How Allah Subhanaw Taala Rewards Our Honesty
When We'Re In A Difficult Situation. As People Start To Experience Financial
Uncertainty Like Many Forms Of Uncertainty
Certain Options Become Available To Them And Certain Things Open Up For Them.
That Might Not Have Been Open To Them Before
And I Want To Preface This By Saying That There Are Legitimate Fatwa For Example
Legitimate Scholarly Opinions, For Example That If A Person
Finds Themself In This Situation Then They'Re Able To You Know, Out Of Necessity
Engage In This Particular
Type Of Financial Transaction, Which Otherwise Would Be Prohibited.
Necessity Makes Things That Are Ordinarily Prohibited, Permissible In A
Restricted Sense, Right?
And One Of The Problems Is That People Usually Go Beyond The Restricted
To The Moment And They Just Kind Of Go Far Into It.
And This Is... This Is You Know Very Much So Embedded In Our Legal Reasoning As
Muslims That There Are Certain Hardships That Make Things Permissible That
Ordinarily Would Be Prohibited But I Want To Take This Beyond That And I Want
Us To Just Sort Of Think About It As An Attitude As A Mindsets
A Person Who Has This Quality That Is Referred To In Our Text As A Efa As Modesty
Modesty, Typically When Discussed In The Spiritual Sense Refers To Modesty In
Regards To Probably The Way That Many Of Us Think Of It Efa, Protecting
Oneself From Zina And Everything That Leads To Zina, Protecting Oneself From
Adultery, Fornication And
Guarding One'S Chastity,
But It Also Refers To Staying Away From Haram Money And Not Finding Ourselves In
A Situation Where We Are Engaging In Prohibited Forms Of Transaction.
And So Just Says When A Person Is In A Place Of Affluence And They'Re Gaining A
Lot And They Have A Lot Of Money For Example, And They'Re In A Place Of Luxury.
And They See That There Is A Way To Do Extra
To Gain Extra And So They'Ll Engage In Some Prohibited Transactions Because
They'Ve Tasted The Sweetness Of Wealth And Prosperity And So Might As Well
Keep Increasing
Likewise.
There Is A Unique Hardship; A Unique Way Of A Person Finding Themselves In A
Way That They Could Be Tempted To Haram
When They'Re In A Difficult Situation.
And So Typically When We Talk About Hardship And Ease, We Talk About It
From The Perspective Of Giving Sadaqah For Example Hardship And Ease.
Allah (Swt) Praises The People That Spent Both In Times Of Adversity
And In Times Of Prosperity
But There'S Something To Be Said About A Person Who Holds Onto
Their Principles And Does Not Lose Them
In A Situation Of Hardship And In A Situation
Of Particularly The Pinch Of Financial Hardship
And This Is Where We Find So Much In Our Text About This Idea Of Allah Subhanahu
Wa'Ta'Ala Rewarding A Person For Their Honesty That Whoever Is Mindful Of
Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala, Allah Subhanaw
Taala Will Make A Way Out For Them
And Allah Will Provide Them From Places And With Things; Both Will Provide Him Or
Her From Places That They Would Not Have Expected Before.
Okay
So Refers To The Source, So You Don'T Know Where The Good Is
Going To Come To You.
You Don'T Know When It'S Going To Come To You And You Also Don'T Know How It'S
Going To Come To You. So Both
The Source Of The Rizq And The Output Of The Rizq; The Source Of The Sustenance As
Well As The Output Of The Sustenance Are Unknown To You When You Choose To
Practice Taqwa,
When You Choose To Practice Piety And God-Consciousness, Even In A Tight
Situation, Even In A Difficult Situation And Whoever
Entrusts Allah With All Of Their Affairs Then Allah Subhanaw Taala Will Be
Sufficient For That Person In Regards To Everything.
Okay, In Regards To Everything
Now Again, I'M Going To Say This One More Time.
There Are Situations Where A Person Finds Himself In A Hardship And
There Is A Legitimate Fatwah And A Pathway Where A Person Has To Engage In
Something That Is Ordinarily Prohibited
For The Sake Of Getting Themselves Out Of A Difficult Situation.
And So,
You Know, You'Ll Find That This Is Gradual
And You'Ll Find That It Is Both On The Basis Of How Difficult Your Situation Is
And Whether Or Not You'Ve Exhausted The Permissible Means
To
Deal With The Situation Without Having To Engage In Haram
All Right.
So How Much Have You Exhausted The Permissible Means
In Order To Not Find Yourself In A Place Of Engaging In That Prohibited
Transaction Or In Those Prohibited Ways
And That'S Where
That Taqwa Really Comes In, Right?
So Taqwa
Really Refers To A Sense Of Being Cautious And Being Safe Particularly
When It Comes To Sins, You Know, The The Famous Narration Of The Companions Who
Described
Taqwa As A Person That'S Walking Between Thorny Bushes And Holding Themselves
Tight So That They Don'T Find Themselves Being Pricked By Those Thorns.
And So They Hold Themselves Tight.
So,
You Know
So That They Can Remain Safe.
Right?
And So That'S An Attitude.
That'S A Mindset
That
When A Person Finds Themself
In A Situation Where Things Become Tempting
Where It'S Easy To Go A Prohibited Route,
They Asked Themselves Have I Really Exhausted All Of The Permissible Ways To Get Myself
Out Of This Difficulty.
They Ask Allah Subhanaw Taala For Help.
They Asked Allah For Support.
They Exhaust Their Permissible Means To Get Out Of That Situation.
And Then Lastly
They Only Engage The Prohibited To The Extent That Is Necessary To Get Them Out
Of Their Place Of Hardship Or Dire Need.
I'M Going To Say That Again, They Only Engage It To A Point That It Is
Necessary To Get Them Out Of Their Hardship Or Their Dire Need.
Because Sometimes What Happens
Is That Just As You Have Some People That Will Sort Of Skip Over The Permissible
Exhausting The Permissible To Get Themselves Out Of A Hardship.
You'Ll Also Have Some People That Will
Exceed
Under The
Under The Umbrella Of A Fatwa
That Was Given In A Very Restricted Way Will Exceed And We'Ll Just Go All
The Way In
And So If This Fatwa Allows A Person In This Situation To Engage This Much (Small),
They'Ll Use That Fatwa To Justify Engaging In This Much (Bigger), Right?
So
Where Is The Taqwa, Here
The Taqwa Is Not In A Person Having Exhausted All Permissible Means
And Then Finding Themselves In Deep Hardship
And And Perpetuating The Hardship.
The Taqwa Is In Whether That Person Really Exhausted Their Permissible Means
And Really Tried, Really Tried To
To Go About Things In The Purest Way Possible And Ask Allah Subhanahu
Wa'Ta'Ala For Support In The Process And Then Engaging Only What They Had To
Of The Doubtful Or The What Is Ordinarily Prohibits It For That Moment.
So That'S Where Taqwa Is And That Regard, Right?
It'S That A Person Holds Back, A Person
Is Skeptical
Not Of The Scholar That Might Give A Fatwa For A Situation But A Person Is
Skeptical As To Whether Or Not They Would Qualify For Some Of The
Concessions/ In The Exemptions That Are Given In A Hard Place
And The Prophet (Saw) Warns Us For This Idea Of Belittling Sin.
It'S The Small Drops
That Corrode The Entire Heart And That Lead A Person To A Complete Place
.... A Complete Place Of Rebellion With Allah (Swt) And Transgression
With Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala
Okay,
So
Just Like With Any Small Sin.
It'S Those Small Things That You Start To Cheat With, With Your Money, Small Things
That You Start To Cheat With With Your Financial Transactions
The Small Things That You Start To Get Away, With The Small Forms Of Deception
That You Start To Allow To Be Accepted As Practice
That Corrode A Person'S Taqwa And That Excel Their Hypocrisy.
Okay.
And So What'S The Opposite Of This
Allah Rewards Honesty And Just Like With Sins.
Sins Tend To Yield A Temporary Short-Term Benefit.
Okay,
Like They'Re Very Immediate And The Type Of Pleasure That The Yield Usually When
A Person Sins They Do It Because
They'Re Coming
At It From Place Of Being ... Hasty, Their Hasty
Towards It And So
They Want To Experience The Taste Of That Desire
In That Moment And They Are Impatient With Their Desires.
They Don'T Have Sabr With With Holding Themselves Back With Their Desires.
And So They Will Engage In Something That Gives Them An Immediate Sense Of Pleasure
Only To Be Followed By
A Lifetime Of Regrets And Even Worse Without Toba, Hereafter Of Regret
Without Repentance; Hereafter Regret, But It Got A Have It At This Moment.
I'M Not Patient Enough
Till Allah (Swt) Makes The Permissible Means For Me
To Where I Will Either Taste
The Benefits Of Engaging In Only That Which Is Permissible
In Just The Hereafter Or Allah Subhanaw
Taala Reward Me With An Element Of Reward For Engaging Only In The Permissible In
This Life And The Next
And So I Give You An Example,
Someone Says
Look, I Want To Quit My Business.
I Want To Quit My
I Want To Get Out Of This Haram,
Okay,
And For Some People What This Means Is Removing A Haram Product Off The Shelf
Removing Something Forbidden Off The Shelf.
So Think Of A Person Sells Alcohol Right Or Sells
You Know
Pork Or Whatever It Is, Right, But I Want To Remove Something Harmful From The
Shelf And That Person'S Crunching The Numbers And Says, Well This Much Of My
Money Comes From Alcohol Sales And If I Stop Selling
Liquor Then I'M Going To I'M Going To Feel
That You Know, This This Great.
You Know Paying Because 30-40 Percent Whatever It Is Of My Sales Are Going To
Go To Waste Now
And It'S Very Hard To Reason With That Person
Say Allah Will Provide You In Ways
That You Did Not Know Because They'Re Only Able To See
To The Extent Of What The Numbers Read
And That'S Actually The Problem,
Right? That Just Like With Sin.
You'Re Only Able To
See What'S Right In Front Of You And You'Re Not Able To See What'S Behind It.
Okay.
You Are Hasty.
The Same Thing Is True, When It Comes To Our Financial Sins
And The Lack Of Integrity Or Honesty That We Might Show In Regards To Our
Transactions, In Regards To What We Engage In The Financial Sense.
Okay?
Why?
Because If I'M Talking To That Person And Say Listen,
If You'Re.. You Know, You Don'T Know The Rizq That You Will See In Your Life
Through Other Business Opportunities That Allah Will Decree That Come Your Way
Because Of You Abandoning That Haram, You Don'T Know The Blessing/ The Baraka
That Allah Will Put In The Money That You Earn From Halal.
So If You Lose Out On 30%, The Baraka That Allah Will Put In The 70% To Where Its
Benefits Is Expanded. Its Blessing Is Expanded.
You Can'T Quantify That. You Cannot Determine The Rizq/ The Sustenance In
Your Life That You Will Have In How Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala Then
Blesses Your Children Because They'Re Now Nourished On Halal Income As Opposed
To Haram Income, The Blessings That Are Putting Your Family,
Right, As A Result Of That There Is No Way For You
To Be Able To Quantify All Of That.
And So Just Like Sabr/ Patience When It Comes To The Haram In Terms Of Sin
Requires You To Trust Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala That What Allah Has In Store
For You Is Better
And That You Don'T Need To Compromise On What Is Better For You That Is In Store
From Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala Or With Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala Because Of The
Immediate Temptation Of The Prohibited The Same Thing Is True
With All Of Our Financial Temptations. Money Is A
Is So Tempting Towards Haram, Right? And A Person Can Find Themselves Falling Over
And Over And Over And Over Again
When It Comes To These Things And These Financial Transactions.
So I Want To Actually Give You
You Know, Two Incidents Of This, Two Stories Of This, One Of Them,
You Know, Abdullah Ibn Umar (Ra),
So, Abdullah Ibn Umar (Ra)
He Was One Time Passing By A Sheepherder.
And
This
Person That Had These Sheep, He Was Watching The Sheep For His Syeed/ Master
He Said To Him.
He Said, You Know, Give Me One Of Those
Sheep And I'Ll Give You A Price
Right?
I'Ll Pay You For It.
You Know, Just Give Me One Of Them And Don'T Tell
Don'T Tell Your Master
So The Man Responded And Said; Listen, I'M A Slave And I'M Entrusted
I'M A Slave And I'M Entrusted
I Can'T Do That.
Abdullah Ibn Umar (Ra)
He Responded Said Tell The Master
That
A Wolf Ate One Of The Sheep, Right?
Tell Them That Just One Of Them Got Lost. You Can Get Away With It.
He Won'T Notice. If He Notices One Of The Missing Just Say That It Was Attacked By
A Wolf.
The Man'S Response Was And What Will I Say To Allah?
Subhanallah
What Will I Say To Allah? Am I Going To Say To Allah That It Was Lost?
Am I Going To Say To Allah That A Wolf
Ate It?
What Will I Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala?
Subhanallah,
So The Honesty Of That Man, The Righteousness Of That Man, Look Where
His Mind Went Right Away Because That'S Significant.
This Is A Beautiful Story In And Of Itself,
But Look Where His Mind Went,
Yeah If I Can Deceive Him (Person), How Am I Going To Deceive Him (Allah)?
How Am I Going To Deceive Allah, Right.
That'S Where His
Mind Went Right Away Because That'S Who His Heart Was Connected To This Entire
Time As He Was Herding Those Sheep,
What Am I Going To Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala
Right,
And Abdullah Ibn Omar (Ra)
He Said The Word That You Just Said Has Caused You
To Be Freed In This World And I Ask Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala That It Will Free You
The Day That You Meet Him Meaning The Day That It Will Free You From Any Punishment
In The Hereafter As Well.
Subhanallah, Just That
One Word.
What Am I Going To Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala?
Now His Rizq
His Rizq Though
He Had No Expectation Of It,
Right, That Man'S Honesty, His Honesty Would Have Got Him His Reward From Allah
Subhanaw Taala, Regardless And When He Speaking To Abudullah Ibn Omar (Ra),
He'S Not Telling Him That To Impress Him.
He'S Telling Him That Because That'S Where He Is.
That'S Where His Spiritual Statu Is..
What Am I Going To Say To Allah Subhanaw Taala?
You Have An Excuse, I Might Be Able To Deceive My Master
But What Am I Going To Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala
What Will I Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala In The Midst Of All Of This?
That Man Did Not Imagine That He Would Be Freed In This World, But He Was Freed In
This World.
He Was Working And He Was Living His Life In A Way That He Would Be Freed On The
Day Of Judgment From Any Of The Hardship In Any Of The Distress Of That Heavy Day
Subhanallah.
What Will I Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala?
That Motto If We Were Able To Bring That Into All Of Our Affairs And Life
Would Just Change Everything For Us, Right?
What Will I Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala
And That'S The Process Of Muraqabah.
That'S The Process Of Observing Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala And Everything That
You Do And It Becomes So Much Harder To Observe Allah Subhanaw
Taala With Everything That You Do When The Excuses That Are Being Given To You To
To Disobey
Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala Are So Many
And They Come To You In A Diversified
Sense Of
You Know,
Diversified Sense Of Advices And Whatever It Is People That Are Well-Wishers That
Tell You It'S Okay.
You Can Do This.
You Can Do That. When It Becomes A Situation Where
You Know Everyone Else
Is Doing It This Way So You Can Do It This Way Too.
This Is The Standard Practice.
You Can Engage In The Standard Practice As Well
What Will I Say To Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala,
You Know, When You Look At The Story Of Belal (Ra)
And
Had Bilal Radiyaallahu Ta'Ala Anu
Kept His Islam'S Secret
Had Belal (Ra) Not, You Know
Taking That Stance Of Ahadun Ahad The Way That He Did; One One One One.
One The Way That He Did.
Which Caused Him To Be Tortured The Way That He Was
Belal (Ra) Would Have Certainly Escaped That Torture Or Likely
Escaped The Torture That He Underwent For Expressing His Islam The Way That He Did
Especially In The Situation That He Was.
He Would Have Likely Escaped That Torture, But He Also Would Not Have Attained The
Blessings And High Station That He Did As A Result Of
As A Result
Him Putting Himself In That Situation By Insisting On A
Ahadun Ahad/ The One, One!
Even In The Most Difficult Circumstances.
You Know, Would Belal (Ra) Found Himself In A In
The Way That He'S Honored To Be The Mu'Adhin The First Person To Climb Up
In Medina And Say Allah Akbar Allahu Akbar, First Person To Climb On The Kabba And
Say Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, The First Person To Do So In Jerusalem
And Al Quds, Would He Have Had All Of That, Right? Had He Not Done What He Did
And So Yes.
The Immediate Hardship That Comes When A Person
Practices Taqwa, Holds Himself To A Higher Standard.
The Immediate Consequences Are Sometimes Hard But You Don'T Know What Rizq
Awaits You, What Sustenance Of Allah Subhanaw Taala Awaits You, Afterwards
And You Don'T Know What Source It Will Come From And You Don'T Actually Even
Know The Outcome Or The Way That That Rizq Be Divided Because One Of The Things
One Of The Mistakes That We Make Is That We Define Rizq Only In Terms Of
Money,
Right?
So If I Give Up This Haram Money That I'M Going To Have This Halal Money Instance,
Right? We Define Rizq, We Define Sustenance Only In Terms Of Financial
Instruments And That Is Not The Way That Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala Defines Rizq
And That Is Not The Way That We Should Interpret Things In Our Lives,
Especially In Regards To Rizq.
So We Ask Allah Subhanaw
Taala To Suffice Us With The Halal
To
To Nourish Us With Taqwa, To Nourish Us With Ihsan, To Allow Us To Be In The
Process Always Muraqabah,
So We Asked Allah To Suffice Us With Halal Only With That Which Is Permitted
So That We Don'T Fall Into That Which Is Prohibited.
We Asked Allah To Nourish Us With Taqwa And Eshan With Piety And
God-Consciousness And Striving For God'S Pleasure With The Different
Standard In Eshan And The Process Of Muraqabah, Muraqabah Always Being
Present In Our Lives Where We Observe Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala Even In
Situations Where It Is So Easy,
It Is So Easy To Turn Away From Allah Subhanaw
Taala, Other People Make Us More Comfortable With Turning Away From Allah (Swt).
We Ask Allah (Swt) To Allow Us To Observe Him
In All Of Our Affairs And All Of Our State And Hardship And Ease
And We Ask Allah Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala That As He Observes Us At All Times That Allah
Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala Always Finds Us
In A State That Is Pleasing To Him And That Allah Subhanaw
Taala Make The Best Of Our States, The Best Of Our Affairs, The Best Of Our
Deeds, The Last Of Them, Only Allah Subhanaw Taala Make The Best Of Our
Days; The Day That We Meet Him Subhanahu Wa'Ta'Ala, Allahumma Ameen.