Character Of A Muslim - Dr Ahsan Hanif

Khutbah al-Ula — Opening Sermon

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ تَعَالَى نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ وَنَسْتَغْفِرُهُ وَنَعُوذُ بِاللَّهِ مِنْ شُرُورِ أَنْفُسِنَا وَمِنْ سَيِّئَاتِ أَعْمَالِنَا مَنْ يَهْدِهِ اللَّهُ فَلَا مُضِلَّ لَهُ وَمَنْ يُضْلِلْ فَلَا هَادِيَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ نَبِيَّنَا وَسَيِّدَنَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ أَرْسَلَهُ بِالْحَقِّ بَيْنَ يَدَيِ السَّاعَةِ بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا وَدَاعِيًا إِلَى اللَّهِ بِإِذْنِهِ وَسِرَاجًا مُنِيرًا فَصَلَّى اللَّهُ وَسَلَّمَ وَبَارَكَ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا

أَمَّا بَعْدُ، فَإِنَّ أَصْدَقَ الْحَدِيثِ كِتَابُ اللَّهِ تَعَالَى وَخَيْرَ الْهُدَى هُدَى مُحَمَّدٍ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ وَشَرَّ الْأُمُورِ مُحْدَثَاتُهَا وَكُلَّ مُحْدَثَةٍ بِدْعَةٌ وَكُلَّ بِدْعَةٍ ضَلَالَةٌ وَكُلَّ ضَلَالَةٍ فِي النَّارِ

The Greatest Responsibility: Speaking on Behalf of Allah

One of the greatest responsibilities in Islam — far greater than the responsibility that a father has towards his children, or that the children have towards their father or their mother, greater than the responsibility shouldered by the husband towards his wife or the wife towards her husband, greater than more or less every other responsibility that most of us shoulder on a daily basis — and that's not to diminish the importance of any of those responsibilities — but a responsibility which is greater than all of them is to speak on behalf of Allah. Those people who speak about the Qur'an and who speak about the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, who say that something is halal or haram, something is a part of the religion or it is foreign and alien to the religion — speaking on behalf of Allah — and that's why Allah within the Qur'an, when he testifies to the greatest and most important thing, his tawheed, he mentions his own testimony and the testimony of the angels and the testimony of the scholars:

Allah testifies that none has the right to be worshipped except Him alone, and the angels testify to this, and the people of knowledge testify to this — a testimony that is based upon truth and justice. The scholars of Islam shoulder a responsibility greater than any other responsibility, and that responsibility is given to them because they are the most worthy people to shoulder that responsibility. And for that reason, Allah praises them in the Qur'an and calls them the most God-fearing of His servants:

Indeed, truly those who fear Allah are the scholars alone, because they understand the religion and they spent years upon years studying the religion from scholars who preceded them, going through their books, sitting in their lectures, standing and sitting in front of them so that they could take from the inheritance of the Prophets عليهم الصلاة والسلام.

Speaking About Allah Without Knowledge

And that's why Allah in the Qur'an, when he speaks about one of the gravest sins — according to some of the scholars of Islam, even graver than shirk, associating partners with Allah — he speaks about speaking about Him without knowledge. Because shirk is based upon this essence: when you speak about Allah without knowledge, when you say something about the religion and you have no basis for what you're saying and you don't have any knowledge about what you're saying, then you speak about Allah without knowledge:

Say, O Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم, that indeed Allah has made haram — he has prohibited every type of evil, whether apparent or hidden, and he has forbidden every type of sin, and he has forbidden that you should oppress one another, and he has forbidden that you should make shirk with him for that which he has sent down no authority, and then he has forbidden that you should speak about him without knowledge.

And Allah says in the Qur'an in Surah an-Nahl:

Don't say with your own tongues, ascribing to Allah knowledge that you don't have. Don't say that this is halal and this is haram, for indeed that is ascribing a lie to Allah, and indeed those who ascribe lies to Allah, they will never be successful.

Etiquette Before Knowledge: The Way of the Salaf

And that's why when you look at the scholars of the Salaf رحمهم الله, you study their biographies, you study the way that they sought knowledge, you study the way that they went out to learn about the religion of Allah — you find that most of them, if not all of them, before they sought knowledge, they would learn etiquette, adab — the etiquettes that you need to have when you come to the religion of Allah.

Normally when we speak about good character and etiquette, we think about etiquette between one another — between us and our parents, between a husband and wife, between a parent and their children, between an employer and their employees, or a teacher and their student. But greater than all of these other adab, greater than all of these etiquettes and mannerisms, is the etiquettes that we have towards the religion of Allah — the etiquettes that you display towards your Lord, the etiquettes that you display towards the Qur'an and the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, the etiquettes that you display towards the scholars of Islam and the knowledge that we gain from the scholars of Islam.

And that's why when Imam Malik رحمه الله تعالى — one of the greatest scholars of Islam ever to have lived — when he was a young boy and he was going to seek knowledge, his mother said to him:

Go to your teacher Rabi'ah and take from his etiquette before you take from his knowledge. Before you learn about the Qur'an and the sunnah, before you learn about what Allah says is haram and halal, you must first learn to have etiquette with the Qur'an and the sunnah. You must learn to have etiquette with the scholars — the way that you seek knowledge, the way that you pose a question, the way that you understand the response to that question — all of this is a part of our religion.

And that's why it is said about Imam Ahmad رحمه الله تعالى that in his lectures in Baghdad he would have 5,000 people — 5,000 people would come to sit and take knowledge from him. But only 500 from those 5,000 were serious students of knowledge who would come with their pens and their paper and they would take notes. The other 4,500 would come just to watch him and to learn from his mannerisms and his etiquettes رحمه الله تعالى.

This is the way that the scholars of Islam were, and this is something which we have lost today, unfortunately — that we no longer have that etiquette with the religion of Allah. We no longer have that etiquette even in the way that we address the book of Allah and we address the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. The way that we interact with these two sources, the way that we speak to our scholars, the way that we speak to people who are students of knowledge — all of those issues we have lost today. And it is because we don't have etiquette anymore, we don't seek etiquette and learn about these etiquettes before we take from the knowledge.

Now, unfortunately, everyone who can read a book or go onto Google or watch a video on YouTube has become a scholar, and they don't need to learn etiquette, but they can speak about the religion of Allah, the book of Allah, and the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم — and this is illogical and it's crazy. We wouldn't do this in any other field or aspect of our lives. If one of us was ill or our child was ill, we wouldn't go to the mechanic or the lawyer or the accountant instead of the doctor. If one of us needed help in a court case, we wouldn't go to the mechanic or the butcher or the grocer — we would go to the people of that field, the people who have knowledge of that field. And that is what Allah instructs us to do in the Qur'an when He says:

Ask the people of knowledge if you don't know.

The Caution of the Companions and the Scholars

But when you speak to the people of knowledge and you ask them, there is an etiquette. The scholars of Islam of the Salaf رحمهم الله تعالى would dislike and would not want to give fatwas and religious verdicts and speak about the religion of Allah if they had the choice of not doing so, because they understood the responsibility that was being placed upon their shoulders. And that's why Ibn Abi Layla رحمه الله تعالى — one of the famous scholars of the Tabi'een — he said: I met over 120 companions of the Prophet ﷺ from the Ansar. By Allah, not one of them was asked a question except that he would say, "Go and ask the second one," and the second one would say, "Go to the third one," and the third one would say, "Go to the fourth one," and they would go all around until it came back to the first one — each one of them wanting someone else to shoulder that responsibility instead of them. And he said that he never asked one of them for a fatwa, for an issue about religion, except that he wished that someone would come and take that responsibility away from him instead.

And Imam Al-Sha'bi رحمه الله تعالى and Al-Hasan Al-Basri رحمه الله تعالى and others from the scholars of the Tabi'een — and the Tabi'een are the students of the companions, the second generation of Muslims, speaking about 1,300 odd years ago — they said concerning their time and their people and their generation: By Allah, we have people today who speak about their religion — were these same issues to be presented to Umar رضي الله عنه, he would have gathered all of the people of Badr to ask for their advice on this issue. Over 300 companions from the major companions of Islam participated in the battle of Badr — he would rather gather all of them and seek their advice and their counsel on a single issue than speak about it himself, because he understood رضي الله عنه the responsibility of speaking about the religion of Allah.

The Scholars' Amanah: Treading a Tightrope

And that's why the scholars of Islam, when they would speak about Islam and about the religion of Allah, when they would ascribe something to the religion of Allah, when they would speak about individuals, when they would speak about people, when they would speak about issues — they would understand and reflect, and they would bring to their attention the fact that they were speaking on behalf of Allah. And anyone who speaks on behalf of Allah or on behalf of His Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم is treading a tightrope — on one side is Jannah and on the other side is the fire of Hell.

And that's why Ibn al-Munkadir رحمه الله said: A scholar is the barrier between Allah and His creation. The scholar is in between Allah and His creation, so don't come between him and Allah and between him and His creation.

And Imam Malik رحمه الله تعالى would say that no one who is asked a question should answer that question until they first remember that they will stand in front of Allah, and on one side they will have Paradise and on the other side they will have the fire of Hell. And then, depending upon what they answer and the answer that they give to that question, that may be the difference between whether they enter into one or the other. And then, once they understand and reflect upon this, then they should speak about the religion of Allah.

And that's why the scholars of Islam were never hasty when speaking about affairs of the religion. They wouldn't just give a fatwa whenever an issue came to them, but they would take their time and they would ponder and they would reflect and they would go back and make istikhara and they would ask Allah to help them. They would spend their nights in prayer and their days in fasting before they spoke about a single issue of the religion.

Imam al-Bukhari رحمه الله تعالى — in his Sahih, the thousands of hadith that today we call Sahih al-Bukhari — he didn't write down a single hadith until he prayed two rak'ahs asking Allah that He makes the hadith authentic. This is the determination, this is the amanah, the trust and the responsibility that the scholars of Islam had.

Imam Malik and the Forty Questions

And that's why a man once came from Andalus — from southern Spain — and he went to Medina, travelling months and thousands of miles to go and see Imam Malik رحمه الله تعالى. He had 40 questions that his people had given to him. When he arrived in Medina and he asked these questions to Imam Malik, Imam Malik only answered four, and for 36 of them he said, "I don't know. I don't know the answer." So the man said to Imam Malik: "My people have sent me on a two or three months' journey, thousands of miles, so that I could come and ask you about these questions, and you say for the vast majority of them, 'I don't know'? So what should I tell my people when I go back to them?" Imam Malik رحمه الله said to the man: "When you go back to them, say to them that Imam Malik says he doesn't know." Not speaking about the religion of Allah without knowledge. Not being hasty to speak on behalf of Allah.

Imam Al-Shafi'i: Speaking or Remaining Silent

Imam Al-Shafi'i رحمه الله was once asked a question and he remained silent, so someone prodded him and said to him: "Why don't you answer?" He said: "Because I'm still deciding whether it is better for me in this issue to speak or to remain silent. I haven't yet reached that decision — should I speak or should I remain silent?"

Questions That Serve No Benefit

And the scholars of Islam رحمهم الله, whenever they would be asked questions, they would only answer those questions that were of benefit to the general people. Anything that there is no benefit in, they wouldn't answer. Imam Ahmad رحمه الله was once asked about the tribe of Ya'juj and Ma'juj that Allah speaks about in the Qur'an in Surah Al-Kahf. He was asked: "O Imam, will Ya'juj and Ma'juj be from amongst the Muslims or not?" So Imam Ahmad رحمه الله said to the questioner: "Have you perfected all of knowledge? Have you gained all of knowledge, that there is nothing left for you except this one single issue — that's all you have left to ask about? Go and seek knowledge, learn about the basics, learn about your religion, and then worry about this later."

Another man once came to another one of the scholars of the Salaf and said to him that on Yawmul Qiyamah, when Allah has the scales — the scales of good deeds and bad deeds — what will those scales be made of? Will they be made of gold or silver or something else? He replied and he said: "I know that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said to me and to you:"

(Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2317; Ibn Majah, Hadith 3976 — reported from Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه)

From the beauty of one's Islam is leaving that which doesn't concern them. That is how he answered this question — "from the beauty of one's Islam is leaving that which doesn't concern them."

And Imam Al-Sha'bi رحمه الله تعالى was once asked: "What is the name of the wife of Iblis?" So he responded and said: "That was a wedding that I wasn't invited to."

Returning to the Scholars and Their Etiquettes

The point is, my dear brothers and sisters in Islam: the scholars of Islam understood the responsibility that they shouldered. They had etiquettes with Allah, etiquettes with the religion of Allah, etiquettes with the Qur'an, with the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, etiquettes when it even came to discussing issues of the religion, and etiquettes when it came to speaking about other scholars and those people who are spreading the message of Islam.

This is something which we have lost today — where everyone comes and they speak about the religion of Allah, everyone is a Mufti, everyone is a scholar, everyone seems to know about everything and the issue of everything. And this is something which is dangerous. What we need to do is we need to go back to the scholars and learn from them — from their etiquettes before we take from their knowledge — the way that the Salaf رحمهم الله would go and they would travel sometimes thousands of miles, going from land to land, country to country, city to city, to sit with the scholars, to benefit from their etiquettes, from their mannerisms, from the way that they interacted with the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Khutbah al-Thaniyah — Second Sermon

الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ عَلَى إِحْسَانِهِ وَالشُّكْرُ لَهُ عَلَى تَوْفِيقِهِ وَامْتِنَانِهِ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إِلَّا اللَّهُ وَحْدَهُ لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُ تَعْظِيمًا لِشَأْنِهِ وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ نَبِيَّنَا وَسَيِّدَنَا مُحَمَّدًا عَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ الدَّاعِي إِلَى رِضْوَانِهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ وَسَلَّمَ وَبَارَكَ عَلَيْهِ وَعَلَى آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَإِخْوَانِهِ وَسَلَّمَ تَسْلِيمًا كَثِيرًا أَمَّا بَعْدُ

The Character of the Muslim: The Mission of the Prophet

Abu Hurayrah رضي الله عنه narrated that our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said:

(Musnad al-Bazzar; Al-Adab al-Mufrad by Imam al-Bukhari, Hadith 273; authenticated by al-Albani in Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahihah, Hadith 45)

I have only been sent to enhance and complete the character of the Muslim. This is one of the smallest, one of the shortest, yet at the same time one of the most comprehensive ahadith of our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, in which he told us and summarized for us all of the religion — that he was only sent for one thing, and that was to enhance the character of the Muslim.

Because everything else comes underneath this. If you learn about the character that you have, the etiquettes and mannerisms that you should have with Allah, then by necessity you must worship Allah alone, and you must have Tawheed, and you must believe in all of the other articles and aspects of Iman. That is part of adab from Allah — you must think good of Allah, you must hope for the mercy of Allah, you must fear the punishment of Allah, you must place your trust and your reliance upon Allah and upon Allah alone. All of it comes back to the issue of etiquettes.

And that's why when you look at this single hadith, you understand that Islam revolves around this issue — the way that we have etiquettes with Allah, the way that we have etiquettes with the book of Allah, the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, the scholars, our parents, our spouses, our children, the Muslims, the non-Muslims, even the animals — even the cat and the dog and the ant. Everything revolves around this one issue of etiquette.

And that's why we know from the sunnah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that a woman will enter into Jannah because she gave water to a thirsty dog, and another woman will enter into the fire of Hell because of the way that she mistreated a kitten — because even with those animals, there is adab, there is mannerisms.

The Judge and the Muslim's Tongue

And that's why one of the scholars of the past رحمه الله, Iyas ibn Mu'awiyah — one of the famous judges of the past رحمه الله — a man once came to him and started to speak ill of another Muslim. So he looked at this man and said to him: "Have you fought the Roman empire?" The man said no. He said: "What about the Indian empire?" He said no. He said: "What about the Persian empire?" He said no. So Iyas ibn Mu'awiyah رحمه الله said: "How amazing it is that the Romans and the Indians and the Persians and all of those enemies of Islam are safe from you, but your own Muslim brother isn't safe from your tongue."

That is how the scholars of Islam were — they understood the importance of etiquettes, the importance of having good manners and good character. Even when you go to a scholar and you ask that scholar a question and you want from him an answer — the way that you pose that question, the information that you give, the way that you verify the information that you gave to him before you pose that question — all of it is your responsibility. And then the scholar gives that answer based upon the information he receives. But it is your responsibility, your adab with Allah and your adab with that scholar, that you verify your information, that you pose that question in a manner which is befitting of someone who has the etiquettes of knowledge.

And that's why the Prophet ﷺ said — and it is collected in Sahih al-Bukhari on the authority of Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayyah رضي الله عنها:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7181; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1713)

The Prophet ﷺ said, highlighting and emphasizing and stressing this issue: "I am only a human, and all of you come to me with your disputes and your issues. Maybe some of you are more eloquent in the way that they put their case forward than the person that they are accusing — one of you is more eloquent than the other — so I judge based upon the information that you give me, based upon what I hear. So if I give to someone something which doesn't belong to them, then leave it alone, don't take it — for indeed that which I am giving to them is only a portion of the fire."

The Prophet ﷺ is speaking about this adab — that when you go to a scholar or you go to a judge, or you go to any other Muslim to ask them to reconcile in an issue, or you want them to help you in some affair, or you ask them for their advice — it is your responsibility in the way that you give them that information and the way that you pose that question. And then they give the answer based upon what you have told them. But if it is because of your misinformation, because of your injustice, because of your oppression, that you get that right or you get something in return, then indeed that is only a portion of the fire.

Etiquette: The Foundation of Everything

My dear brothers and sisters in Islam, etiquette is something extremely important — etiquette in every single issue that we have. If we don't have etiquette, then we haven't really benefited from the knowledge that we have gained. The book of Allah, the sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ — when we go to them and we look at the stories of the Prophets of Allah, when we look at the example of our own Prophet ﷺ, when we look at the example of the companions, when we look at the biographies of the scholars of Islam through the books of biography and history — we see that they had etiquette. We see that the way they portrayed Islam through their mannerisms was sometimes more powerful and had a greater impact than even their speech or their actions.

How many people accepted Islam at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ because of his character — because of the way that he dealt with them, because of the way that he smiled at them, because of the mercy and the kindness and the generosity that he showed towards them? This is what Islam is about.

He was only sent to enhance the character of the Muslim. Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't certain times in our religion where a person may have to be harsh or may have to be strict — that also has a part in our religion in its correct context. But for the vast majority of times and instances, our default position is one of mercy and kindness and generosity.