How Allah Repays You For Your Honesty

How Allah Repays You For Your Honesty | Virtual Khutbah

Opening

So inshaAllah ta'ala as we continue and InshaAllah, I know that some people are probably still logging on from the previous stream. You know, I wanted to talk about this subject of how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rewards our honesty when we're in a difficult situation. And I wanted to take a very particular angle to this.

Introduction: Financial Hardship and Moral Choices

So let me frame it inshaAllah ta'ala in sort of a personal discussion that I was having this morning with someone that's experiencing an extreme amount of financial difficulty. And obviously many people in particularly the COVID-19 era are experiencing financial hardship for the very first time or at least for the first time in a very long time in this way.

And as people start to experience financial hardship and it's actually a paper that inshaAllah I'm working on alongside sister Najwa and sister Sara Sultan with the mental health as well as the faith element to it as how we deal with financial uncertainty - as people start to experience financial uncertainty like many forms of uncertainty, certain options become available to them and certain things open up for them that might not have been open to them before.

The Balance Between Necessity and Principle

And I want to preface this by saying that there are legitimate fatwas, for example, legitimate scholarly opinions. For example, that if a person finds themselves in this situation, then they're able to, you know, out of necessity engage in this particular type of financial transaction, which otherwise would be prohibited.

Right, and one of the problems is that people usually go beyond the restricted to the moment and they just kind of go far into it. And this is, you know, very much so embedded in our legal reasoning as Muslims that there are certain hardships that make things permissible that ordinarily would be prohibited. But I want to take this beyond that and I want us to just sort of think about it as an attitude, as a mindset.

The Concept of Modesty ('Iffah) in Financial Matters

A person who has this quality that is referred to in our texts as 'iffah - as modesty. Modesty typically when discussed in the spiritual sense refers to modesty in regards to probably the way that many of us think of it - 'iffah in protecting oneself from zina and everything that leads to zina, protecting oneself from adultery, fornication and guarding one's chastity.

But it also refers to staying away from haram money and not finding ourselves in a situation where we are engaging in prohibited forms of transaction. And so just as when a person is in a place of affluence and they're gaining a lot and they have a lot of money, for example, and they're in a place of luxury and they see that there is a way to do extra to gain extra and so they'll engage in some prohibited transactions because they've tasted the sweetness of wealth and prosperity and so "I might as well keep increasing."

Likewise, there's a unique hardship, a unique way of a person finding themselves in a way that they could be tempted to haram when they're in a difficult situation.

Spending in Hardship and Ease

And so typically when we talk about hardship and ease, we talk about it from the perspective of giving sadaqah, for example, in hardship and ease.

But there's something to be said about a person who holds on to their principles and does not lose them in a situation of hardship and in a situation of particularly the pinch of financial hardship.

Allah's Promise to the God-Conscious

And this is where we find so much in our text about this idea of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rewarding a person for their honesty:

Okay, so it refers to the source. So you don't know where the khayr, where the good is going to come to you. You don't know when it's going to come to you and you also don't know how it's going to come to you. So both the source of the rizq and the output of the rizq, the source of the sustenance as well as the output of the sustenance are unknown to you when you choose to practice taqwa, when you choose to practice piety and God-consciousness even in a tight situation, even in a difficult situation.

The Principle of Necessity (Darura)

Okay, in regards to everything. Now again, I'm gonna say this one more time. There are situations where a person finds themselves in a darura, in a hardship, and there is a legitimate fatwa and a pathway where a person has to engage in something that is ordinarily prohibited for the sake of getting themselves out of a difficult situation.

And so, you know, you'll find that this is gradual and you'll find that it is both on the basis of how difficult your situation is and whether or not you've exhausted the permissible means to deal with the situation without having to engage in haram. All right, so how much have you exhausted the permissible means in order to not find yourself in a place of engaging in that prohibited transaction or in those prohibited ways?

The True Meaning of Taqwa

And that's where that taqwa really comes in, right? So taqwa really refers to a sense of being cautious and being safe, particularly when it comes to sins. You know, the famous narration of the companions who described taqwa as a person that's walking between thorny bushes and holding themselves tight so that they don't find themselves being pricked by those thorns. And so they hold themselves tight so that they can remain safe, right? And so that's an attitude. That's a mindset.

That when a person finds themselves in a situation where things become tempting, where it's easy to go a prohibited route, they ask themselves: "Have I really exhausted all of the permissible ways to get myself out of this difficulty?" They ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for help. They ask Allah for support. They exhaust their permissible means to get out of that situation. And then lastly, they only engage the prohibited to the extent that is necessary to get them out of their place of hardship or dire need.

I'm gonna say that again: They only engage it to a point that it is necessary to get them out of their hardship or their dire need, because sometimes what happens is that just as you have some people that will sort of skip over the permissible - exhausting the permissible to get themselves out of a hardship - you'll also have some people that will exceed under the umbrella of a fatwa that was given in a very restricted way, will exceed and we'll just go all the way in.

The Danger of Exceeding Bounds

And so if this fatwa allows a person in this situation to engage this much, they'll use that fatwa to justify engaging in this much, right? So where is the taqwa here? The taqwa is not in a person having exhausted all permissible means and then finding themselves in deep hardship and perpetuating that hardship. The taqwa is in whether that person really exhausted their permissible means and really tried, really tried to go about things in the purest way possible and ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala for support in the process and then engaging only what they had to of the doubtful or the what is ordinarily prohibited for that moment.

So that's where taqwa is in that regard, right? It's that a person holds back, a person is skeptical - not of the scholar that might give a fatwa for a situation, but a person is skeptical as to whether or not they would qualify for some of the concessions and the exemptions that are given in a hard place.

The Opposite Extreme: Dishonesty and Deception

Now, of course, there's the extreme, the opposite extreme of that, which is a person that's not even in a hard situation and a person that just cheats with their money, a person that engages in prohibited transaction. Maybe deludes themselves into thinking that, you know, "this is halal. It's okay for me to do."

You know, I had a person who - this is actually very recently - who was cheating his customers and he said "they're all kufar anyway." It's like, "what?" Since so you're strict here, you know, like, you know, you're strict on this idea of 'aqidah and you know, "wala' wa bara'" and "we have to hate these people" and so "we could mistreat them" and then, you know, "you engage in all sorts of haram transactions because they're kufar anyway," you know, like what is that? Right? Like how do you have that split personality and that clear cognitive dissonance in regards to how you're gonna treat these two situations, these two areas, right? These two areas.

The Mentality of Small Deceptions

So when it comes to the opposite extreme of that, it's that person that cheats a little bit, that person that adds a little bit of money to the transaction, that sneaks in a little bit to the weights. And you know, one of my teachers, as he was talking about

And the way that they deceive in small amounts and tipping the scale and tipping the price is they add just enough to the price or just enough to the weight to where they won't be caught by the other person. All right, mindset, right, of a person who cheats, who cheats in their wealth and cheats in their financial transactions, right?

"I'm gonna deceive and add just enough. What's going to govern at what point my cheating stops? My limit stops with my cheating is not if I think, you know, 'I've got my excess and I've crunched my numbers and you know, I would have had my full here.' No, it's how much can I get away with? Right, how much can I get away with?"

Because remember, these are spiritual diseases from which these practices emanate. "How much can I get away with that person without getting caught and without getting exposed in a way that would rupture my business, right, or my transactions?"

The Prophet's Warning About Deception

And so that's the motif, right? Adds just a little bit there, adds a little bit to the weight. You know what the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم said of a person that would take grain that was bad and that would put the best part of it on the top right to deceive? And that person, you know, when that person is going to hide the bad part of the grain in the depths of it and put the good part on the top. What's going to cause them to decide how much of the good part is put on top and how much of the rotten they allow to be in that particular container is what they can get away with.

And that's why, subhanAllah, when the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم talks about the signs of hypocrisy:

All the signs of hypocrisy - of a person who speaks and lies, a person who breaks promises, and a person who cannot be entrusted in their affairs - all of them are found in a person that is dishonest with their financial transactions, all of them, right, all traits of that hypocrisy.

The Spiritual Consequences of Small Sins

And of course, there's the other hadith about exceeding the bounds of anger and things of that sort, so this is what I want us to think about. What we get used to, and just like with any sin, with any sin. And the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم warns us from

It's the small drops that corrode the entire heart and that lead a person to a complete place of fujur, a complete place of rebellion with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and transgression with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Okay, so just like with any small sin, it's those small things that you start to cheat with your money, small things that you start to cheat with your financial transactions, the small things that you start to get away with, the small forms of deception that you start to allow to be accepted as practice that corrode a person's taqwa and that excel their nifaq, excel their hypocrisy.

The Immediate vs. Long-term Perspective

Okay, and so what's the opposite of this? Allah rewards honesty. And just like with sins, sins tend to yield a temporary, short-term benefit. Okay, like they're very immediate in the type of pleasure that they yield. Usually when a person sins, they do it because they're coming at it from a place of ajal, of being hasty, right? They're hasty.

They're hasty towards it. So they want to experience the taste of that desire in that moment and they are impatient with their desires. They don't have sabr, patience, with themselves, with holding themselves back, with their shahwat, with their desires. And so they will engage in something that gives them an immediate sense of pleasure only to be followed by a lifetime of regrets and even worse, without tawbah, a hereafter of regret.

But it's "I've got to have it at this moment. I'm not patient enough till Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes the permissible means for me to where I will either taste the benefits of engaging in only that which is permissible in just the hereafter, or Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will reward me with an element of reward for engaging only in the permissible in this life and the next."

A Practical Example: Leaving Haram Business

And so I give you an example. Someone says, "Look, I want to quit my business. I want to quit my... I want to get out of this haram," okay? And for some people, what this means is removing a haram product off the shelf, removing something forbidden off the shelf. So think of a person that sells alcohol, right, or sells, you know, pork or whatever it is, right? But "I want to remove something harmful from the shelf."

And that person's crunching the numbers and says, "Well, this much of my money comes from alcohol sales, and if I stop selling liquor, then I'm going to feel, you know, this great pain because 30, 40 percent, whatever it is, of my sales are going to go to waste now. And it's very hard to reason with that person [to] say

That just like with sin, you're only able to see what's right in front of you and you're not able to see what's behind it. Okay, you are hasty. The same thing is true when it comes to our financial sins, the lack of integrity or honesty that we might show in regards to our transactions, in regards to what we engage in the financial sense.

The Unseen Blessings of Halal Income

Okay, why? Because if I'm talking to that person, I say, "Listen, if you're... you know, you don't know the rizq that you will see in your life through other business opportunities that Allah will decree that come your way because of you abandoning that haram. You don't know the blessing, the baraka, that Allah will put in the money that you earn from halal. So if you lose out on 30%, the baraka that Allah will put in the 70% to where its benefits is expanded, its blessing is expanded. You can't quantify that. You cannot determine the rizq, the sustenance in your life, that you will have in how Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala then blesses your children because they're now nourished on halal income as opposed to haram income, the blessings that are put in your family, right, as a result of that. There is no way for you to be able to quantify all of that."

And so just like sabr, patience, when it comes to the haram in terms of sin requires you to trust Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that what Allah has in store for you is better and that you don't need to compromise on what is better for you that is in store from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala or with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because of the immediate temptation of the prohibited. The same thing is true with all of our financial temptations.

Money is so tempting towards haram, right? And a person can find themselves falling over and over and over and over again when it comes to these things and these financial transactions.

Two Stories of Honesty

So I want to actually give you two incidents of this, two stories of this. One of them, you know, Abdullah ibn Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhuma. He wanted to test... now Abdullah ibn Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhuma used to free slaves a lot. He was known for freeing slaves, and Abdullah ibn Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhuma used to free the enslaved so much so that people knew, you know, those that were enslaved knew how to catch his heart and how to catch his eye.

And so one of his companions told him, he said that, you know, "Because you will push yourself to free righteous... these righteous people that are enslaved... some people that are enslaved will have your own act. They'll deceive you by pretending to be more religious than they actually are because they know that that will cause your heart to incline more towards them and then you'll even push yourself further to free them, right? So to purchase their freedom and to let them go from those that are their owners."

So "you will do whatever you can to push them." And he said, "Look, if they hardly deceive me for the sake of Allah" - meaning, you know, the reward of freeing these people is blessed regardless whether they're righteous or not. And, you know, "if I'm being tricked into doing more good deeds than alhamdulillah," right? So he was happy when he would do that.

The Story of the Honest Shepherd

So Abdullah ibn Umar radiallahu ta'ala anhuma, he was one time passing by a sheepherder, and this person that had these sheep. He was watching the sheep for his master. He said to him, he said, "You know, give me one of those sheep, and I'll give you a price, right? I'll pay you for it. You know, just give me one of them and don't tell, don't tell your master."

So the man responded and said,