Arsalan Majeed - Guidance of the Qur'an and Sunnah Towards Noble Character

Indeed, all praise is due to Allah alone. We praise Him, we ask for His help, we beg for His forgiveness, and we seek refuge and protection from Allah from the evil of ourselves and the evil consequences of our sins. Whoever Allah guides to the straight path, there is no one, there is no force that can misguide him.

And whoever Allah allows to go astray, there is no one that can guide him back to the truth. I bear witness that there is no deity, no object worthy of any act of worship except Allah alone, the One without any partners, associates, or equals. And I bear witness that Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ is His most perfect worshipper and final Prophet and Messenger.

O believers, be mindful of Allah as His due, and make sure that you do not die except in a state of submission to Him. O mankind, O people, be mindful of your Lord who created you from a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them spread countless men and women far and wide. Be mindful of God, the One in whose name you demand your rights and make requests from one another, and beware of severing and cutting off the ties of kinship.

Indeed, Allah, God Almighty, is watching over you. O believers, be mindful of God, speak truthfully, justly, and with good purpose. He will bless your works and He will forgive your sins.

And whomsoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has achieved the highest of all achievements. The most truthful of speech is the Book of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad ibn Abdullah ﷺ. And the worst of affairs pertaining to their religion are those that are new and have no basis in their religion. And every such affair is an innovation, and every innovation is a misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Hellfire, which we all seek refuge in Allah from.

The Structure of Today's Khutbah

My dear brothers and sisters, the topic of my khutbah is guidance of the Qur'an and Sunnah on noble character. And I have divided my khutbah into three parts. The first part, I want to share an important story from the seerah and an ayah of the Qur'an that encourages us as Muslims to adopt noble character in our lives.

The second part is guidance of the Qur'an and Sunnah regarding noble character and how it is more important than simply focusing on rituals. And the third part is specific advices from the Prophet ﷺ regarding qualities that we as Muslims should make a part of our daily lives in regards to etiquettes and mannerisms.

Part One: The Story of Abu Bakr and Mistah

As for the first part, maybe you have heard this story and maybe you have not, the famous story of Abu Bakr al-Mistah. The Prophet ﷺ's wife, Aisha, who was also the daughter of Abu Bakr, was unjustly accused of immoral character after the Prophet ﷺ returned from the expedition of Mustaliq in the sixth year of Hijrah and the second of Sha'ban. This is when the expedition took place.

And for those who don't know the story, I'm going to give a little bit of background to the story. Aisha, she accompanied the Prophet ﷺ on this expedition. And when they were returning from the expedition, they encamped in a certain area for the night. And upon waking up in the morning, Aisha found that the group had already left back for Medina and she was left behind.

And there was no one to take her back to Medina. As she was in this state, all alone in the middle of the desert, a companion by the name of Safwan ibn Mu'attal, he saw her and he recognized her because he had seen her before the ayat of Hijab had been revealed. So he immediately knew that this was Aisha. And so he did what a gentleman would do is that he let her ride his mount and he walked her all the way back from the middle of the desert to Medina.

And Aisha says that we did not speak a single word with each other during our journey back to Medina. When they returned to Medina, the hypocrites of Medina who came to know of this story and this event, they unjustly accused Aisha of committing indecency or immoral character with Safwan ibn Mu'attal. And Aisha did not even know of these accusations until a month later.

And so eventually Allah revealed more than 10 ayat in the 24th chapter of the Qur'an, Surah An-Nur, exonerating Aisha and freeing her and proving her chastity to the entire community of Medina. And these ayat are recited until the Day of Judgment.

Now the point I want to get to is that amongst the people who simply fell into spreading these rumors, they did not initiate these rumors. They simply spread them that were started, the rumors which were started by the hypocrites. They were a group of Muslims, a group of Sahaba. And amongst these Muslims was a man by the name of Mistah ibn Athathah.

Mistah was a relative of Abu Bakr and he was also a relative of Aisha. So when Abu Bakr came to know that Mistah, one of his relatives, had spread the rumors regarding his daughter, he vowed that he would never spend a single penny on him again. Now Mistah was a poor companion. He was a poor person.

He was struggling to make ends meet so Abu Bakr would help him out financially to ease his circumstances. And when Abu Bakr came to know that Mistah was amongst those people who had spread the rumors, he said, I would never spend a single penny on him again. Simply because he accused, or he didn't accuse, he simply because he passed the rumors regarding my daughter.

When Abu Bakr swore this oath, Allah revealed a beautiful ayah reminding all of us that we should hold ourselves to a higher standard. And yes, think about it, Abu Bakr had a right. Someone is passing rumors regarding his daughter, Abu Bakr had a right, which he was already doing.

He was charity from his part in the first place. He had a right to say, I'm not going to spend a single penny on him again. Yet Allah reminded him in this ayah, he said:

Abu Bakr is being told in this ayah by Allah, Do not let the people of good means, people who have a lot of livelihood, they have a lot of money. Don't let them swear an oath that prevents them from spending upon the poor members of their community. Rather what they should do, They should forgive and they should overlook. Allah is reminding Abu Bakr, forgive and overlook the mistake of Mistah.

But someone may naturally ask over here, what's the incentive for him to forgive and overlook? Why should he forgive and overlook? His own daughter has been harmed. Allah says in the last portion of the ayah, أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أَن يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ Do you not love or wish that Allah will forgive and overlook your shortcomings and mistakes? وَاللَّهُ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ And Allah is the most forgiving and merciful.

So this is the standard that Allah reminds us that we as Muslims should hold ourselves to. And we should not simply seek revenge at that point. Rather we should forgive and overlook and we should adopt a noble character in our lives.

Part Two: The Importance of Noble Character Over Rituals

And the Prophet ﷺ moving on to the second part of my khutbah, the Prophet ﷺ told us this concept that what you sow today, you will reap tomorrow. هَلْ جَزَاءُ الْإِحْسَانِ إِلَّا الْإِحْسَانُ The way you treat people today is the way you will be treated by Allah in the hereafter.

And there is a famous hadith in Bukhari and Sahih Muslim in which the Prophet ﷺ said that there was a person from the previous generations who never did a single good deed. He didn't do anything good except he only had one good deed which he used to do.

And what was that good deed? He was a businessman, he was doing well, making a lot of money, but the only good deed he would do is that he would lend money out to people. And then he would tell his employees that anyone who has difficulty returning the money which I've lent out to them, then forgive them and overlook them. Don't be harsh on them.

Take back what they can pay easily, but as for what they cannot pay because of their difficult circumstances, forgive and overlook. Perhaps Allah will forgive us and He will overlook our shortcomings and mistakes. And so the Prophet ﷺ narrates this hadith which is in Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.

He says that when this man met Allah, Allah appreciated this good deed that he used to do. This good deed only, nothing else, because he had nothing else, right? So Allah forgave him because of this. And this goes back to the concept that we are taught in the Qur'an which the Prophet ﷺ ingrained in us.

Look, his dealings were with people. He did not have a lot of prayer. He did not have a lot of charity. In fact, he did not have these things at all from the apparent of the hadith. Or maybe he did have these from a basic obligatory level. But Allah appreciated his good dealings with people and forgave him because of that.

Allah reminds the Prophet ﷺ in the Qur'an regarding noble and good character. He says:

He says in Surah Al-Imran, He says, O Prophet of Allah, it is by the mercy of Allah that you are lenient and gentle towards the companions. فَبِمَا رَحْمَةٍ مِّنَ اللَّهِ لِنتَ لَهُمْ وَلَوْ كُنتَ And if you were فَظًّا Harsh غَلِيظَ الْقَلْبِ Hard-hearted لَانفَضُّوا مِنْ حَوْلِكَ If you were harsh in dealing with the companions and the people that you're giving da'wah to, they would have scattered from your company.

They would have left your company immediately. They wouldn't tolerate you. فَاعْفُ عَنْهُمْ وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ And so Allah reminds the Prophet, forgive them, forgive their shortcomings. وَاسْتَغْفِرْ لَهُمْ And ask Allah to forgive them. And on top of that, وَشَاوِرْهُمْ فِي الْأَمْرِ And seek their counsel when you want to make an important decision regarding the community. فَإِذَا عَزَمْتَ فَتَوَكَّلْ عَلَى اللَّهِ And then when you have made a decision, put your tawakkul, your reliance on Allah.

And from this ayah, Ibn Ashur mentioned in Tahrir and Tanweer, he says that Allah molded the Prophet ﷺ. And He made His character soft and gentle so that people would accept His message. So that people would accept His message.

And we learn two very important things from this ayah, dear brothers and sisters. The first is that the importance of good conduct. Such that Allah is even reminding the Prophet ﷺ, the most beloved creation to Him, Allah is reminding him good conduct. The good conduct I have given you, the gentleness I have endowed upon you, is a blessing from Me to you.

And then the second lesson, dear brothers and sisters, we learn from this, is that when we give da'wah, when we call people towards Allah, towards His Messenger, your good conduct will win more instead of a lot of arguments. Allah is reminding the Prophet ﷺ that it is because of the good conduct I have given you that people are naturally attracted toward your message. So good conduct is a very effective method of attracting people toward Allah and toward religion.

Unfortunately, many people, what they do is that they simply focus on the rituals. And they think the rituals are enough. To them, Islam, it just came for the rituals. To do this at certain times of the day and to do that ritual at certain times of the year. Yet, this is simply not the case. And for a number of reasons.

(Musnad Ahmad)

The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith that is narrated in the Musnad Ahmad, he said, "I was only sent to perfect good and noble character."

The second point that shows that, you know, good character is also more important than simply focusing on rituals is that the rights of Allah, they can be forgiven on the Day of Judgment. Allah will forgive His rights if someone, He can choose to forgive if someone has shortcoming in these. However, the rights of the creation, Allah will tell the person who has wronged someone else, go and seek forgiveness from that person before he achieves the forgiveness of Allah. This shows us the importance of dealings with other people and adopting a good character when dealing with them.

The third point is that Abu Hurairah narrates in a hadith that the Prophet ﷺ said regarding two women. A man came to the Prophet ﷺ and asked him about a woman who does not, who prays a lot, does a lot of rituals, and she gives a lot of charity and fast a lot, but she's very harsh with her neighbors in the way she speaks to them. In fact, she hurts them.

So the Prophet ﷺ said regarding this woman, there is no good in her, she will be among the inhabitants of hellfire. May Allah protect us from that. And then the same man, he asked the Prophet ﷺ regarding a woman who doesn't pray a lot, all she does is focus on the basics, the five daily prayers or whatnot, but when she gives charity, it's not a lot of charity, very little, miniscule amount of charity.

The Prophet ﷺ said when he was told regarding this woman that she speaks in a very gentle way with her neighbors. He said that this woman is amongst the inhabitants of paradise.

I'm not disregarding the importance of rituals, my dear brothers and sisters in our religion. Yes, we still have to pray. We still have to give zakah. We still have to perform hajj. But let us remind ourselves the hadith of the Prophet ﷺ in which he asked his companions, do you know the poor person on the day of judgment? They said, sorry, he asked them, do you know who the poor person is? And the companion said, the poor person amongst us is bankrupt. He doesn't have anything, no money. He's a beggar in society.

And so the Prophet ﷺ told his companions that the poor person, the one who is truly poor is the one who will come on the day of judgment. He has a lot of good deeds, a lot of good deeds, yet he harmed this person. He swore at this person. He took the right of that person. And what Allah will do out of justice is that he will take his good deeds, the lot of good deeds he came with, he will place them on the scale to the people that he harmed. And when justice still needs to be done, there are still rights that need to be given.

So what Allah will do is that he will take their sins and place it on his scale of bad deeds. And this the Prophet ﷺ is reminding us. This is the one who is truly the poor person on the day of judgment, which we seek refuge in Allah from.

Part Three: Specific Prophetic Guidance on Noble Character

Finally dear brothers and sisters to the third part of my khutbah I want to share with you some advices of the Prophet ﷺ regarding the character a Muslim should adopt and I will begin by sharing an event from the seerah.

One time the Prophet ﷺ was sitting with his wife Aisha in a hadith that was narrated by Imam Muslim and a group of people that were hostile towards the Prophet ﷺ they sought his company they wanted to sit with him and they wanted to talk with him however when they came upon the Prophet ﷺ instead of greeting the Prophet ﷺ with a greeting of peace and instead of saying السلام عليكم which means I'm giving you a guarantee of peace from my side and may السلام who is Allah grant peace upon you السلام عليكم has two meanings instead of saying this they cut out the laam and they said السام عليكم which means may you die or may death be upon you.

So Aisha the wife of the Prophet ﷺ when she heard this naturally she was infuriated she became angry and so she responded harshly towards them and she said وعليكم السام واللعنة and may death be upon you and may you all be cursed and so the Prophet ﷺ the Prophet ﷺ responded وعليكم he did not say anything more and upon you to the group of people that greeted him with this greeting.

When they left after they had this conversation when they left the Prophet ﷺ turned to Aisha and he said oh Aisha be gentle don't be harsh and he said to her some beautiful words he said:

(Sahih Muslim)

He said gentleness never enters something except that it beautifies it and it never leaves something except that it disfigures it and makes it ugly so the Prophet ﷺ is reminding Aisha be gentle in the way you respond yes I know they responded they initiated with harshness they said something hurtful but be gentle in the way you responded and respond to them evil even if someone initiates harshness respond in gentleness and the Prophet ﷺ if you notice in the hadith he did not simply stay quiet and he did not simply let their remark pass he responded to them he said وَعَلَيْكُمْ but that's all he said he wasn't harsh in the way he responded.

The second point regarding guidance from the sunnah is that some people dear brothers and sisters when they start becoming more religious we notice this especially when a person starts becoming more religious he starts to avoid the company of people he starts to sometimes avoid the company stops mingling with people and stops interacting with them and the Prophet ﷺ reminded us of a beautiful concept.

He said the believer who mingles with the people, who deals with the people often, instead of simply isolating himself has more reward in the eyes of Allah, has a greater status in the eyes of Allah. Why is that? Because he bears their harshness.

Sometimes people treat you harshly, sometimes they're not nice with you, sometimes not gentle with you and the Prophet ﷺ said that the believer who puts up with this harshness and is patient for the sake of Allah hoping for reward from him, he has a greater reward in the eyes of Allah than the one who simply distances himself from people and does not intermingle with them at all.

And finally, the last point I want to make which goes back to an ayah which I recited earlier in Surah Al-Imran is that Allah, remember Allah reminded the Prophet ﷺ of his favor that he granted him gentleness and character and good character and this also reminds us that as part of trying to adopt noble and gentle and good character, we should make dua to Allah and ask him for this.

And the Prophet ﷺ used to make a lot of dua for good character despite him having the best of character. And amongst the dua which some of the Fuqaha have stated, the scholars of Fiqh have stated, is that when a person looks in a mirror, he should say, Allah you have beautified my character and so you have beautified my appearance, so beautify my character and make my face forbidden on the hellfire, i.e. prevent me from entering the hellfire, grant me a paradise that you've already granted me noble character, you've already granted me a good appearance, grant me noble character on top of that and in the hereafter grant me paradise.

May Allah allow us to be better Muslims, productive members of our societies and perfect our characters.