizure is painful and severe. Indeed,
in that there is a sure lesson for those who fear the torment of the
Hereafter. That is a Day wherein mankind will be gathered together, and
that is a Day when all will be present."
(Hood
11:102-103)
Brethren in
Islaam! Fear Allaah and beware of sins and wrong-doing to men. Keep away
from arrogance, haughtiness, revenge, aggression, evil deeds and harming
people. Treat others as you will like to be treated with fairness, justice
and compassion; for recompense will be in accordance with the kind of
deed. Allaah says,
"Truly,
Allaah is with those who fear Him and those who are good-doers."
Hasten unto
repentance and seek forgiveness of your Lord before a person should say,
"Alas! My grief that I was undutiful to Allaah and was indeed among
those who mock at the truth!" The Messenger of Allaah said, "Let him
who has done a wrong to his brother or has a right of his brother with
him, free himself from that today before a time comes when, there will not
be any dirham or dinar. If he has any good deed on that day, it will be
taken from it in proportion to his wrong. But if he does not have any good
deed, some of the evil deeds of his victim will be deducted and added unto
his."
Fear Allaah,
for injustice is darkness on the Day of Resurrection.
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