Salamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakto everyone, welcome back to another episode of Allah Loves.
So this one is a little complicated.
Allah loves those who are unnoticed, Allah loves those who are obscure, Allah loves those
who are hidden, Allah loves those people who are barely noticeable in gatherings.
Who are these people?
You might remember a hadith we mentioned early on in this series, a hadith from Saad ibn
AbiWaqas, may Allah be pleased with him, he said 'inna Allaha yohib al abd al taqi, al
a'ni, al khafi'.
That Allah loves his servant who is pious, who is self suffice, and who is obscured,
who is unnoticed by the people, who avoids a sense of the spotlight, who avoids the sense
of the spotlight, who avoids the sense of prominence amongst the people.
Now this type of being noticed is a different type of being noticed.
It's one thing to be noticed because of good deeds.
And obviously its riyaa' if you seek showing off, if you seek to being noticed for your
good deeds, but obviously if someone is doing good then there is a noticeable amount of
that good thats public sometimes.
In this situation, there is a different type of obscurity that the Prophet (pbuh) is praising.
The Prophet (pbuh) was once sitting with his companions and a man walked by and the Prophet
(pbuh) said, 'what do you say about this man'.
They said 'o messenger of Allah, this man is of the most prominent of people.
If he intercedes on someone's behalf, then his intercession will be accepted, if proposes
to someone then his proposal will be accepted.'
and then the man walked away and the Prophet (pbuh) saw another person and said, 'what
do you say about this person?' and they said 'o messenger of Allah, this man is a poor
man, if he intercedes on anyone's behalf his intercession will not be accepted and if he
proposes his proposal will surely be rejected' and the Prophet (pbuh) said 'but this person,
one of this person is better than an earthful of the other person' in the sight of Allah
(swt).
And he is where this becomes fascinating.
Some of the most beloved people to Allah (swt) are the least noticed in our communities.
The 'awliya' of Allah, the closest ones to Allah are 'akhfeya' they are hidden gems in
our community.
It's a person who is quiet, a person who does their service, a person that does their worship,
that always greets people with a smile, that is barely noticed in gatherings, that doesn't
show off, that doesn't boast, and in that process they are gaining a special type of
prominence in the sight of Allah (swt).
The Prophet (pbuh) taught us that thats a good habit for us to have.
And its part of modesty, it's part of haya'.
He said (saw) that the best person is one who sits in the gathering and leaves and people
barely notice him.
There are some people they sit in the gathering and this isn't a situation which there is
dhikr, the remembrance of Allah and good contribution, you know its idle speech, things that aren't
very beneficial.
This person just maintains a low profile.
They maintain a sense of quietness and a sense of humility.
That shows that that person is engaged in something else.
They are engaged in another type of pursuit.
They are not seeking their value from how other people see them.
So this is not, again, the being noticed for good deeds, competition for good deeds that
Allah talks about in the Quran.
The presence of virtue in public which is necessary when its done only for his sake,
but this is a person who maintains quietness, softness, humility, modesty in gatherings,
amongst people and does not show off, does not speak too much, does not talk out of turn,
does not place too much importance in themselves or in their voices at times.
And I want to actually comment on this, if we connect this to the very first hadith that
we talked about here, you know if a person is wealthy then that would give them some
sort of route or some sort of sense of importance.
If a person is famous that might give them some sort of sense of importance in themselves.
And so they don't know how to sit in a gathering anymore and not be rich or famous.
That's actually a very big problem.
The Prophet (pbuh) was the most famous person in the world at the end of his life, but when
he walked into a gathering, you couldn't distinguish him (saw).
He had long periods of silence, the Prophet (pbuh) did not take the fame that Allah gave
him for being the Messenger of Allah and project that on all of his affairs.
Likewise, Othman, radiallah ta'ala, was of the richest of the companions of the Prophet
(pbuh) but he would be of the least noteworthy of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh) if
he walked into a gathering.
And of course, I have to end with this hadith because I always find it so profound.
When the Prophet (pbuh) woke up one day and he missed that woman that used to clean the
masjid and the companions said ya rasullallah, she passed away and we didn't want to wake
you up at night so we buried her because we didn't want to bother you.
I mean we thought this was an insignificant person in the community, she's just the woman
that cleans the masjid.
And the Prophet (pbuh) was so upset by that, he said take me to her grave and he prayed
on her again as if the janaza of the companions is not enough.
He prayed on her again and he talked about how he lights up the grave for his salah is
a means of light in the grave of the people that he prays upon.
And there was a great lesson in that that though this woman was unnoticed by people,
Allah noticed her.
May Allah (swt) notice us and may Allah (swt) allow us to always seek that recognition from
him and learn humility and to practice humility, modest, silence, obscurity, not let people
carry your stuff or put you in a certain place or talk to you in a certain way.
Try your best to always maintain a sense of modesty and seek that love of Allah (swt)
even when you're surrounded by other than Allah (swt).
May Allah make us amongst them.
Allahhoma ameen, jazakallah, wasalamualikoum wa rahmatollahi wa barakato.