The Character of a Muslim - Shaykh Ibrahim Al-Fowzan

Khutbah Opening

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him. We thank Him. We seek forgiveness and assistance of Allah. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evil of ourselves and from the evil of our bad deeds. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah. And I bear witness that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is the slave and the messenger of Allah. May Allah's mercy and blessings be upon him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and his family, his companions, and those who are following him till the day of resurrection.

The Completeness of Our Deen

Then, O Muslims. Allah has completed our deen. As He said in the Quran:

"Today, I have perfected your religion for you, and I have completed My favour upon you, and I have chosen Islam for you as your religion." And this was in the farewell Hajj of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Upon the death of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, Allah had already taught us how to worship Him. Allah taught us how to follow His religion. Allah has told us in the Quran and in the Sunnah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam how to deal with each other, how to do our transactions, how to deal with Muslims and non-Muslims. So everything in our religion is completed.

And one part which is very important in our religion is the morals — al-akhlaq. As Allah says in the Quran:

"And say good to all people." And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said to us that the most beloved of you and the closest to me on the Day of Resurrection are those who are best in their morals.

The Morals of a Muslim

First: Truthfulness

Amongst the morals that we as a Muslim community have to apply in ourselves and in our community is truthfulness. We have to be truthful. We have to say the truth all the time. Not to lie. Because we are Muslims. And Allah says:

"O you who believe! Fear Allah, and be amongst those who are truthful."

And we know that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was known before he was sent by Allah as the truthful and the trustworthy — even before he was a Prophet. And truthfulness is a very important moral for us as Muslims, to deal with each other and with others with truth, not with lying. As the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 6094; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 2607)

That the truth leads to good actions, and good actions lead to Paradise — to the Jannah. And lying leads to bad actions, and bad actions lead to the Hellfire.

Second: Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is one of the morals that we as Muslims must have. When we deal with people, we have to be trustworthy. When someone gives us something as a trust, we have to return it to him. As Allah says:

"Indeed, Allah is commanding you to return the trusts to those they belong to."

Third: Modesty

We as Muslims, alhamdulillah, are known among all nations for our modesty. Modesty in the Shari'a means to do the good things and to have the shyness that prevents one from doing the bad things. So this is the meaning of modesty in Islam.

For us to dress, we have to dress well because we are modest. For the Muslim woman, she has to be modest — meaning she has to wear hijab. And she has to be shy from not wearing hijab. For all bad things, we have to be modest. We have to be shy from Allah first, and then from the people surrounding us — doing the good things and staying away from the bad things. This is what is called modesty.

And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said:

(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 37)

"All modesty is good."

Fourth: Chastity

We as Muslims, alhamdulillah, are the best in this regard. We are chaste. We do not have any relationship outside of marriage. This is from our deen, and this is for our benefit and for the benefit of our community. So chastity is a very important moral that we as Muslims, alhamdulillah, are abiding by.

Allah says about the believers at the beginning of Surah Al-Mu'minun — "The believers are successful" — and among what they do, Allah says:

"And those who guard their chastity, except with their wives and what their right hands possess — so that they are free of blame. And whoever goes beyond that, those are the transgressors."

So we as Muslims must confine any relationship to within marriage. It is a great sin to have any relationship outside of marriage. In Islam, any relationship must be between a man and a woman, and it must be within marriage. There is no other way to have a relationship in Islam.

Fifth: Bravery

We know that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was brave, and we know that our companions were brave. But what does bravery mean? Bravery does not mean to kill people — this is not the right meaning of bravery. Bravery is a wider word.

Bravery is to be steadfast on your principles, on your morals, on your religion — not to change any of these to please other people. You have to be brave, meaning you have to have the pride of being Muslim. You have to show people that we as Muslims do good things, that we help people, and that we love good for people. This is bravery. We have to be brave enough to tell people about our religion and our principles, not to be shy about it.

I seek forgiveness from Allah, and please seek forgiveness from Allah, since Allah is the Most Forgiving and the Most Merciful.

Second Part of the Khutbah

All praises are to Allah, and Allah's peace and blessings upon His noble Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Sixth: Generosity

We as Muslims have to be generous. Allah is generous and He wants us to be generous as well. And our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was very generous. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used not to keep anything in his hand — he used to give to poor people, to his friends, to all people for the sake of da'wah. He did not keep money in his pocket or save it away.

Generosity means to spend on your family first — they have the most right upon you. So you have to be generous when you spend on your wife and on your children. And you have to be generous when you have a guest, because hosting your guest is from our deen. And you have to be generous when it comes to zakah — you have to give the zakah that Allah has commanded us to give out of our wealth.

So we give zakah and we give in sadaqah because we are Muslims and we are generous. The opposite of generosity is to be stingy. And this is one of the bad morals that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said is a very bad moral for a Muslim to have. And worse than being stingy is to be greedy — to collect money from halal and haram ways alike, keep it stored away, and then die leaving it for your children who simply spend it on their lives.

We as Muslims know that in this life we stay for only a short time, and there is nothing more deserving of our attention than our destination in the Hereafter. So we have to give in sadaqah, and we have to make sure we give our zakah. Zakah is not something we have a choice about — we must give it. And we have to look after the people around us. If Allah has given us more wealth, there are people who do not have much and who are in need. So we look after them, we give to them, we spend on them — because we are Muslims and we are generous.

Seventh: Good Treatment of Neighbours

Finally, the last moral I speak about is to be good to your neighbours. This is very important in Islam. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said that Jibreel, alayhis salam, came to him and gave him advice about the neighbour — to the point that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam told the Sahabah:

"Jibreel kept advising me about the neighbour until I thought that he would say to me that your neighbours will inherit your wealth alongside your children." You see how important our neighbours are to us as Muslims.

When we talk about neighbours, we mean both Muslim and non-Muslim neighbours — all of them. As long as he is a neighbour, he has a right upon us. If he is a Muslim and a relative, he has three rights: the right of being a Muslim, the right of being a relative, and the right of being a neighbour. If he is a Muslim neighbour, he has two rights: the right of being a Muslim and the right of being a neighbour. If he is a non-Muslim, he has a right upon us, which is the right of being a neighbour.

So we have to be good with our neighbours. We have to look after them. We have to speak with them. And we have to have the hope from Allah — if they are not Muslims — that Allah will guide them to Islam. And if they are Muslims, we have to love them in Islam and do all good for them, for they are our brothers.

Closing Du'a

I ask Allah, who gathered us in this masjid, to gather us in the Jannah. And I ask Allah to forgive our sins. And I ask Allah to make our children righteous. And I ask Allah to have mercy on our parents. And I ask Allah to protect all Muslims in this country and all over the world.