Virtues of the Righteous

Statements concerning blasphemy and gossip

Valuable statements have reached us from close slaves of Allah, warning and explaining to the murid all the harm, danger and abomination of blasphemy. Here are some of these statements so that the irreflective might come to their senses and the ignorant might be informed:

1. The Messenger of Allah said, “Of all the possible harm a person might inflict, it would be enough if he mocked and demeaned his brother in faith, as a Muslim’s blood, property and honour are sacrosanct.

2. The Prophet said, “Eschew blasphemy truly, it is worse than adultery (zina). For you see, a person who has committed adultery may soon repent before the Almighty, and Allah, the Perfect and Great, may accept his repentance. But, as for a gossip, Allah will not forgive him until he was forgiven by the one he has mistreated.

3. The Messenger of Allah said, “The gossiper will not enter Paradise.”

4. The Prophet Muhammad said, “Should I tell you about those who are the worst slaves of Allah?” The companions answered, “Yes, Oh Messenger of Allah.” Then he said, “They are those who spread gossip and sow discord among those who love one another and blame the innocent.”

5. The Prophet said, “To tell the truth about an unprincipled person (who openly indulges in great sins) is not slander.”

6. He also said, “To speak the truth about the immoral (those who openly commit serious sins) is not blasphemy.”

7. One of the righteous stated, “He who blasphemes others is like one who has set up a catapult and hurls his good deeds west and east with it.”

8. They asked Sufyan asSawri about the meaning of the hadith of the Prophet : “Almighty Allah becomes angry with the house dwellers who are lovers of meat.” He explained these words in the following way, “They are those who permit themselves to blaspheme others, and themselves eat their flesh.”

8. They asked Sufyan asSawri about the meaning of the hadith of the Prophet : “Almighty Allah becomes angry with the house dwellers who are lovers of meat.” He explained these words in the following way, “They are those who permit themselves to blaspheme others, and themselves eat their flesh.”

9. They informed Hasan al Basri that: “Some people have spoken badly of you.” To which this righteous man sent a tray of sweets to his detractor with the following words, “I have learnt that you gave me your good deeds, so I decided to thank you with whatever I could.”

10. When blasphemy was mentioned before Ibn Mubarak, he said, “If I allowed myself to blaspheme someone, then it would be my parents, because they, most of all, deserve that I give them my blessings.”

11. Imam ibn Ataillah said, “If you want to gauge a person’s mentality, pay attention to how he behaves when someone is mentioned. Thus, if you find he dwells on his faults, remarking something like “Forget him, he did this or that badly,” you should know that such a person is lacking in knowledge (ma`rifah) and his inner world is in ruins as true believers will try to protect the honour of his brother in faith.”

One of the Arab poets said: “The wounds from a knife quickly heal But a wound from a word lasts forever.”

How to act if blasphemy is committed

Know that one who has blasphemed must recite the suras al Fatiha, al Ikhlas, al Falaq and an Nas and commend the reward for the reading to the person whom he has maltreated. In a dream, the Messenger of Allah came to one of the righteous with such an admonition. The righteous one said, “Truly, on the Day of Judgement, when a person stands before Almighty Allah with the sin of blasphemy and the reward for reading these suras, we hope that this reward will become a sort of expiation for the deed.”

A wise person should not be upset by blasphemy against him. Indeed, Allah forgives half the sins of one who has become the object of blasphemy. It is not appropriate for a murid to be friendly with those who praise their own actions while at the same time condemning Sufis. Truly, the nafs and inner world of such people are devastated, as righteous people have said. Indeed, he who has been a witness to the commitment of blasphemy against an absent brother in faith, must not remain indifferent.

On the contrary, it is necessary to support and defend a person rebuked by others, because in this situation maintaining silence also constitutes the humiliation of a Muslim brother. After all, one of a Muslim’s main obligations is the defense of a brother in faith from gossip and blasphemy. Yahya bin Mu`az ar Razi said, “Let there be three precepts concerning another Muslim for you: if you cannot bring him benefit, then at least do not harm him; if you cannot please him, then at least do not distress him and if you cannot praise him, at least do not rebuke him.

They say that once Ibrahim ibn Adham went to a feast at someone’s invitation and there he heard one of the guests saying the following words about another: “He is really obese and that is why he walks so slowly.” On hearing this, Ibrahim ibn Adham immediately left that house and for three days did not eat anything. Afterwards he said, “I will never remain where someone allows himself to blaspheme a believer.”

Another time, Ibn Adham himself invited people to visit and when everyone started the meal, some of the guests started to blaspheme someone. Ibrahim ibn Adham then said, “The peoples who lived before us first ate bread, and then meat. As for you, you first eat meat [1] and only afterwards bread.” After which he refused to eat with them.

One of the good traditions of all the righteous was to be responsible for the defense of brothers in faith if they became objects of blasphemy. Striving for the satisfaction of Allah they did not condone the blaming of brothers in faith so long as some justification for their actions could be found. For example, if someone pronounced words about theological scholars or Sufis like, “How proud this person is! He never accepts invitations to any celebration, even to a wedding!”, the righteous justified this in this way: “Truly, he refuses an invitation only because he intends to belittle his nafs or out of restraint.”

The possessors of happiness, when they see a person committing a reprehensible act, outwardly express disagreement with him, while in their heart they turn to Allah with a prayer for him. Miserable people in such cases, in their maliciousness, denounce a person who has strayed and try to tarnish his honour. The believer, however, instructs his brother in faith in private and does so in a manner that others do not hear and continues publicly to conceal his brother’s shortcomings from others. There must be no other way.

CHAPTER 6

Love for the goods of the worldly life

The worldly is the enemy of man. Know that love for the goods of the worldly life (dunya) is condemned in all the sent Sharias (divine laws), because this is the basis of all sin and the cause of all unrest. Therefore, it is necessary for the slave of Allah to renounce the beauties of the transient life and free his heart of the striving and love for a high position in society. Truly, the love of high position is more harmful to man than the love of wealth. The presence of both of these qualities in a person shows his love for the goods of the worldly life which are the enemy of man.

To make clear all the contempt and stench of this fleeting world, it is enough to give the following example. When Almighty Allah brought the prophet Adam  and his wife Hawa from Paradise to the earth, they, having ceased to smell Paradise, lost consciousness from the stench of this mortal world. They remained in this unconscious state for forty days.

It is also reported that when Almighty Allah created this world, he addressed it thus: “O mortal world, serve the one who serves Me, and turn those who will serve your goods into your servants!” When we talk of the goods of this world, we mean wealth, property, food, speech and sleep.

And you, Oh murid, guard against your heart being occupied with any transient charms and pleasures. And know that worldly goods are akin to hair growing in the heart if just a single hair grows in a person’s heart, he will die immediately. That is why, by the will of Almighty Allah, human hair grows on the surface of the skin, and not otherwise. This is in this wisdom that believers enter Paradise without hair on their bodies and faces, with tinted antimony eyes and identical hearts, without envy and hatred of each other.

And if hair grew on their bodies, this would lead to death, as in the next world people are physically and spiritually like hearts, and for them there is no curtain and barrier from the Lord.

Know that to the degree a murid may love the delights of worldly life, so to the same degree will he be abhorrent to Allah. After all, everything that distracts you from Allah has to do with worldly life (dunya), and everything that furthers your turning to Almighty Allah has to do with the eternal life (akhira).

In a hadith of the Prophet it is said, “Indeed, Allah did not make a creation more hateful to Him than the mortal world. Allah never once looked at it [2] after He created it. The Messenger of Allah also said, “This transitory world and everything in it is cursed, except for the remembrance of Allah and all that leads towards it.”

• [1] In the Quran, Almighty Allah likened a brother who engaged in blasphemy to eating the flesh of his brother, pointing to the abomination of this sin. This is implied by Ibrahim ibn Adham. Ed.
• [2] As something that has value to Him. Ed.

FROM THE BOOK “VIRTUES OF THE RIGHTEOUS” BY SHEIKH AHMAD-AFANDI, MUFTI DAGESTAN