Virtues of the righteous
Beautiful statements about sincerity
1. Almighty Allah said (meaning), “Is it not to Allah that sincere devotion is due?” (Sura Al-Zumar, ayah 3). That is secure from being tainted by associating others in His worship.
2. The Prophet ﷺ said, There are three things that prevent the heart of the Muslim from being unfaithful: sincerity towards God in his actions, counseling those in power, and always holding on to the community of Muslims.»
3. Hasan was asked about sincerity and said, “I posed Hudhayfa a question about sincerity and he answered that he had asked the Prophet ﷺ about it. The Prophet ﷺ replied that he had asked the angel Jabrail about it. Jabrail answered that he had posed this question to the Greatest Lord and He replied, “Sincerity is a secret taken from My secret. I have placed it as a trust in the hearts of servants I love.”
4. It is said, “When they perceive sincerity in their sincerity, their sincerity is in need of sincerity.
5. Junaid noted, “Sincerity is a secret between God and a servant. Even the recording angel knows nothing about it to write it down. The devil does not know of it to corrupt it nor is passion aware of it that it might influence it.»
6. The righteous Sahl was asked, “What is the hardest thing for the nafs?” He replied, «It is sincerity - for it has no share in it.»
7. One of the theological scholars noted, «Many are the people of “la ilaha illa’llah” (that is, Muslims), yet few of them are sincere.»
8. It was also said that, “Anyone who has remained sincere for forty days will experience wisdom flowing from the springs of his heart to his tongue.”
9. One of the pious observed, “The rarest thing on earth is sincerity. How many times have I struggled to rid my heart of hypocrisy, only to have it reappear in another giuse.
CHAPTER 16
Help and respect for people
Know that The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, «Whoever walks to fulfill the needs of his brother, God will make his feet firm on the path of Sirat.» The Prophet ﷺ noted further, «Almighty Allah helps a servant as long as the servant helps his brother.» The Creator endowed man with authority and elevated him above other creatures so that he would establish a just order on earth. The servant is given superiority in order to establish justice. `Ali al-Khawwas stated, “(When a time comes to deprive servants of blessings bestowed upon them), Allah sends angels down to earth to test people. Angels come to the doorstep of someone known amongst people for his generosity and hospitality and start to beg insistently. Once he responds to their entreaties, they ask again and again until he gets angry and reveals the bad qualities of his character. When he does this, the angels cry out to Allah and He deprives him of His blessing.»
This is supported by the following sayings of the Prophet ﷺ, “Almighty Allah has blessings that He will give to His servants until they tire of helping others. When they do so, Allah transfers these blessings to other servants” and “O Aisha, always show respect for the blessings of Allah bestowed upon you, for if they desert the inhabitants of a house, they rarely return.”
The virtue of fulfilling the needs of the people
Know, O Muslims, that you exalt Almighty Allah by showing respect to the faithful. Thanks to this respect, a believer attains the degree of the true essence of fear of God (taqwa). The righteous Ma`ruf al-Karkhi related that a friend of Dawud al-Ta’i told him, «Beware of forsaking good deeds, for they bring you closer to the satisfaction of your Lord.» And when he asked what these deeds are, he heard in response, “Constant submission to the Lord, service to Muslims and their edification. The most disgraced person is a pauper who is humiliated by someone who is well-to-do and concurs with this injustice. And the most noble is a rich person who humbles himself before the poor and holds them in respect.”
Our righteous predecessors hastened to aid brothers in faith and to alleviate the difficulties of the poor. Imam ash-Sha`rani said, “I asked my master `Ali al-Khawwas about the reason for the disintegration of hearts of some people of our time and he replied, ‘The reason for this is their abandonment of that which led them to friendship and love: benevolence, gifts, charitable donations and other bounties.’» A hadith says, «Hearts are made to love those who are kind to them.»
`Ali al- Khawwas also said that his father told him, “I do not remember having bought muslin, a length of cloth, a shirt, shoes, soap, wheat, barley, sugar, honey, a sacrificial animal, sweets, a silk scarf for my wife, slippers, a loincloth or anything else that a living person needs. All this and more has been given to us as gifts by friends.” It is evident from this that when people did not do good to each other, their hearts were divided and as a result affliction befell them, for it never descends on a people whose hearts are united in goodness and love. Rather, the affliction stops between heaven and earth for a hundred years until it finds dissension between people and separation and then it descends.
Beware, O Muslims, of censuring muridin even in thought. If they say to you, “Be not with us, if you will not do us good and donate your property,” know that they do this in order to test you and not because of love for things of the world. They want to check that you love them more than your property. Apropos of this, many merchants and wealthy people say to their mentors, «We swear by Allah that you are dearer to us than all of our property and our families!» And when they are asked for just one dinar, it becomes as though a burden on them so they are exposed. If they ponder over a dinar for their sheikh as being heavy on them, how about their donating to individual people?
Sayid Youssef Al-Ajmi used to tell his servants when someone knocked on his door, “Look through the door crack, if you find something with him for the poor, then open it for him, otherwise it is a worthless visit.” He was asked once, “What do you mean by that and are you not of those who love the world?” He said, «The dearest for the murid is their time and the dearest for the children of this world is their material possessions. If they gave us their dearest, we would give them our dearest. Otherwise, we are a group and they are a group that has no bond with us except for the exchange of greetings and nothing else.
Know, O Muslims, that helping to conclude a marriage (nikah) to someone in straitened circumstances is more valued than freeing servants and participating in the ghazawat (ihad). Be afraid to leave this world if, possessing a thousand dinars or more, you did not donate them to build a well, to help someone without enough money to marry, for clothes for an orphan, for repayment of a debt of someone in a difficult position or to bring joy to your neighbors.
Imam ash-Sha`rani said, “Vows were taken from us that we would help everyone who is worried about the calamities that befall them. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Muslims are like a single body: if one of the organs complains (out of pain), the entire body responds with lack of sleep and temperature.” A vow was also taken from us that when we were to leave our home for a period of twenty or more minutes, we would say, “O my Allah, if one of the brothers in faith or someone else is intending to visit us in need or to greet us during our absence, then delay his exit until we get back. And if he is already on his way, keep us where we are until he arrives!”
