Leaving that which does not Concern You - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

Opening Khutbah

Amma ba'd.

The Characteristics of the Believers in the Quran

Allah in the Quran has mentioned various characteristics of the pious people and the believers. Right at the beginning of the Quran, in the second surah — in Surah al-Baqarah — Allah has made the mention of some of the outstanding qualities and the characteristics of the muttaqeen and the pious. Likewise, in Surah Al-Imran, Allah mentions — Allah says about the paradise — that paradise has been prepared for the muttaqeen, for those who have the piety and taqwa and the consciousness of Allah within their hearts, and then in the following two verses Allah has made the mention of their characteristics. Likewise, in Surah al-Furqan, Allah makes the mention of a number of characteristics of the believers.

Each time Allah makes the mention of certain characteristics of the believer, He mentions them with a particular title. In Surah al-Baqarah, Allah said muttaqeen; in Surah Al-Imran, likewise muttaqeen. We probably think the person of taqwa is someone who does not commit a sin, someone who is always in the masjid, someone who never ever does anything wrong, and someone who is very close to Allah. Whereas Allah has clearly mentioned in the Quran that every believer is muttaqeen and every believer is required to be muttaqeen.

And those who have the piety and the taqwa and the fear of Allah in their hearts, they are the ones who are given another title in Surah al-Furqan. This particular title is so important that the scholars have written books on it, because in Surah al-Furqan Allah mentioned this title and then gave some characteristics of these believers. And the title is ibadur rahman — ibadur rahman — the slaves of the Most Merciful.

Obviously, every one of us, we are the servants of Allah. Even those who do not believe in Allah — they are also slaves of Allah dhul jalal wal ikram, whether they accept it or they do not accept it. But Allah has given certain people this particular title: ibadur rahman — the slaves, or special servants, of the Most Merciful.

I would highly recommend everyone of you to go back today, pick up the copy of the Quran, and go through the translation of the final verses of Surah al-Furqan. One of the characteristics that Allah has mentioned amongst many other characteristics is that whenever they pass by anything that is vain, useless, meaningless — something that is not of any benefit to them in this dunya or for the hereafter — they pass calmly, with respect and honour, and they try to protect their own respect and dignity.

Understanding Laghw — Vain and Useless Matters

The word laghw in this particular ayah is mentioned. Laghw is something that is not of any benefit for you in this dunya, or something that is not of any benefit for you in the hereafter. But it is not only this — rather, laghw is something that actually damages your heart and your soul, and it damages your spirituality without you even realizing it. That is why Allah has encouraged us in the Quran that we must refrain and stay away from laghw — anything that is not of any benefit for us.

As we all know, the Prophet has encouraged us in many ahadith that we must make the best usage of every single moment of our life. Allah has given us this life in order for us to work for our hereafter. So the true believer is the one who does not waste his time — he does not waste his time in useless talk, in vain talk, in something that is not of any benefit for him.

And this is something — if a person does not refrain from laghw, he loses the taste of his worship. He stands before Allah and he does not feel any tranquility, any khushu' in his salah. And this is probably the case with many of us. We offer our salah, we establish our five daily prayers. Many of us find it very difficult to get up and offer the salah, and we find it very difficult to pray five times a day — whereas the Prophet used to say:

"The coolness of my eyes has been placed in the prayer." (Sunan al-Nasa'i, Hadith 3940)

He would say to Bilal, may Allah be pleased with him:

"O Bilal, give us rest and comfort through the prayer." (Sunan Abi Dawud, Hadith 4985)

"Bilal, get up and call the adhan so that we can offer the salah and we can find the peace and tranquility in our salah." The Sahabah, ridwanullahi alayhim ajma'een, say that whenever the Prophet was afflicted by any hardship and calamity, he would straight away get up and start offering the salah.

But for us, unfortunately, salah is probably the most difficult thing. And one of the reasons that we find the salah very heavy upon us is because whenever we stand before Allah, we do not find our heart melting or trembling, and we do not find any khushu' in our salah. And one of the reasons for not having khushu' in the salah is that when we are outside the masjid, in our daily routine, we waste our time in useless matters — things that do not matter to us: what has happened in that part of the world, what is taking place there, what is taking place here — rather than focusing on what is going to benefit us in terms of our dunya as well as our hereafter.

Surah al-Mu'minoon: Khushu' and Turning Away from Laghw

That is why Allah named a surah in the Quran called Surah al-Mu'minoon — the believers. And Allah began the surah saying:

Verily the believers are successful. And in this particular surah, Allah gave His slaves, His servants, the particular title Al-Mu'minoon — the true believers — and then He mentioned a number of characteristics. As I said in the beginning, whenever Allah makes the mention of certain characteristics of the believers, He gives them a particular title. And in this surah, Allah gave them the title Al-Mu'minoon — the true believers — and then in the following verses Allah makes the mention of their characteristics, beginning with the first one:

The true believers, those who are successful, are those — الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ خَاشِعُونَ — those who have khushu' in their salah. Allah did not say "those who establish their five daily prayers," "those who are regular in their five daily prayers." Whereas in most places in the Quran, Allah mentions يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ and وَأَقَامُوا الصَّلَاةَ and وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ — "establish the prayer," "those who establish the prayer." But here, in this particular passage of the Quran, Allah did not say الَّذِينَ هُمْ فِي صَلَاتِهِمْ مُقِيمُونَ — "those who are the establishers of the five daily prayers" — rather He said: "Successful are the believers, those who have khushu' in their salah."

Then, generally when we read the ayat of the Quran, we find that Allah mentions zakat straight after salah, because salah and zakat go hand in hand together — salah is something that is between you and Allah, and zakat is something that is between you and the creation of Allah. There are many benefits to this pairing. But in this particular passage of the Quran, after making the mention of the salah in this different term — "those who have khushu' in their salah" — Allah did not say in the following verse "those who give zakat." No. Allah made the mention of another characteristic that is very important — one that is directly linked to their khushu', directly linked to the first characteristic:

Successful are the believers who have khushu' in their salah, and those who turn away from laghw, who stay away from laghw, who refrain from laghw — vain talks, useless matters, things that do not benefit them.

The scholars have said the reason — or probably the wisdom — behind highlighting this characteristic here is that Allah wanted to teach us a lesson: if you truly want to be successful, then you must have khushu' in your salah. And in order for you to have khushu' in your salah, you must safeguard your tongue, look at your actions, and do not get involved in the matters that do not concern you.

The Hadith: Leaving What Does Not Concern You

That is why Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, said:

"From the beauty and perfection of a person's Islam is that he leaves the matters that do not concern him." (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2317; also reported in Muwatta Malik)

From the beauty and the perfection of the Islam of a person is that he abandons, stays away from, leaves, and gives up the matters that do not concern him.

We ask Allah that He gives us tawfiq and ability to rectify our mistakes and to improve our akhlaq, because akhlaq has a direct link to our worship. Worshipping Allah can be of benefit only if your akhlaq is good. And in order for us to perfect our akhlaq, we must follow the teachings and the sunnah of our beloved Prophet, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We ask Allah that He gives us tawfiq and ability to understand our religion and to follow the sunnah of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

Remembering Death and the Day of Judgement

The scholars have said that one of the reasons a person is always involved in the matters that do not concern him is that the person does not concentrate on his hereafter. The person has forgotten his own death. He has forgotten the life in his grave. And the person has forgotten the Day of Judgement.

If you were to remember — and to remind yourself all the time — that Allah is going to question you on the Day of Judgement about every single moment that you have been given in this dunya; and Allah will be asking you: what did you do with your time? What did you do with your energy that Allah gave you? What did you do with your skills? What did you do with the knowledge? What did you do with your intellect that Allah blessed you with? — then if you were to focus on these things, you will never ever get involved in the matters that do not concern you. Your focus will be on the matters that are of benefit for yourself, for the people around you, and the matters that are of benefit for your hereafter.

That is why one of the ways of staying away from laghw is to always remind yourself of the last moment of your life — when you are going to encounter the angel of death. When you will be regretting. Now you are in the state of good health and you do not realize — but when you see the angel of death, you will be regretting, and you will wish if only Allah gives you one single moment so that you can do another good deed. But Allah says: whenever the described time — the set time that Allah has set for everyone of us — when that time comes, it is never delayed. It is never delayed.

So we must make the best usage of our time. We must make the best usage of our skills. We must make the best usage of our intellect and whatever Allah has blessed us with. And we must refrain from laghw, because this is crucial in order to improve our akhlaq. And in order to improve our akhlaq, we must follow the sunnah of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And if we focus on improving our akhlaq, we will find the tranquility and the taste and the sweetness in our worship whenever we stand before Allah dhil jalali wal ikram.

May Allah give us tawfiq and ability to understand our religion and to follow the footsteps of our beloved Prophet, Muhammad Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.