[k-fiqh]
By Mufti Menk | 2026-01-12T07:16:57.751305+00:00 | Topic: Knowledge
Moderation in Islam
Khutbah by Mufti Menk
Opening
Main Khutbah
And may He bless all those who have struggled and strived to learn this deen, to practice it, to preserve it, and to convey it down the chain in such a way that it got to us. And may He bless us all and our offspring, those to come whom we perhaps don't know and may not know, but may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect them, bless them and grant them all goodness, and may He protect every single one of us.
This evening I have been asked to speak on the topic of moderation and what is known as al-wasatiyah bin Islam.
Understanding Wasat
The word wasat in the Arabic language means the middle. So something that comes between two things is known as wasatun. If you are seated between two people, you are wasat and you are the most secure.
Because if you are in the middle, when there is an attack on either side, you will be the one who will be sitting before the others are attacked, you will not be able to be attacked. And the same applies if you have, for example, some bricks, and you have one brick in the center, and you have all bricks on the side, the bricks on the side will erode first and they will have the withering first, and thereafter you will have the brick in the center which is the most powerful or the strongest of the lot. And this is why the ummah or this nation or the Islam is known as a wasat, a deen or a religion that is the strongest.
It is the most solid. It is in the center. It is something that will not be eroded by what happens to be on the side, but it is in the middle.
We need to learn it, preserve it, be proud of it, practice it, preach it to others with all pride. When I say pride here, we are not talking of the bad pride, but we are talking of to be happy with something. In the English language the word proud is used.
When you say, I am proud to be a Muslim, it is not, No, that is not the Arabic language equivalent of it. It means, I am happy to be a Muslim. It means, I am really glad that Allah has chosen me.
I am grateful to be a Muslim. But in the English language, as you know, we always say, the English is so shallow, it cannot do justice to the Arabic language where, you know, you have simple words like salat. And in English they say prayer.
Understanding Prayer vs Salat
Did you pray? Well, in the English language, if you want to pray, you just have to clasp your hands and say, Oh God, give me this and that, and that means you prayed. So in the Arabic language, the term salat does not actually mean prayer. We use the word prayer hoping that those who know Islam can understand that it is actually a whole paragraph.
A whole paragraph of meaning. Because supplication and prayer in the English language are quite similar in meaning. We call one dua and the other one salat.
The two are totally different. However, when I speak here of the prayer, what I am speaking about is the five daily prayers, the salat, starting with an intention and the takbir as we know it, Allahu Akbar, and ending with a taslim or a salam, and that would be repeated at specific times in a specific way, upon a specific condition of purity known as wudu or ablution, and we would have to repeat that as and when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has intended. So this is why we say English language is very shallow.
When you have given me the word wasad to interpret, I can tell you it means fair-minded as well. Fair- minded, those who are balanced in their thinking is also wasad. So Muslims are fair-minded, we are balanced in our thinking.
The Protection of the Middle Path
At the same time, we come in the middle. In the middle meaning, we are the most protected. If you follow Islam, wallahi, you will be protected from the adversities of the dunya as well as the adversities of the akhirah.
What this means is, let's take a look at the sun. Early morning, it is weak, but it's there. And in the evening, it is weak, but it is there.
The strongest sun is fil wasad, in the midday. You find it is strong, powerful. Why? Because it is on neither side.
Same applies to us. When you follow Islam, you will not be inclined to the dunya or to this worldly material life so much that you forget where you are heading. And you will not be obsessed with where you are heading so much that you lead the life of a person who is not only a pauper, but who has lost the dunya.
Quranic Verse about Loss
When Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says:
Quran 39:15 - He speaks of those who are at clear loss. They are the ones who have lost the dunya as well as the akhir you have a person who has lost this world, material world, and he has lost the next as well.
From that we understand that the winner is the one who has gained the life after death. And he has also had a goodness in this world. And this is why Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in the Quran:
Whoever does good deeds, from male or female, and they are believers, we will first good life.
Hadith about Showing Allah's Blessings
Subhanallah. Amazingly, some people think when you are a good Muslim, you cannot enjoy the world. You know, you need to sell everything, and you need to devote yourself, you need to wear tatty clothing.
I remember, there was a man who had, he was quite a wealthy man, and he had some patches. This is very important to listen to. He had some patches, you know, where he, you know, the side is torn, and he put a patch here, and another patch there, and another patch on his clothing.
And I told him, brother, there is a hadith where there was a man who walked into the presence of the Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, and he was quite a wealthy man, and he was dressed tattily. So what happened is, Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam asked him, What is it that you have? What do you own? And he started counting. He said, I have this and that and so much in terms of livestock and what have you.
So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam uttered words which are known as jawami, few words with deep meaning, few words with very deep meaning. He says:
At-Tirmidhi Hadith 2819 - Let the gift of Allah upon you be apparent when someone sees you. It's part of thanking Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
If you are a millionaire and you intentionally want to live as a pauper, and you are wearing tatty clothing, it is not being grateful to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. You need to wear clothing that is decent and good. Not clothing that is in disobedience of Allah.
Enjoying the World Within Limits
Yes. It doesn't mean you are wealthy, so now you can show your legs. No.
Allah protect us. It doesn't mean you are wealthy, so suddenly the cleavage is showing. It happens.
May Allah grant us strength. We need happiness, my beloved brothers and sisters. The owner of happiness is my maker and yours.
And he is telling us, enjoy the world. Don't say, divorce yourself from it. Enjoy it, but within limits.
And this is what we call wasad, in the middle. If you are going to drown in it, you will lose it and you will lose the next. Take a look at the pop stars.
And I am not talking here of people who are Muslims, who others look up to and so on. We are talking of non-Muslims from Hollywood, for example. And wallahi, I have had a response from a few of them, to be honest with you.
And you find that they are searching for something which that popularity will never bring them. It will never bring them. What are they searching for?
They are searching for inner peace.
And this is why I was once listening to one Sheikh speaking, and he is one of my teachers. So, he said, you know the pop stars? They are called pop stars because after a while they pop. And he started taking names to say, you know this one has popped, that one has popped.
And when we say popped, it means, you know a normal human being is supposed to go upward in the ladder. And they are supposed to, at their point of demise, be the happiest person who is the closest to Allah. Study those who have divorced spirituality and gone into the world head first.
The Balance Between Dunya and Akhirah
You will find the higher they get, the more discontent they are. You know, you find one or two pop stars shaving their heads. I don't even want to say her name, but you know who she is.
And you find others doing things that are weird. And they don't have any form of contentment or happiness. So what happens? At the point of death, they die at such a point that the world will say, Well, you know what, don't remember her for how she died, but remember her for what happened in her life at one stage.
Why that? We are Muslimin. Let us live in such a way that we build and build in a way that the others can take a lesson from our age. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us goodness.
And for this reason, we say, Allah says in the Quran, When you work towards the life after death and you bear in mind that you need to live in this world, In the obedience of that maker, by enjoying the world within the limits of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, You will be the most successful. Because part of the plan of Allah is to allow humankind to enjoy what is in the world, Bearing in mind what is to come is better, is better.
Verses About Spending and Waste
My beloved brothers and sisters, some of you might have heard me saying, Today we see beautiful colors and we see beautiful vehicles and lovely cell phones and you know, iPads and all sorts of things and people are debating what is the best.
So one will tell you it is this and the other one will tell you it is that. And someone will say it is this vehicle and the other one will say it is that vehicle. Have you ever thought for a moment that all that we put in our minds in terms of what's nice and what's not nice, Belongs to the world.
It's created from something within the world. We have not yet seen anything from Venus or Pluto, let alone from heaven. And nothing from Mars will benefit us.
Forget about, we are not talking yet about Jannah and Paradise. So everything we are basing our happiness on, everything we are basing our smiles on, Is actually part of the world. And Allah says, hang on man, you have not yet crossed the boundary.
So that is why, In heaven is that which no eye has ever seen, no ears have ever heard and no mind has ever had it crossed through it. If something has crossed your mind, it is not in heaven. Someone asked me, will there be a Bentley in heaven? And I said, hang on, there are two ways to answer that.
I can say yes and I can say no. But what I do know is the hadith says, if your mind has crossed it and you've seen it in hell, for example, it's not there. But I want a Bentley.
So I said, okay, what you do is, if you have a Bentley in the akhirah, you probably will have the worst transport. I don't know where you're going to go to get petrol. Because there won't be petrol there in Jannah.
And I don't know how you will drive it because I don't know of the roads. Rather say, ya Allah, grant me the best of Jannah, I haven't yet seen it. Then you have a woman saying to you, and it's a typical one, a woman saying to you, You know, in Jannah, am I going to be with the same man that I have been with all these years? What's the point of going there?
The reality is, how can you utter that when you don't know in Jannah is whatever you desire?
Quran 43:71
Allahu Akbar. What a powerful verse. Allah says, in Jannah is whatever the soul desire. And above that, whatever is delicious to your eyes.
Imagine the wording of the Quran. You know, when I taste, how do I taste? I saw some of the sweetest cupcakes today and I had some. Mashallah, beautiful.
Alhamdulillah. I saw it, I tasted it. So I looked at it, I tasted it with my tongue.
In Jannah, you taste with your eyes. Have you thought of that? Subhanallah. The Quran says it.
That which is delicious to your eyes, you have it, it's yours. So imagine, whatever is there or even that which crosses your mind, it will be in front of you.
The point I'm making is, I want to get there.
But together with that, my beloved brothers and sisters, we need to prepare. And part of the preparation is to understand the balance between the dunya and the akhirah. So one might ask, how do we balance it? Because you find two extremes.
Two Extremes
Two extremes. One is a person who divorces himself totally from the dunya. Like I told you, the man had these patches.
And then I told him, look, you should not be having patches. He says, brother, you might be a scholar. Listen to his answer.
You might be a scholar. But I want to tell you, there is one thing you don't know. I told him, what is it? And obviously, there are so many things we don't know.
When we say scholar, we mean student of knowledge. We learn every day. No matter how big you think you are, you are a nobody.
In the eyes of Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. He may love you, yes. But we are not supposed to be coming 40 above others.
We will learn something from someone different every single day. In my 24 hours here in KL, I learned so much and I loved so much. And I really felt, you know, I've seen a lot of beautiful places.
But mashallah, this place is competing with a lot of the most beautiful places. Alhamdulillah. So, the man tells me, it is the sunnah of the Prophetsallallahu alaihi wasallam to wear clothes with patches.
I looked at him and I said, okay, where did you get that from? So, he took out a book. And he showed me his book. And in the book, someone wrote that, you know, there was a time when the Muslims didn't have food.
And they didn't have clothing. And times were difficult. And so on.
Hadith About Simple Living
So, I told him, brother, hang on. You know, food is important for everyone. I said, there is a hadith of Aisha r.a wherein she says that the messenger sallallahu alaihi wasallam, even though we were his family, we did not have food in our houses.
So much so that, It was only days and water for three months. They didn't cook something. They didn't start the stove.
That's a hadith and a narration you will find in most books of hadith. So, I told him, brother, start with that sunnah. Then come to the stove.
He looked at me and he said, no, I am not yet on that level of tired. I said, there you are. You have taken and you have chosen something to make your life difficult.
You are presenting the wrong image of Islam. Islam does not say do not enjoy the dunya. Allah says, if you do good, We will give you a good life.
Whoever does good and is a believer. We start off by giving you a good life. And a good life means contentment in this world with what you have and the proper struggle to a due proportion to earn what is beneficial for you.
Balance in Work and Worship
Why do I say proper struggle with due proportion? Because you need to work. Sometimes you need to work from 8 o'clock to 5 o'clock. And when you are working from 8 to 5, it is not so easy.
But why are you working? So that you can bring a plate of food in front of your family members. So that you can earn something, so you can buy a car. So that you can pay your bills and so on.
So, yes, it is a struggle. But when we say due proportion, Never ever let your struggle to live in this world compromise your whole preparation for the life after death. This is what we call balance.
So, we are going to work. We will get a good job. But I cannot, you know, if I go for a job interview.
A woman goes for a job interview. And she is told, look, we will pay you so many ringgit per month. Mashallah.
Big amount. Okay, that's good. But you know what? Don't come with your scarf and you need to wear a skirt up to your knee.
Okay. Now what we are saying is the balance requires us to rethink. Look, I am going to earn 50,000 ringgit.
Wow. A big amount every month, every month. But I am being asked to compromise my religion, my belief.
You know, there are some whose level of piety might not yet have got to that. And remember there are two levels of piety. I always speak of two levels of piety.
Don't get me wrong. I have to stop for a moment to explain this in order for us to understand one another. One is internal piety.
And one is external piety. Yes, some people have been fortunate to develop both. And that is Nurul Alam.
We thank Allah for that. And we ask Allah to make us from those. You develop your inside and your outside.
You are a beautiful human being. And people really, they enjoy not only being in your company but learn something from you. And at the same time, you are trying your best at all times.
Some people have not managed except to develop one more than the other. And some people are not interested in both. So with us, I think majority of us including myself, we have had the opportunity to develop one more than the other.
And we are working on the other. I hope I've worded it carefully. Now, what some people don't understand is which one is it that we should develop? The interior or exterior? To be honest with you, think of a bathroom.
The Bathroom Analogy
And you have a beautiful bathroom with lovely decoration and so on. And as you turn the pipe, pop, it bursts. And everything is now water, water everywhere.
You have to phone the plumber. So the exterior was beautiful, my friend. But it didn't give you the water to bath.
Or you turn it on and it's trickling, you know. I think all of us love a shower where the pressure is beautiful, isn't it? I always tell people, you know what? I can stay anywhere. Just give me a good shower.
Mashallah. Because you need to be clean. Like the women will tell you, we can have any house.
Just make sure the kitchen is good. Mashallah. So you have, they call it voice control kettle.
So it starts and the thing starts bubbling. Mashallah. So it stops and it stops bubbling.
So we know that we want the exterior beautiful. But your stove needs to work, your kettle needs to work and things. So it is important that whilst you are developing the decor of your home, let the apparatus be such that it works.
The same applies whilst we are outward, we are Muslim. Let the inside be so good. So sometimes we would arguably say that if you have developed the inside and your water is good and your kitchen, meaning your apparatus is working good and your decor is not yet so good, you are probably at a better position than one whose outward appearance is so good but his interior does not work.
I hope you've understood. That is the term hypocrisy. When outwardly you are such a saint and inwardly you are such a satan.
Allah! And then you have the other extreme where a person is just not bothered about the outside. Where they might be good people who have good character, good conduct. They don't lie, they don't cheat, they don't steal, they are very charitable and so on.
But they have no religion. They don't believe in anyone. They just come out and do as they please thereafter.
They have no set of rules and regulations. For that person they lose inner peace very quickly. And this is why Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala speaks about those who might be doing good deeds in the dunya, but they have not believed in Allah at all.
So like you have people ask us, you know, what is the condition of this person? Are they going to go to heaven or hell? This person who was a non-Muslim, are they going to go to heaven or hell? My beloved brother and sister, I do not know their condition upon the point of death. So I cannot issue a ruling to say this person is in heaven and this person is hell. That is for Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala to decide.
Quranic Verse About Non-Believers' Deeds
But we do know there is a warning issued for those who have disbelieved in Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. And here is one of the verses:
gave for them the due of all their good deeds that they did before in the dunya, so that when they get to the akhirah, it's scattered.
It is like an ash that is scattered completely. So if a non-Muslim were to come on the day of judgment and say, Well, I did a lot of good deeds. I never lied in my life.
I never drank in my life, alcohol and I did not commit adultery in my life. Where is the recompensation of all the good that I did? The answer for them would be that, Do you know we gave you good health? We gave you good looks which you exposed most of the time. We gave you so much goodness.
We gave you children who were so gorgeous and dropped dead, mashallah. And subhanallah, we don't want to say you dropped dead. But at the same time, you really enjoyed their company.
We gave you so much wealth and we gave you the enjoyment of the dunya, such that now there is nothing left, no more coupons left for you. Your coupons are spent. That is one extreme.
As Muslims, what are we taught? Subhanallah, we're going back to what we were saying. This old man, he tells me this is a sunnah. I told him, at the time when the Prophetsallallahu alaihi wasallam did not have much, yes, he had patches on his clothing.
Not because he wanted to show you it is sunnah to have patches, but because they did not have that much. So this is to show you that no matter who you are, and no matter how high your level is, please adjust when you have lost something materially, instead of leading a fake life full of credit and debt throughout your life.
A lot of people own cell phones and use it more than they can afford.
A lot of people want to buy the glamorous and the glitterous, subhanallah, of things that are there, the glittering of the items that are there, when they know they cannot afford it. A lot of people, the first amount of money they make, they want to splash it on a party where they know, for example, I need more important things than this. You need to strike the balance.
Quranic Verses About Balanced Spending
This is why Allahsubhanahu wa'ta'ala says in the Quran. And this verse is amazing. Where Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala tells Muhammadsallallahu alaihi wasallam:
A verse of surah al-isra where Allah says, Do not be so miserly that you are holding your neck shackled, neck, you're not giving anything at all.
And do not give so much that you will regret yourself, that some of my necessity is also gone. There is one verse showing you the balance between the two. And there is another verse just before that Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala says:
Do not be wasteful. Do not be wasteful for indeed those who are wasteful are the brethren of the devil. And the devil is definitely ungrateful to his lord. Which means to be wasteful is
showing ingratitude to Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala.
Because you are not spending where you are supposed to or you are overspending. You have for example a certain amount of money and you would like to purchase something. So you can afford mashallah a Nokia.
Alhamdulillah. And your eyes are set at the iPhone 5. Buy your Nokia and smile every day. Talk to your loved ones more than one time a day.
Than to buy your iPhone 5 and just show everybody, I have an iPhone 5. And you are not using it. And nothing is happening. And you don't even have enough money to contact people because you are paying the bill every month.
Understanding Religion in Daily Life
What kind is this? Have we not understood? Islam is a religion that teaches you even how to buy a cell phone. Subhanallah. Even your clothing.
Sometimes and obviously mashallah we have to speak about the women, but I don't think the men have the same sickness, but we have sicknesses in other things. When it comes to clothing mashallah, you have a wardrobe and you start counting the pairs of shoes. One, two, three, four, five.
Forty-five. Keep quiet. Forty-five pairs.
And she tells me, I don't have a pair that is mauve. To begin with, what is mauve? Oh, it's a color. You don't know the color? Hang on, I'll show it to you.
I said, how? Then she'll go and look for the color. Mauve, mashallah, won't find it. Let me Google it.
Okay. Hang on, it's best, let's just go to the shoe shop and I will show you what it is. How can we pack up our wardrobes to the degree that we, every occasion, you need a new clothing? No, there is a friend's wedding coming up.
There is another one next week and the following. So let me go and buy three outfits. Subhanallah, subhanallah.
You'd rather, and wallahi, look, if you can afford it, we might say it may be permissible, but it is extravagance. And extravagance opens the door to the devil. Because Allah says, my beloved sister, why don't you prepare as much for the life after death by helping someone who does not have clothes to begin with.
They don't have clothes. So you say, no, in KL everybody has clothes. Hang on, have you traveled the world? Go and Google, go and see Somalia, go and see the other countries of Africa.
Go and see the places where there have been earthquakes and so on. The world is at the same, in the same iPhone you bought. Do you know how to use it? Do you need to go and check the poor people and tell them, okay, I will buy for them five nokias and give them because I have an iPhone.
Have you thought of that? They won't want your nokias. They will tell you, we need food. Allahu Akbar.
And this is why we are saying, look at the balance of Islam. This is wasateen. This is called to be moderate.
Hadith About Balance Between Fear and Hope
We have on one hand something that we are worried about and the other hand something we are enjoying. And this is why you have a narration:
"Al-iman bayna al-khawfi wa ar-raja'"
You know, the true believers, they have a balance between fearing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and His punishment and hoping in His mercy.
So sometimes some people, when you talk about punishment and you talk about the fire and you talk about how people will be roasted and you talk about this, it has an impact on them. They start, you know, reading their surah, they start worrying and so on. Whereas the bulk of the educated today, you have to go on the other side and talk to them about how Allah loves you.
And you know, you are this, and give them the positive message to say, mashallah, you've been given this, you want this, this is how you will get it and so on. So, the truth is both sides of the coin are needed. And sometimes one may affect someone more than the other.
Some people don't want to hear, you know, the prophet of doom. Which means, you go to the masjid on a Friday and you find the imam yelling, You people are going to Jahannam. And you people are going to burn in the fire.
Yes, that might help some people. You find a brother, he's sitting there listening and crying. He says, no, I want to get out of that.
I want to get out of that. So it's good, it might help him. But, you have someone else who comes and tells you, let me describe for you paradise, which is prepared for me and you.
And let us all prepare to go there and so on. It's the same message, but given to you from another angle. Now, why do we say, someone told me, why do the big sheikhs, you know, they only send people to Jahannam.
I said, no, we need them also. Because they need to strike the balance. Sometimes we need to read, my beloved brothers and sisters, Sometimes you need to know what hell is all about.
Sometimes you need to know it. And not only sometimes, but we need to flip the pages once in a while. Although we can listen to our beautiful message of heaven all the time, But sometimes we need to know that, you know what, there is another side.
Because we are in the middle. We will do our deeds hoping for the mercy of Allah. Out of our goodness also.
And at the same time, fearing the punishment of Allah. There are three things. One is to fear the punishment.
One is to hope in the goodness. And one is just out of the love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.
Hadith About Categories of People Entering Jannah
There is a narration of Rasulullah s.a.w. which is mentioned also in some of the books where the reasons of revelation are mentioned.
And Rasulullah s.a.w. was describing the people going to Jannah. There will be people who will enter Jannah because they fear Jahannam. And there will be people who will enter Jannah because they worked towards Jannah.
And there will be people entering Jannah because whatever they did was solely for the love of the Almighty. So there are all categories of people. You might have a wealthy person who is healthy who says, Look, I just want to do it for the sake of doing it, you know, to please my own Maker.
That's it. Well, we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to help us purify our intention. And we even need ihtidal and wasatiyya when it comes to intention.
Because sometimes you do a good deed, you are leading salah. Your salah needs to be valid. It needs to be correct.
It needs to be read in a correct manner. It needs to be done beautifully. And at the same time, we need to have the correct intention.
Balancing Prayer and Work
Neither are we saying Allahu Akbar to show this man, nor are we saying Allahu Akbar void of intention just getting on with something. We need to intend, Ya Allah, I would like to please you. I would like to fulfill the duty you have placed on me.
And this is something, you have given me life for so many hours. And I have been alive at the time of this salah. So I am going to lead this salah.
People ask, I have found a job. And my job is such that I am not going to get enough time to lead my prayers. So can I join my Fajr, sorry, my Dhuhr, my Asr, and my Maghrib when I get home at the time of Isha? So you tell them, my sister, Taraweeh is only Ramadan.
Taraweeh is only in the month of Ramadan. You cannot have Taraweeh every day. But do me a favor, understand that instead of adjusting salah to suit your time, adjust your time to suit salah.
That is called moderation. You are saying, I am going to work, I will earn 50,000 ringgits a month, mashallah. But what's the point, how am I going to enjoy it when I compromise my salah in the process? I compromise my dress code in the process.
It brings me back to what I said. You know, it reminds me really of this computer where we open windows one after the other. Don't worry, we close them also one by one.
I am telling you something and I am going somewhere. We will come back to that and we will close each other. Now we are in the age, they have a laptop right in front of me.
What do you expect, mashallah. So we have a person who doesn't dress properly, for example. But they will, inshallah, they have the intention of improving, they will improve.
And with us, subhanallah, if Allah has given us the opportunity to dress properly, we also need to improve. Sometimes more than those. Because for them it's easy to one day suddenly dress in hijab and they have sorted their problem.
And for us to work on our interior habits is far more difficult, believe me. The worst is a person who appears so godly. A few days ago I tweeted this, some of you might have seen it.
The worst is a person who appears so godly and yet he is the biggest cheat. And yet what he does is so far away from how he appears. Why? Why? So someone might say, okay, so before I swear, let me remove all my Islamic garb and then start swearing.
Well, nobody will do that, isn't it? You have only one option and that is improve your interior. It's not difficult. Improve your interior just like you want a bathroom that looks beautiful and works beautifully and you want a kitchen that looks beautiful and works beautifully and you want a couch where it looks so beautiful, when the king comes to visit you and he sits, you don't want it to break.
You don't want him to fall down. It must be solid, proper, mashallah, leather or whatever else it is. Beautified and at the same time it's comfortable.
So in the same way we need to beautify ourselves Islamically and we need to have the interior also as Muslims. So a person who might not be of a very high, you know, level outwardly, they may choose to work at a place where perhaps they don't cover their hair or they might be wearing something to the
knee. If that is how they appear every day and they should be working on it on a daily basis and believe me, they do work on it.
Any Muslim woman that I have seen whose dressing is not appropriate, believe me, without telling her deep down in her heart, she knows that I need to improve this, especially when Allah has tested her with a few tests. She knows I need to improve this and when she gets to a certain age, if Allah grants her that age, she sometimes makes quite a big change. And wallahi, it's such a big change.
And this is between you and Allah. And the worst are those who sit back and start pointing fingers. You see that woman, she is this.
You see that woman and this man, he is like this and that. Don't judge people, don't waste time. It brings me to another issue of wasatiyyah and another issue of being moderate.
The Problem of Backbiting and Gossip
Let me explain to you. Some people only worry about others. You go to the house, they sip the tea.
You see that auntie. You know what happened. She was having an affair with so and so and so and so.
One thing, one sip of tea. After a while the cup is down, they smile at each other. You remember something, you pick the cup again.
And you know how the girl there, that woman there, that auntie there, she did this. You know she was like very very bad in the business and she was stealing money from people and the whole pyramid scheme flopped. You take one more sip, put it down.
Then you sit and you're thinking, and the other auntie thinks of something. She's got coffee, mashallah. So she lifts it up and says, Oh, I can tell you the uncle, that other brother.
You know what he did? Oh, very bad. So that is one extreme. We are enjoying the sipping of our tea.
We visited each other. When visiting is a sunnah, but what we did is haram. We are talking backbiting, backbiting, slandering, you know.
And a lot of the people I know here in Malaysia, the food is quite spicy, mashallah. The spices are enjoyed by the people. In the same way we add spice in our food, we add spice in our statements.
You have something and you make it sound so big. So people don't know where it comes from, mashallah. So we need to understand.
Planned food is good for you and your planned statements are also good for you. In the same way, everybody is worried, you know. We are worried about weight.
Weight. Throw the scales, subhanallah. Throw it out.
Look at yourself. Don't weigh yourself. Look at yourself.
And at the same time, how you are obsessed about what you look like and whether you are in shape. Ask yourself, what about my spiritual shape? You know, wallahi, if we had a machine, my dear sisters, if we had a machine or a mirror to look at your spiritual shape, we would not put on the chairs we are sitting on. To be honest with you, we are so embarrassed that we have to turn away and say, wow.
And how do you do it? Run on a treadmill. That's what we do. We run and gym two hours a day.
Wow. And you are sweaty, sweaty. So you sweat to get a shape physically.
Please, you will not have to sweat half as much to get a shape spiritually. Why don't you think of it that way? You won't have to sweat. But we are worried about one and not the other.
Where is the wasatiya? Where is the moderate ground? Let me also be interested in what I look like because a healthy man, obviously, someone who is healthy, obviously, healthy mind, healthy body, and so on. We know that spirituality is in order. You are more satisfied than what have you.
But at the same token, we need to understand there are two things here. One is your physical appearance and one is your spiritual appearance. So getting back to what we were saying.
If you have a person who sits and chats and they backbite, that is one extreme. They are only worried about others. They never speak about themselves.
You know, do you have anyone sitting and saying, well, mind you, this is very bad. And sometimes people do do this. When they sit and they start mentioning their sins to others.
You know, my dear, my sister, I'm drinking coffee. I have not read Salat and Fajr in the last three years. You know that? And you know, in my mind, I feel so lazy.
I don't even want to get up. And then someone sitting and saying, you know, I haven't read Quran. And I haven't done it in the last two years.
I don't even read a page a day. Do you have anyone talking about themselves like that? Perhaps very few. And even if they do, I hope it's not in such a way as to be proud of what you've done because that is something not to be proud of.
Like some people commit a sin and then they'll go and say, You know what I did? Oh, I did this and I did that. Why? So on one hand, we have that. The other hand, you have people who are so engrossed in their own religion that they forget something.
What that means is, I have my Salat. I am so busy. You know, I will not even, my child is crying.
I'm not interested in that. I have my husband calling. I'm not interested.
Hey, I'm reading Salat, you know, and your Salat is prolonged. And you read every single bit and you take so long, you know, and after one Salat is over, you're sitting and reading Quran. And whilst you're reading Quran, this one is calling for you, and that one is calling for you, and your family members are, you know, and your food, you are supposed to be looking, you tell them no wait, and so on.
So that is another extreme where people have not understood that religion includes to fulfill your other duties. Such that, on one hand, this person was only worried about others, and on the other hand, this person was only worried about themselves. Islam teaches you when you see someone doing something wrong, you need to be interested in rectifying them positively.
So if you are only bothered in your own closed cocoon, when you see others doing wrong, you say, don't worry, let me just worry about myself. That's also wrong. That is also wrong.
Quranic Command to Enjoin Good and Forbid Evil
If that was the case, we would not have what is known as:
To encourage people to do good and discourage them to do bad. What we need to do, worry about yourself. But when your family member is going wrong, someone close to you is going wrong, a friend of yours is going wrong, you need to call them in a beautiful way.
Listen to what Allah says:
O you who believe, save yourselves and your family members from the fire. How do you save your family members fire? By reminding them in a beautiful way. Because the Quran says:
A long verse. Allah says, when you are calling to the path of your Maker, call towards Him with wisdom. So if I am supposed to call the non-Muslims to Islam with wisdom, I am supposed to apply greater wisdom when I'm calling the Muslims. Because they are greater VIPs.
But today we find ourselves dooming other Muslims. Just because I didn't like the way he dressed. Or you know, I have a difference of opinion with this person regarding something, so he is doomed.
Allah says, guard us. And this is why we say there are two extremes. One is those who are only worried about others, and the other is those who are only worried about themselves, that so much so, when wrong is happening around them, they don't do something about it.
So someone might say, sometimes I cannot do something about it. That's wrong. You can.
You can raise your hands at least and say, Ya Allah, what is happening is wrong. Guide them, help them and guide me too. This is why the hadith says:
(Sahih Muslim Hadith 49)
Whoever has seen something bad, evil, if they have the capacity and capability to change it by hand, if they have the authority to do that, they can change it.
If they do not have the authority to do that, then at least by tongue. That's what we're doing today. It's not like we've seen something bad, but we're reminding each other and believe me, these words are more for me than anybody else, than for everyone else.
So we have the change by the tongue. And the last one, Whoever is unable to change even by tongue, then at least by their hearts, they should feel that this is wrong. And that is the lowest point of Iman, which means nobody can claim that they cannot do that.
At least in your heart, you say, no, this is wrong. And pray for it or pray for yourself, ask for protection, pray for the people. Sometimes we pray for destruction quicker than we pray for improvement of other people.
Someone does wrong to you, and you say, Ya Allah, destroy this one, destroy that one. You can draw up a list, those whom you want destroyed. You write so many names of people.
Ya Allah, destroy this one, destroy that one, destroy Ya Allah this one, fix them up. Ya Allah, this one here, sort them out. But have you ever raised your hands like the Prophetsallallahu alayhi wa sallam did?
(Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith 3477)
O Allah, guide my people. They don't know what they're doing. This was when they attacked him personally in Bali.
What about us? Someone has robbed money from you, say, Ya Allah, grant him barakah in his sustenance, and grant him trading on the straight path so that he can return whatever he has usurped. Try that du'a. The problem with us, we are on one extreme.
Hadith of Salman al-Farisi and Abu Darda
And you don't keep on forgiving until, you don't keep on forgiving until you give people a wrong signal that they are free to do what they want. Sometimes you need to report a person to the police because they have stolen from you. No, huh? You can't say, I'm a Muslim, forgive me.
Because you might be encouraging a robbery. May Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala grant us an understanding. You know, a hadith that comes to my mind regarding moderation is the hadith of Salman al-Farisi and Abu Dardarradhiallahu anhuma.
When the Prophetsallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he fostered the relation of brotherhood between them when they first entered Medina and Nawar, and there was something known as Al-Mu'asa, the fostering of brotherhood, in order to solve a problem. And I always say, you know, the United Nations, if they learnt from Muhammadsallallahu alayhi wa sallam, and if the people's hearts were that of Iman, we would solve the refugee crisis in the whole world. Because look at the system of Muhammadsallallahu alayhi wa sallam.
There was a city, a group of people, a large number of people entering a city, and none of them lived as refugees. The Prophetsallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, Each one, take one. You're a family, take a family.
Is it hard today, your home in KL, for example, is it so difficult for you to take in another family just like yours? It might create a small inconvenience, but if you're doing it for the pleasure of Allah, it will really go a great way in solving problems. Obviously, no one's going to ask you to do that. Some people are looking at me like, Hey, I've got people waiting out there.
Don't worry, there are no refugees out there waiting for you. But it's just a thing that you should cross your mind. You say, you know what, look at how Muhammadsallallahu alayhi wa sallam solved it.
So, Salman al-Farisi, he saw the wife of Abu Dardaradiallahu anhu, and you know, she was not taking any importance in her dress code and so on. So, he asked her a question. She responded saying that, you know, your brother is not even king.
He's got no means, nothing at all. He is just his religion and that's it. This is one extreme.
We're showing you how it was dealt with, so beautifully. So, Salman al-Farisiradiallahu anhu, when Abu Darda came home and the food was prepared, he said, eat. So, Salman says, radiallahu anhu, I'm not going to eat until you eat.
Because this man used to fast every day. So, he said, I'm not going to eat until you eat. So, Abu Darda radiallahu anhu was forced to eat, so he ate.
And he ate with Salman and the two of them ate together. When it came to the evening, and it was time to go to bed, this man wanted to read salah, prolonged. So, Salman al-Farisi looked at him and said, go to sleep.
So, he went to sleep. He got up after a while and Salman al-Farisi heard him again and said, go to sleep. So, he went to sleep again, until he got to the last portion of the night.
Then Salman al-Farisi says, you can get up and you can read salah now, if you like. Then he said, listen to me, O Abu Darda, I have a lesson for you:
Like, let me end on saying what we were saying, you know, when the sister says, am I going to be with the same man? Let me tell you, in the akhirah, you look at him. You will have what you want. I'm now guessing obviously, because we know you have what you want.
So, if for a moment a person thinks, I want my husband to be tall. Whilst you're thinking, you find him. You say, no, a little bit too tall, and then you see.
It's amazing. It is amazing how description in general, then you say, I need a broader smile, fairer complexion, this, that. Oh, beard, no, you know, I want it to look like this.
Now imagine, that type of a husband, mashaAllah. He is according to your spec. According to your spec, mashaAllah.
And he changes with the changing of your thoughts. Because that's what you get in jannah. Now, do you still want the same man? And the woman says, no, man.
Let's be fair. Allahumma Akbar. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us the ability to work towards paradise.
Closing
The ability to work towards paradise. More than bothering about what exactly is there. Yes, it's true that we need to know what is there.
We will only know what is in the Quran and the sunnah of Rasulullah s.a.w. I'm not going to know more than that. But some people are so obsessed with what is there.
No, I think women are oppressed. Because women, you know, when they go to paradise, what is there for them? Why are you worrying about that? You have no option but to die. And you have no option but to prepare for our life after death. Because that is the most sensible thing to do, even from a secular point of view.
And I can challenge even a person who doesn't believe in the akhirah, to say, look, do you believe you're going to die? They will say, yes. They cannot say no because they do die and everybody dies. Then you say, okay, what's after death? They'll say nothing or they will say we are going to be reincarnated.
So I say, okay, if there is nothing there, what if there is something? What if there is? They say, no, there's nothing. You guarantee me there's nothing and I'll believe the same as you. They say, well, I can't.
That means you cannot guarantee that there is nothing and I cannot guarantee that there is something. Okay, I'm talking to you from a secular point of view. Let's put religion for a moment on the side.
So now they say, yes, so there is either nothing or there is something. Okay, if there is nothing and I was good in the world, I was good and I had good iman and I read my salah in the world and I did a lot of goodness in the world and there is nothing, I lost nothing. Why? Because I will be sitting in the same place you are sitting.
Are you following what I'm saying? But if there was something, I will be in a much better place than you. So they start scratching their heads and they say, makes sense, makes sense. It's supposed to make dollars by now.
More than a hundred cents is a dollar, believe me. We cannot keep on saying makes sense, makes sense and we haven't done anything about it.
Final Advice and Balance
So this is why we say, a person who believes in reincarnation as well, you tell them, do you believe that you will be reincarnated? They say, yes, and sometimes they believe, you know, we have had certain people who, you know, we believe in freedom of belief, but at the same time, we are allowed to have our own belief.
And as Muslims, we believe certain things. And on top of that, we're also allowed to discuss and we're also allowed to communicate what we believe because a lot of the times other people are so grateful of us having spoken to them because that's when they see the light.
So mashaAllah we have had a discussion. I have spoken to you on certain aspects of moderation. I have explained to you some of the aspects of how it affects myself and yourselves in life.
We should not let our work overtake us to the degree that we forget the akhirah. We should not let our dunya overtake us to the degree that we forget the akhirah. This worldly life must be enjoyed, but within the limits on condition that we have prepared for the akhirah.
And as I have said in the past, one of the brothers asked me, that in one of your talks you said, it is easier to prepare for the akhirah than it is in the dunya. And in another talk you said, that people have done much more in the dunya for living this life than they have in the akhirah. Wallahi, there is no contradiction in those two statements.
They are correct. Because today, we work morning to evening, and I have said this recently, we work so hard in order to live for the weekend or the end of the day. Because I work in the morning, I come back in the evening.
In the evening, I'm cooking and I'm doing this, or I'm preparing, or for example, I'm enjoying the evening. But I worked all day. Five days a week.
And the other two days, I had a holiday. So I worked for five days to enjoy two days. And I worked for eleven months to enjoy one month break.
The akhirah is infinite in terms of time. It is never ending. It doesn't have a limit.
It has no time. So for me to prepare for that, Allah is only asking me for a few minutes, a few minutes a day. And He's asking me to modify my life.
Change your life. Modify it a little bit. Modify it slightly.
Not even too much. That's what we need. Sometimes the modification, you know, it's like the balancing of a tire.
If you have looked at a motor vehicle, if your steering wheel is moving very badly, all you need is a small piece of lead that is stuck to one of the wheels, and it will solve your problem. So if one piece of lead is not in place in the wheel, you can call it tafsiz or whatever you'd like, where they put a small piece of lead on the wheel, your whole balance is off. So my beloved brothers and sisters, in the same way, we would not like to drive a car that is shaking so much.
How can we live a life that is shaking when in the car you only need one small piece of lead? Perhaps in our life there is one little thing that we need to correct. And it's not so difficult. It requires you to drive to the gas station, or to the garage, or to whoever is the mechanic, and to spend a few minutes there, and to pay him a little bit.
And this way, it requires us to concentrate on our good habits. Learn to love one another. Learn to help one another.
Learn to improve your religious standing. And don't stop. You know, if you earn, and you have a salary of 10,000 Ringgit, you want a promotion, you want 15.
After a few years, you want a promotion, you want 20. And after a few years, you want a promotion, you will not sit at the same salary forever and ever, unless you are a hopeless person.
What I am saying is, an ordinary human being will want some form of increase. We would want some, and especially if it is at reach. So in the same way, how can I not want my spiritual increase? I need it to go up.
Allah says, what has He not given us? Ask yourself, what have or don't I have today? MashaAllah, you have your clothing, you have your food, it might be of a different standard. You have your health, you have your family, you might have a few problems. Everyone goes through problems.
That's part of what keeps us Muslim, and that's part of what keeps us in prayer. Imagine if you didn't have any problem whatsoever, what reason would there be for you to raise your hands and say, Ya Allah, I've
got an issue I need you to help me with. SubhanAllah.
So sometimes it's a mercy of Allah. But what I'm saying is, look at the gifts we have, compare it to those who are in a worse off condition, and then tell yourself, how grateful have I been to my own nature? How grateful have I been to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?
Final Reminder and Conclusion
Sometimes, and I know we probably have a lot of students from amongst us here, sometimes we are so interested in studies, that we forget Allah. For our whole student life, we didn't read salah, or we only read one salah, or throughout our student life, we just wasted our time, and we lived in a way that everyone else who doesn't believe in Allah lived.
Why? I think we can change that. And I think really we can actually do a lot, starting with myself. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant me the ability to understand the middle path.
And when we say the middle path, we're not talking of giving up your religion. Some people say, I have to repeat this and I have to say it. Some people say, Oh my brother, be moderate.
Just drink a little bit of wine. Not too much. That is not moderation.
That is engaging in haram. You know, brother, just be moderate. You know, don't worry.
Just come to my temple. Just worship one day. Only come to the temple.
What's wrong? I don't need to go to the temple. It's against my faith. I have the right.
I need to be a moderate person, which means, Understand that you have your faith. You are free to follow it. I have mine.
I am free to follow it. Please understand me. In the same way, I will not compel you to come and read salah in my masjid.
Don't compel me to go and clap my hands in front of your cow. Allah protect us. Meaning it happens.
Or whoever, whatever God it is. And I'm trying to say it respectfully, and it is the most respectful manner of saying it. It's a fact.
So, we don't expect, but let's discuss it. My beloved brother, my sister, this is what you believe, or this is what we believe, and so on. But I don't compromise my religion.
Some people say, Be moderate, man. Remove that scarf of yours. Why? What's so big in the hair? Allahu Akbar.
Allahu Akbar. Now we are playing with the laws of Allah. Two things, my beloved sisters.
One is, when your hair is open and your heart, you know, inshallah, I want to cover it. You know, it's wrong. What I've done is not ideal.
There is hope for you, inshallah. But for someone to say, No, take it out. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? Tomorrow you'll say, well, what's wrong with covering your legs? Get up, open them.
What's wrong? And then you say, What's wrong with going in the nude beach in Brazil, man? What's wrong with that? Let's go, you know. And tomorrow you say, let's bring the nudists here in KL. And that's how the world is becoming lower and lower.
We are beginning to follow those who are using the word moderation to take away spirituality from people. We are beginning to follow those who are using the word moderation to remove your own belief from your heart about what is right and wrong.
Closing Reminder
Firstly, do not become despondent. My beloved brothers and sisters, as a point of closure of this talk this evening, I'd like to encourage every one of us to build on what we have. Let's build on the goodness we have.
Don't ever underestimate yourself. Don't for one moment think that, you know what, I am a bad egg who is completely written off, and there is no hope for me. Because that is part of the plan of shaitan.
Shaitan makes you think that there is no hope for me, so that you don't get up on your feet again. And Allah says:
worshipers, O Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, tell my worshipers, who have transgressed against themselves, who have gone beyond the limits with themselves, never lose hope in