The Prophet's Three Advices: Cultivating Taqwa and Good Character

Jumu'ah Khutbah — Mawlana Farhan Shariff

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. We praise Him, and we pray and we salute His noble Messenger. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our souls and from the evil of our deeds.

Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whosoever He misguides, none can guide him. And we bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and He has no partner. And we bear witness that our Master, our Beloved, is Muhammad, His servant and Messenger.

Three Pieces of Advice from the Prophet

On one occasion, it is mentioned that Rasulullah ﷺ gave Sayyidina Jabir رضي الله عنه advice. And in this advice, he mentioned three things:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987 — declared Hasan by al-Tirmidhi)

Number one: Fear Allah wherever you may be. Number two: Follow up a bad deed with a good deed, it will wipe it out. Number three: Deal with people with the best of character.

What is Taqwa?

Fear Allah wherever you may be. Be conscious of Allah. Have and adopt taqwa.

On one occasion, someone asked Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه, what exactly is taqwa? So Abu Hurairah رضي الله عنه replied: Have you ever been on a path containing thorny trees and shrubs? The individual said, yes I have. How did you navigate? How did you walk through that path? He said, well, I ensure that I was always protective of my clothing, and anytime I saw a thorn sticking out, I ensure that I avoided it. And I did my absolute best to be very vigilant, also ensuring that none of these thorns catch on to my clothes and tear it, so that I don't get hurt and that none of my property gets destroyed.

He mentioned that in a very similar manner, this is how a person adopts taqwa when it comes to Allah. That all of those things that would otherwise cause a person to gain the punishment, or to experience the punishment of Allah — that a person does his absolute best to avoid that.

On another occasion, when someone asked Umar ibn Abdul Aziz رحمه الله, he mentioned that taqwa of Allah doesn't necessarily mean that a person is constantly fasting and constantly performing extra voluntary prayers. No. Taqwa is that a person abstains from all of those things which Allah has prohibited, and that he ensures he does all of those things which Allah has obligated him to do.

In another hadith, Rasulullah ﷺ has mentioned:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7288; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1337)

Whatever I have instructed you to do, then do it to the best of your ability. Fulfill that to the best of your ability. The ulema mention that beyond the obligatory prayers — these fara'id — everything else, Rasulullah ﷺ is saying: do that to the best of your ability. But whatever I have prohibited you from doing — فَانْتَهُوا — stay very far away from it. There is no "stay away to the best of your ability." Rasulullah ﷺ said: whatever I have prohibited you from doing, stay away from it.

The Qur'anic Call to Taqwa

When it comes to taqwa, this is something which is so important. Allah reiterates and mentions so many times in the Qur'an:

O you who believe, fear Allah as He ought to be feared. Be conscious of Allah as He ought to be feared. And do not pass away except that you are in a state of complete submission.

How does a person enter a state of complete submission? If they are aware of the fact that Allah is constantly watching them.

Does he not know that Allah is always aware of us? Imagine how our lives would be if every single individual — forget about outside of the Muslim community, let's just focus on the Muslim community — if everyone within the Muslim community truly lived such a life, that they were cognizant, they were vigilant, they kept in their minds and their hearts that Allah is watching every single action that they are doing. Then imagine what a blissful community we would have. There would never be any letdowns, there would never be any problems. We would be having the most enjoyable of lives and arguably we would be the greatest of communities on the face of this earth.

But it's so sad to say that although we may be aware of this concept, we may have knowledge of this — but for the vast majority of Muslims, sadly it has not yet penetrated the hearts.

The Qualities of the Muttaqun

That is just one aspect of taqwa — to avoid all of those things that cause the anger of Allah. But another aspect is also to engage in those things that bring the pleasure of Allah. In an ayah of the Qur'an, Allah talks about who are the muttaqun? What are the characteristics that you will find in their lives?

In this particular ayah, Allah enumerates all the various different qualities of a muttaqi. It's not just piety — righteousness and taqwa is where a person fulfils all of those fara'id, all of those obligations. They believe in Allah, the Final Day, the angels, the books, the prophets. Then they use their wealth that Allah has provided them to spend on the less fortunate, to spend on those who are in need, to spend on the poor, to spend on those who have been cut off in their travels, to spend upon those who are in need. And at the same time, there are those who perform their prayers, they discharge zakah.

وَالْمُوفُونَ بِعَهْدِهِمْ إِذَا عَاهَدُوا — They always fulfill their words whenever they make promises, whenever they have pledges. They are also patient in times of difficulty, in times of adversity.

أُولَٰئِكَ الَّذِينَ صَدَقُوا وَأُولَٰئِكَ هُمُ الْمُتَّقُونَ — Those are the individuals who are true to Allah. And those are the individuals whom Allah refers to as the muttaqun. They are the ones with taqwa.

The Standard of the Sahaba

When we look at the Sahaba رضي الله عنهم, on one occasion Anas رضي الله عنه mentioned — and he was talking to some tabi'un:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6492)

You people are doing such things that you deem to be so trivial — more trivial than even the insignificance of a piece of hair. But those very same things, in the time of Rasulullah ﷺ, we viewed those things as things of utmost destruction. SubhanAllah.

Now let us look at our lives. This is hundreds of years ago. This is what Anas رضي الله عنه is telling. We have so many things in our lives that we are not conscious of Allah. Whether it comes to watching things on social media — many a times we are watching it with the music blasting. Many a times we are watching certain things which are absolutely impermissible. Women exposing themselves, or even when looking at men who are exposing their awrah, and so on and so forth.

Let us think for a second. Many of us don't even view these things as major issues. But ask yourself — if there was someone who came knocking on your door, and when you opened it, they asked: can I please come into this hallway and just smoke one cigarette? Or if the person asked you: do you mind if I just quietly fulfill my desires with this particular woman? Or even worse — let me just do it in front of your whole entire family. What would go on in your mind? How would you treat that person? You would probably view him to be absolutely insane. Your whole face would get red. You would probably start yelling at him because of the amount of anger.

Imagine if this person is daring to ask you to fornicate in your own home in front of your family — how would we react? But subhanAllah, we want to protect our children. We want them to live such pure, wonderful lives. But when it comes to their gadgets, when it comes to movies and shows and YouTube Shorts and so on and so forth — what's the difference? Commit zina in front of my whole family. Take drugs in front of my whole family. Drink in front of my whole family. What's the difference? SubhanAllah.

We have trivialized it. We haven't even thought. That's just one example — one super simple example. But we need to be very vigilant. We need to be very wary of what we are doing. We need to be aware of the fact that Allah is watching every single movement of ours, every single decision of ours.

Then when it comes to our professional lives — the way that we are underneath our employers, or the way that we treat our employees, or the way that we treat our fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. Whether we have a handyman coming to the home — are we paying them properly as they ought to be paid? Did we give them a fair estimate that we agreed to, and then later on we're backing out of it for no reason? These are all different things that we may deem to be trivial. It may be part of our day-to-day lives. Oh, it's just normal. But subhanAllah, those very same things could be things that would lead towards our destruction. May Allah protect us.

The Rewards of Taqwa

When a person adopts taqwa in their life, then subhanAllah, there are so many different benefits. Allah says:

Whoever truly fears Allah — whoever is truthful in the times where it is difficult to be truthful, whoever is kind in the times it is difficult to be kind — Allah will always make some way out for him. He may think that there is no way out, he may think there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Allah says, even in such times, He will provide for him from avenues that he never even thought of.

And in another place Allah mentions:

You will enjoy a special relationship with Allah if you live such a life — constantly asking yourself: is my Allah not watching every action of mine? How am I going to stand on the Day of Judgment and answer my Allah when He asks me about all of these things?

Follow Up a Sin with a Good Deed

Afterwards, Rasulullah ﷺ continued and he mentioned:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)

We are all human beings. Every sinner has a future and every saint had a past.

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2499; declared Hasan by al-Tirmidhi)

Every person is going to eventually commit a sin. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Rasulullah ﷺ has informed us. And as we see in the Qur'an as well, one of the qualities of the muttaqun is that they do commit sins. But as Rasulullah ﷺ advised, when they commit sins, immediately follow it up with a good deed. Immediately turn back to Allah.

Many ulema, when explaining this hadith, have mentioned that to follow up this evil — this bad deed — with a good deed, that good deed is repentance. Turning back to Allah. To such an extent, it's mentioned in the hadith of Sahih al-Bukhari — if a person commits a sin and they repent to Allah sincerely, feeling bad about what they have done, making the firm intention to never do it again, and stopping that sin — if a person makes those three commitments in his mind and his heart, then Allah will forgive him. If he commits a sin again, Allah mentions: he does the tawbah again, I will forgive him again. To this extent, if he ends up doing that 70 times in the same day, but he was sincere in his repentance, Allah will forgive him, and it will be forgotten. SubhanAllah.

So وَأَتْبِعِ السَّيِّئَةَ الْحَسَنَةَ — if we are negligent momentarily, from time to time, and we lose sight of the fact that Allah is watching us, and we end up sinning — Rasulullah ﷺ says: follow it up with a good deed. Many ulema mention to follow it up with tawbah immediately.

Deal with People with the Best of Character

And lastly, Rasulullah ﷺ says:

(Jami' al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 1987)

And when you deal with people, deal with them with the best of character. From other ahadith we understand that on the Day of Judgment, the most weightiest thing on the scales — as far as our actions are concerned — will be one's good character and conduct that they had with others.

Conclusion

May Allah grant us the ability to bring into our lives all of these three qualities.

اتَّقِ اللَّهَ حَيْثُمَا كُنْتَ — That we are conscious of Allah wherever we may be, and whatever time of the day it may be.

وَأَتْبِعِ السَّيِّئَةَ الْحَسَنَةَ تَمْحُهَا — And if we ever do have any shortcomings, we immediately follow it up with a good deed. We immediately repent to Allah and do some act of goodness.

وَخَالِقِ النَّاسَ بِخُلُقٍ حَسَنٍ — And may Allah grant us the best of character and grant us the ability to always deal with one another in the best of manners.

وَآخِرُ دَعْوَانَا أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ

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