Protection of Belief from Hypocrisy - Shaykh Zakaullah Saleem

Protection of Belief from Hypocrisy

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah. We praise Him and ask His help and ask His forgiveness. And we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and from the evils of our deeds.

I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, alone, with no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

Iman is the most precious — it is the most precious favour of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that we have in this dunya. That means we have to look after our Iman, we have to safeguard it, we have to protect it from anything that can damage it. And there is one thing that is the most damaging for Iman, and nothing can be more harmful for Iman than this one particular thing — and that is nothing other than Nifaq and hypocrisy.

This is something that is worse and more damaging than Kufr and disbelief, because the opposite of Iman is either Kufr — disbelief — or Nifaq. And Nifaq and hypocrisy is more dangerous for Iman than Kufr. That is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said in the Qur'an that the Munafiqeen and the hypocrites, they will be in the lowest level of the fire of hell.

The Emphasis on Nifaq in the Qur'an

When we open the book of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, the second chapter of the Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqarah, begins by making mention of some of the outstanding characteristics of the pious people. When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala begins the Surah and says, this book is guidance for those who have Taqwa, then in the next few verses, Allah Dhul Jalal Wal Ikram made mention of some of the qualities and characteristics of those pious people. Then after that, in the next two ayat, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala made mention of the disbelievers. And then after that, a long passage of the Qur'an talks about the Munafiqeen.

The Mufasiroon have said that because Nifaq is something that is more damaging for the Iman of the believer than Kufr and disbelief, that is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has elaborated it in detail.

The Companions' Fear of Nifaq

The companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam always had the fear in their hearts against Nifaq and hypocrisy. There was a Tabi'i called Ibn Abi Mulaikah. He says: I had the honour to meet with 30 of the companions of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam —

— every single one of them had the fear of Nifaq and hypocrisy in their heart.
(Reported by Ibn Abi Mulaikah; cited in Sahih al-Bukhari, Book of Faith, Ta'liqan)

They were always afraid that Nifaq and hypocrisy may attack their Iman, because it is more damaging. Every one of them considered Nifaq more damaging for their Iman than anything else.

Likewise, Mualla ibn Ziyad says: I heard Hasan al-Basri — a famous Tabi'i — swearing by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, taking an oath saying:

"By Allah, besides Whom none is worthy of worship — there cannot be a true believer, never in the past and never until the Day of Judgement, except that he has fear of Nifaq. And there has never been a hypocrite, a munafiq, and there will never be one, except that he feels himself safe from Nifaq."

Which means that if you do not have the fear of Nifaq in your heart, then this is not a good sign. If you have the fear of Nifaq, then this is a sign of your Iman.

Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman and the Secret of the Prophet

That is why Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned some of the names of the hypocrites — the munafiqin — to one of his companions called Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman. As we all know from the seerah of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, there were some munafiqin in Madinah al-Munawwara, and the chief of the munafiqin of that time was Abdullah ibn Ubayy, who harboured hatred against Islam, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and also the companions of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And he had other people with him on the same path, following the same methodology.

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam did not want to cause any fitna within Madinah al-Munawwara, because those people used to attend the masjid of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and they used to pray behind him. They would pretend to be believers. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala exposed them in the Qur'an — in Surah Al-Baqarah and particularly in Surah At-Tawbah. That is why one of the names of Surah At-Tawbah is that it is the surah that exposes the hypocrites and the munafiqin.

So Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, although he knew every single one of the munafiqin, he did not want to disclose their names to all of the companions. Rather, he told those names to one companion — Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman radiallahu ta'ala — and that is why Hudhayfah was known amongst the companions as صَاحِبُ سِرِّ رَسُولِ اللهِ — the one who held the secrets of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam.

The companions Ridwanullah alayhim ajma'een would often approach Hudhayfah and ask him: Can you please tell me if the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam named me amongst the munafiqin? Even Sayyiduna Umar ibn al-Khattab radiallahu ta'ala approached him and said: Hudhayfah, can you please tell me if the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam named me amongst the munafiqin?

The Criterion for Judging Our Iman

A Tabi'i called Imran approached Hudhayfah and said: Hudhayfah, can you please tell me if I am amongst the munafiqin and the hypocrites? Then Hudhayfah radiallahu ta'ala gave a beautiful answer — and this is a kind of criterion for me and you to judge our Iman.

He asked him: Tell me — do you offer any prayer when you are alone? Not in public, not in the masjid. Do you ever offer any voluntary prayer when you are alone at home, when no one can see you, and it is only between you and Allah? And then he also asked: Whenever you commit a sin, do you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness, or do you try to justify it?

And this person replied: I do pray in my exclusion, in my privacy. And I also ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness whenever I commit a sin. Hudhayfah radiallahu ta'ala then said: Go — you don't need to worry. You are not from amongst the munafiqin.

These two things, my dear brothers, are very, very important. If you and I want to judge our own Iman and the level of our Iman — in order to judge whether our Iman is protected — then we need to ask these two questions to ourselves.

First Sign: Voluntary Prayer in Privacy

How many times do you offer your voluntary prayer in your privacy, your secrecy, your exclusion — when no one can see you apart from Allah?

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam therefore encouraged us to offer our sunnah prayer — those 12 rakat that the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam encouraged us to perform along with the obligatory prayers: two before Fajr, four before Dhuhr, two after Dhuhr, two after Maghrib, and two after Isha. He sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to encourage his companions to offer those sunnah prayers at home.

To the extent that on one occasion, he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saw some of his companions offering the sunnah prayer in the masjid and he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said: Do you not see that I have my house closer to the masjid than anyone else? They said: Yes, O Messenger of Allah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He said: Then do you ever see me offering my sunnah in the masjid? If praying sunnah in the masjid was more rewardable, then I would have done it.

In another hadith, Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said: offering salah at home is more rewardable, other than the obligatory prayer. The congregational prayer — for Muslim men, you should attend the masjid. But for the sunnah prayer before or after salah, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam highly encouraged us to pray at home. And one of the reasons, as the Muhaddithun have said, is that you have some of your prayer and your salah between you and Allah.

Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam also encouraged us to offer some rakat at night as part of the night prayer. In fact, this was one of the very first pieces of advice of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam when he arrived in Madinah al-Munawwara.

His companion Abdullah ibn Salam radiallahu ta'ala — who used to be a Jewish scholar — came when he heard that Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam had arrived in Madinah al-Munawwara. He said: I am going to meet him and see if he meets those characteristics that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has mentioned in the Tawrah about the last prophet. He says: When I went to see the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he was surrounded by his companions — the Muhajirun and the Ansar. And then he says: One of the signs of prophethood that I saw in the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was that I heard him sallallahu alayhi wa sallam advising the people around him:

"O people! Spread salaam, feed the poor and needy, maintain ties of kinship, and pray at night while people are asleep — you will enter Paradise in peace."
(Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 1334; Jami' at-Tirmidhi, Hadith 2485)

So the point, my dear brothers in Islam, is that this is one of the signs of your Iman being protected and safeguarded — and this is one of the ways to protect your Iman. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us tawfiq and ability to offer our voluntary prayers in our exclusion and our privacy, so that our Iman is protected from hypocrisy and Nifaq.

Second Sign: Seeking Forgiveness After Sinning

The second question that Hudhayfah radiallahu ta'ala asked the person was: Do you ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for forgiveness when you commit a sin? He said: Yes. He said: Then you are not from amongst the munafiqeen.

So this is also another sign, and it is also another way of protecting your Iman. Whenever you commit a sin — and we all commit sins; no one can say I never commit a sin — we commit sins intentionally and unintentionally. That is why Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam has encouraged us to constantly ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for His forgiveness.

And he sallallahu alayhi wa sallam himself used to ask Allah for forgiveness more than 70 times every single day. The companions said: We would sometimes count the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam saying istighfar —

— nearly 100 times in one sitting. This was the condition of our Nabi sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. What about you and I — do we not need to ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for His forgiveness constantly, all the time?

So if we do these two things, then we can have hope in the mercy of Allah that our Iman is protected. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala give us tawfiq and ability to act upon whatever we say and whatever we hear.