Friday Nasiha

Living The Quran

Face of Allah
Al-Rahman (The Merciful) - Chapter 55: Verses 26-27

"All that is on earth will perish, but the Face of your Lord will abide forever - Full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour."

To entice us to remember Him and to love Him Allah has used the beautiful words Wajh Allah or the Face of Allah in this verse.

Everything on this earth will perish except the 'Face' of our Lord. His is the 'Face' we must desire. The expression 'Face of Allah' does not, of course, mean that Allah has a face like ours. But, again, if you love someone, you desire to look upon his face all the time, you always want to be in his company and you will make all the necessary sacrifice to earn his pleasure. So, when the Quran uses the expression 'Face of Allah' it is really to make us conscious that Allah is looking at us and we should do the things which will please Him and abstain from things which will displease Him.

If we continuously remind ourselves that Allah is looking at us when we are praying, when we are studying, when we are doing our jobs, when we are with our families and friends, when we are involved in dawa - then we are well on our way to attaining ihsan, the most excellent form of worship. Ihsan takes us to the highest station of nearness to Allah. This is what gives real worth to everything we do and makes our actions acceptable in the eyes of our Creator and Sustainer.

Compiled From:
"In the Early Hours" - Khurram Murad, pp. 65, 66

Understanding The Prophet's Life

Sin

"Sin is that which wavers in your soul and which you dislike the people finding out about." [Muslim]

In this hadith, the Prophet (peace be upon him) gave two very important signs of a sin. The first sign is a completely internal sign within the human being. It is the feeling of the soul with respect to that act. The second sign is also regarding an internal feeling but deals with the outward reaction to the act itself.

Sin causes an otherwise wholesome soul to be uneasy and troubled. The soul is unhappy and worried about sin and its consequences. It cannot rest with the idea of committing a sin.

The soul also hates that anyone should find out about the sin that it has committed. The commentators on this hadith stress that the meaning of "the people" in this hadith is the respected or religious people. For example, a person may not care if other evildoers see him commit a sin. However, it is from the people that he respects and the people of honour that he would wish to hide his sins and bad deeds.

Al-Haitami points out that what is meant here in this hadith are the deeds that one does not wish others to know about from a religious and moral point of view. He says that there are some deeds that one may not wish others to know about out of extreme shyness, embarrassment, custom and so forth. These are not necessarily sins. This hadith is referring to the acts that one's conscience feels bad about because the soul feels that they are morally wrong.

These are the two signs of a sin. These signs occur because a person is naturally disposed to favour what leads to good results and avoid what leads to negative results. However, sometimes one's desires overtake a person, making him blind and dumb, and he does something even though he knows the results can be very negative.

Compiled From:
"Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi" - Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo, pp. 1026 - 1028

Blindspot!

Rightful Measure

To stand for moderation and balance is a defining element of the Quranic vision of Muslim community, which is described as ummatan wasatan (2:143), a justly balanced nation that shuns extremism and over-indulgence even in things which might otherwise be praiseworthy and desirable. Moderation also signifies the ideals of an Islamic personality and civilization, for in it lies the essence of all virtues that Islam promotes.

Moderation means avoidance of extremes consisting either of laxity and neglect or exaggeration and excess. A perusal of the source evidence shows that moderation is unqualified and multidimensional and it permeates all aspects of Islam, including personal conduct, law, morality and culture, even matters of worship. There are reports in the hadith literature that the Prophet discouraged extremism even in acts of devotion (ibadat) and instructed his community to 'give everything its rightful measure'. Common sense tells us that severity and extremism do not yield good results, rather it is rationality, enlightenment, good planning, consultation and perseverance that constitute important components of moderation and balance.

Compiled From:
"Shariah Law - An Introduction" - Mohammad Hashim Kamali, p.218