July 26th: Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness (al-Amanah)

-It’s one of the two characteristics that the Prophet (may Allah bless him) was known for even before he became a prophet.

Hadiths:
"Five prayers, from one Friday prayer to (the next) Friday prayer and rendering trusts are an expiation (of the sins committed in between their intervals)."

"Guarantee for me to do six things and I shall guarantee for you paradise; be truthful if you speak, keep your word when you promise, render whatever you are entrusted with, protect your private parts (from sin), lower your gaze and do not harm anyone”
-How many of those six do we do?

"Three are the signs of a hypocrite: when he speaks he tells a lie, when he makes a promise he breaks it, and when he is trusted he betrays."

“'There is no faith for he who lacks trustworthiness and there is no religion for he who can't keep a vow.”
-This hadith is extremely alarming!
-Does this mean that an untrustworthy person has no faith? Of course not. It means that unless he becomes trustworthy, his faith will never be complete.
-Let’s all vow that we’ll never break a promise or be disloyal.

“Pay the deposit to him who deposited it with you, and do not betray him who betrayed you”

-so where’s that bracelet you borrowed a couple of months ago from your friend? Did you ever return it?

-Did you know that the lack of trustworthiness is a sign of the day of judgment?


Types of Trusts:
1) Money and Deposits:
-hadith: "A Muslim is he from whose hand and tongue the Muslims are safe"

-Before he starts his hijra (the migration from Makkah to Madinah) journey, Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) cared very much for returning the deposits he had to their owners!

2) Honesty in Selling, Buying and Doing one's work:
-hadith: "The truthful and honest tradesman is with Prophets, truthful persons and martyrs in the Day of Judgment".
-Nowadays, a doctor might ask his patients to do unnecessary x-rays or tests only because there are mutual interests between him and the x-ray labs.
-The mechanic, who replaces parts of your car with new ones, though the old ones are still valid

3) Keeping secrets:
-hadith: "If a man talks to another, and he looks around him to make sure no one else hears what he says, then what he says is a trust"

4) Trustworthiness in gender relations:
-The example of Sayyidna Musa and his modesty in dealing with the two ladies he helped out.
-Don't use excuses to talk to people of the opposite gender. Interaction should be limited and for a purpose.

5) Trustworthiness with Wives:
-husbands do not own their wives
-The wife is a trust that the husband has, hence the marriage contract.
-Aya: Allah says what can be translated as, "…and they have taken from you a strong pledge?" (TMQ, 4:21).

6) Children’s Trustworthiness:
-Young men or women who take money from their parents behind their back are being untrustworthy.
-A girl who makes a relation with a man behind her parents back is betraying them.
-Aya: "…and you reckoned it was a simple thing, and in the Reckoning of Allah it is a tremendous thing" (TMQ, 24: 15).

So, let us extend our definition a bit and say, "Trustworthiness is to preserve all the blessings that were granted to you by Allah".

-Your children are a trust: raise them well, not just by buying them everything they need.
-your health: don’t smoke, etc.
-your eyes: look out: wear hijab to preserve that trust that Allah has given you.
-your fortune
-your knowledge
-your family


Hadith: “A servant of Allah will remain standing on the Day of Judgment till he is questioned about his age and how he spent it; and about his knowledge and how he utilized it; about his wealth from where he acquired it and in what (activities) he spent it; and about his body as to how he used it.”

7) The Trust of Protecting Islam:
-This is the greatest trust of all.
-You are responsible for Islam as you will be asked about it on the Day of Judgment.
-Do you really recite the Qur'an?
-Do you attend those lessons instructing you about your religion?
-Do you work on guiding your dear ones to the path of Allah?

-Aya: "You have been the most charitable nation brought out to mankind: you command good, and forbid evil, and believe in Allah" (TMQ, 3: 110)
- Don’t ever think that it is the responsibility of scholars only. You are responsible for passing along the knowledge we learn here.

8) Lost & Found:
Scroll down to the end of this entry for the "Fiqh of lost and found", taken from SunniPath.com answers.

These are some of the trusts we have to take care of. It is such a heavy burden, isn’t it?

-Aya: "Surely We presented the to the heavens, the earth and mountains. Yet they refused to carry it and were afraid of it (of the responsibility), and man carried it/assumed it. Surely he has been constantly unjust, constantly ignorant" (TMQ, 33: 72).
-The heavens, the earth and the mountains refused to bear the trust because it is too heavy of a burden!

I hope that our concept of trustworthiness has now broadened and that we will be more careful about keeping our trusts. May Allah help us all to keep what we are entrusted with.

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The Fiqh of Lost & Found: What are the rules pertaining to lost and found goods?

Answered by Sidi Sohail Hanif

What are the rules pertaining to lost and found goods?

There are a number of rules concerning lost and found goods. In fact, books of fiqh normally have an entire chapter devoted to the topic.

The basic rules can be understood from the following points. These are summarised from Ibn ‘Abidin’s Radd al-Muhtar [3:317, Bulaq] and Shaykh ‘Ali Haydar’s extensive commentary on Majalla al-Ahkam al-‘Adaliyya, the Ottoman law code [articles 769 and 770].

If somebody finds an item, it can fall into one of the following categories: An item known to be purposely discarded by its owner. A perishable item deemed customarily to be of no value and concerning which one is reasonably sure that the owner will not care to look for it. e.g. a lone pear found floating in a stream, or a walnut found on the pavement. An item deemed to be of value to its owner. If i or ii above, then one can use it as one wishes without having need to announce that one has found the item in question. If iii then the item is termed a ‘lost and found good’ (luqata). It is impermissible to take the good for ones own consumption. One may either take it to return it to its owner or leave it in its place. The particular circumstances dictate which is superior, taking or leaving.

If one is able to announce the lost item and undertake the search for the owner then it is superior to pick it up. Imam al-Sarakhsi mentions in al-Mabsut that in taking it and returning it to it’s owner is fulfilling a trust which is a praiseworthy act in accordance with the noble verse ‘Indeed Allah commands you to render back your trusts to those to whom they are due’ [4:58] If one suspects that one will fall short in the fulfilling the legal requirements of handling a lost and found item then it is superior to leave it. If one fears that if one does not take it somebody else will steal it then it is obligatory to take it. If one feels certain of oneself that one can not fulfil the rules pertaining to lost and found goods then one it is forbidden for one to take it. If one does take it then one must take the following measures: o Announce to those in the vicinity that one is taking this item to return it to its owner. If one is unable to announce one’s intent (ishhad) when taking the item due to the absence of witnesses, then one should do so when able.

o Undertake a general announcement (ta`rif) concerning the found item so as to locate the owner. This can take any means necessary and should be widespread enough so as to locate the owner.

o After having undertaken the above steps one has fulfilled the conditions of the lost and found good and it is considered entrusted to one’s care (amana) meaning that one is not liable to cover the costs for any accidental damage or destruction that may befall the item when in one’s care.

If a person comes and claims that he is the owner then one may hand it over to him if he provides evidence that it is his, or is able to describe it exactly or if one just feels certain in ones heart that he is the owner.

If one were to give it to someone, being convinced by his claim and thereafter the real owner were to come with a clear proof that the item found belonged to him then he takes the item from the false claimer if it is still in one piece. If it has been destroyed he is given its value from either the finder or the false claimer.

To facilitate this process the scholars mention that it is often better to describe the object only in general terms, for example ‘a wallet’, and then let someone claiming to be the owner to describe it in detail.

One keeps announcing the good and searching for its owner until a sufficient amount of time has passed such that one does not believe that the owner is still looking for it and cannot be located. In the case of perishable goods such as food items one keeps announcing until one fears that they will rot. One may then either,

i. keep holding on to it with the intention of returning it to the owner. This of course is only an option with non perishable goods.

ii. give either the item or it’s value in charity with the intention of donating the reward to the owner,

iii. sell it with the intention of giving the money to the owner.

If the owner should present himself thereafter:

o If one had given it in charity, the owner can either approve of the charity in which case he has the reward for the charity or demand the value of the good from the person who had given it in charity.

o If one had sold it, then the owner can either take the money from the sale or cancel the transaction and demand the original item from person who had bought it.

These are the main rules mentioned concerning this quite taxing responsibility. Further details may be found in books of fiqh such as the two aforementioned sources. What can be learnt from this is the great emphasis that Islam places on fulfilling and safeguarding the rights of our fellow human beings. People freely indulging in other people’s property and disregarding their rights are quite far from the high, noble ideals of the religion. May Allah give us tawfiq in giving all people their due rights.

Sohail Hanif

"Rights of Neighbors" 7/12/07

• "Serve Allah, and join not any partners with Him; and do good- to parents, kinsfolk, orphans, those in need, neighbours who are near, neighbours who are strangers, the companion by your side, the wayfarer (ye meet), and what your right hands possess: For Allah loveth not the arrogant, the vainglorious;"Qur'an (Surah Nisaa, 4:36)
• the Prophet (S) said that angel Jibril (AS) continued to advise him at one point about neighbors until he thought they'd inherit from him
• narrated by Abu Dharr (RA): 'if you make soup, put extra water in it and be considerate of your neighbors' [hadith paraphrased]
  
• narrated by Abu Huraira: 'by Allah he does not believe whose neighbors aren't safe from him' [hadith paraphrased]
• entering jannah will be delayed if you were bad to your neighbors
• 'anyone who believes in the Last Day and in Allah should not harm his neighbors' [hadith paraphrased]
• 'the best of you in the sight of Allah is the one who is best to their neighbors' [hadith paraphrased]
• 'the most important thing with neighbors is keeping harm from them and being patient with their harm' [hadith paraphrased]
• the rights of neighbors:

1. be friendly/nice to them
2. protect the honor of their family, especially the women
3. occasionally send them gifts
4. don't cause them harm, help them when needed, visit them when they're sick

• forgiving someone is more rewarded than keeping a grudge

The Rights of Brotherhood (Imam Ghazali)

1. material assistance

• brotherhood is like 2 hands washing each other, helping one another out; why? because they have the same goal: submission
• there are 3 degrees of brotherhood

1) treating them like servants (e.g.: if there is extra food, you give them the leftovers)
2) equal treatment (e.g.: eating at the same time, from the same pot)
3) putting your brother or sister before you (e.g.: making them eat before you do)

• the third level is undoubtedly the best to be at, and is the most selfless
• example of Umar's (RA) son: when offered meat, he refused it on account of his neighbors, told the man to offer it to them first; everyone in the neighborhood was so selfless, eventually the meat came back to him (subhanallah!)
• the dearer to Allah swt is the nicer of the friends

2. personal aid

• your fellow Muslims' needs are more important than your own

3. holding one's tongue

• you shouldn't mention others' faults
• don't contradict others or argue with them
• don't quiz them about affairs (e.g.: where were you last night, I saw you come home at 2 am!)
• stay silent about their secrets
• don't hide praises about them (just keep it modest)
• be tolerant of others, observe silence in your heart, and give up suspicion
• conceal others' faults <-- **this is the mark of religious people** <--
• staying silent when you're right is harder on the soul, but more rewarded

4. speaking out to defend each other

• mutual love is necessary by sacred law
• praise each others good qualities (don't forget to say "mashaa'Allah")
• genuine Islam (submission) is to not love what's not what you'd love for yourself (so basically if you don't love for muslims what you love for yourself, you haven't attained true faith yet)

5. forgiving failures in (1) religion and (2) in your rights

• advise against sinning against Allah, but with the proper adab and attitude
• accept others' apologies, whether it's real or fake!!!

6. prayer

• make du'a for your Muslim brothers and sisters
• remember that the angels around you say 'ameen! may the same be for you' (i.e.: make good du'as!!)

7. loyalty/sincerity

• even in their absence we should be loyal and sincere, as if they were present
  
• loyalty to your br or sr means NOT listening to gossip or ill talk about them

8. relief from discomfort

• ease each others' discomforts; why? for the sole reason of love for Allah!

There are 3 types of people:

1. those you benefit from
2. those benefitting someone else but not receiving benefit
3. those you can't get benefit from and cannot help you and will actually hurt you
   

July 5th: Selflessness

selflessness (al-eethar)

Hadith: “None of you will have faith till he wishes for his brother what he likes for himself.”

Meaning of Al-Eethar: giving preference to others over yourself and considering their happiness and welfare before your own for the sake of Allah.

Examples of Al-eethar:
In a severe winter's night in Al-Madinah, a woman of the Ansar (The Muslims of Madinah who sponsored and defended the Call to Islam) brought a woven velvet cloak to the Prophet (PBUH). The Prophet (PBUH) took it, as he was in need of it to protect himself from the severe cold. Then, the Prophet (PBUH) came out wearing it for the first time, just as you would buy a new suit and wear it for the first time. One of the Companions from the Ansar looked at him and said, “How nice it is! O Messenger of Allah, give it to me”. What would your reaction be if you were in the place of the Prophet? The Prophet (PBUH) said, “Yes” and gave it to him on the spot. Peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah. Do you realize the meaning of al-’eethar now? The Companions became angry with the Ansari and told him, “the Prophet is in need of it!” The man replied, “I am in need of it more than he is. I want to make it my shroud when I die”.

Another example:
Twenty three years after the mission of the Prophet (PBUH) had started, Makkah and Khaibar were opened (to Islam) and booty was gained. During this period of the mission, the Prophet and the Companions were suffering hardships and poverty to the extent that the Prophet (PBUH) used to fasten two stones against his stomach out of hunger. After Allah had granted Muslims victory, the Prophet's share of booty was a number of sheep enough to cover the space between two mountains. Imagine! Such a huge number of sheep became the possession of a poor man who had experienced poverty for such a long time. However, the Prophet (PBUH) sought the reward of the hereafter. An Arabian came to the Prophet and looked at the booty. The Prophet asked him, “Do you like it?” The Arabian answered, “Yes.” The Prophet said, “It is yours.” The Arabian wondered, “O Muhammad! Are you serious? The Prophet said, “Yes, take it if you wish”. Do you imagine to what extent one can prefer others to himself? The Arabian ran to the sheep and looking all around him took them all. Then he returned to his people, saying, “Embrace Islam. I have just been with the best man that ever has been. Muhammad gives with the generosity of a person who has no fear of poverty”.

Another example:
A man came to the Prophet (PBUH) and told him that he had nothing to eat. The Prophet sent a messenger to ask his wives if they had food. However, when they were asked, each replied, “No, by Allah I have nothing except water.” The Prophet stood and called his Companions, “Who will entertain this man as a guest?” An Ansari said, “I will, O Messenger of Allah.” Afterwards, the man took the guest and went quickly to his wife and asked her, “Do you have food?” She replied, “We have nothing except the food of my children” - that is to say, the remaining food that could only suffice their children. Then, he told her, “Make your children forget the food, put them to sleep if they ask for supper, and turn the lamp off when the guest comes so that he would think that we are eating and would eat like us.”
-Nowadays we hide food from each other

There are other examples of the Companions' ‘eethar towards the Prophet (PBUH) in which they were ready to give away their souls not just their money:

On the day of the battle of Uhud, while arrows were shot towards the Prophet (PBUH) from every direction, Abu-Dogana gave preference to the Prophet over himself and hugged him in order to protect him from arrows. Abu-Bakr said, “When I looked at the back of Abu-Dogana, it was pierced by so many arrows that he looked like a hedgehog.” He gave preference to the Prophet over himself and went on doing that although he was wounded. Where is our ‘eethar towards the Prophet? Do we foster his Sunnah?

Examples of the Ansar’s ‘eethar to the Muhajireen:
Sa’d Ibn-Al-Rabi (an Ansari) hosted Abdur-Rahman Ibn-Ouf, a Muhajir (an emigrant). The former said to the latter, “Here is my money. I will divide it between you and me. This is your share and this is mine. Here is my property. I will divide it equally between you and me. I have two wives. See which of the two you like so that I may divorce her and you can marry her after she completes her Iddah (prescribed retreat)”. Can you see to what extent they were practicing al-’eethar? However, Abdur-Rahman Ibn-Ouf was decent and did not make use of this opportunity. He replied, “May Allah grant you good reward. Where is the market?”

-How much clothes do we have? Do we wear all of them or do some still have the tags on them? Why can’t we give them away?
-When we do give away something, do we give from the best that we have? Or do we give our old things that we no longer need?
-The ansar would give from their best.

Benefits of eethar:
-it promises jannah
-it cleans our hearts from its diseases: such as envy, miserliness, jealousy, love of the world.

The eethar of Ikrimah ibn abi jahl at the battle of Yarmuk:
All the wounded were gathered in a certain area until the battle was over. Ikrima's cousin was one of the water carriers i.e. those who were giving the wounded water to drink. He narrates, “I was searching for Ikrima and found him among the injured, wounded, in pain and about to die. He was surrounded by ten other wounded Muslims. I ran to give him water, but when he took the waterskin and was just about to drink he heard a Muslim brother saying, “I am thirsty!” He said “No, I swear by Allah I shall not drink unless my brother drinks first.” I moved to the second. When he was about to drink he heard another brother saying “Ah!” Then he said, “No, I swear by Allah I shall not drink.” Then I went to the next, and the next, and so on, until I reached the tenth soldier, who said “No, I swear I shall not drink unless Ikrima drinks.” I went back to Ikrima to find that he has already passed away as a martyr. He practiced 'eethar even when he was wounded and dying.”

The eethar of Aisha:
W when Omar Ibn-Al-Khattab (RA) was dying after being struck by Lo’lo’a Al-Majoosi, he asked his son Abdulla Ibn-Omar to go to Um al-Mo'mineen, Aisha (RA) and tell her, “Omar Ibn-Al-Khattab, and don’t tell her Amir Al-Mo'mineen for I am not so any more, tell her Omar Ibn-Al-Khattab is requesting your permission to be buried beside his friends (the Prophet (PBUH) and Abu-Bakr (RA)) in her room. She replied, “I wanted that place for myself, but I shall offer it to Omar”. Imagine that she was going to be buried beside her husband and father, i.e. the Prophet (PBUH) and Abu-Bakr (RA). What an honorable burial place! Despite this, the great lady agreed to be buried in the Baqee (a graveyard in Al-Madinah) and offered that place to Omar.

Eethar of Abdullah Ibn-Omar:
Abdullah Ibn Omar used to like the ayah, which can be translated as, “By no means shall you attain Al-Birr (piety, righteousness - here it means Allâh’s Reward, i.e. Paradise), unless you spend (in Allâh’s Cause) of that which you love; and whatever of good you spend, Allâh knows it well.”(TMQ 3:92).
-He gave away his fish dinner (nice story)

Imam al-Ghazaly says in his book Al-Ihyaa (The Revival), that there are three levels/grades of al-'eethar:
- First- to give your brother what you would give to a servant, i.e. you eat and give him your leftovers.
- Second- to treat him just like yourself i.e., you give him what you would take for yourself.
- Third- to prefer him over yourself, i.e. provide his needs before yours. His children, for example, will enter school and have no clothes, so before buying clothes for your own children you buy for his.

When we live only for ourselves, we live a short life where we are born small and die small! However when we live for each other we live as great people whose lives would last as long as humanity exists. If you live for others not only yourself, you will find your happiness in other peoples' smiles, your opportunities will be in other peoples' opportunities. You will be extremely happy when you find someone asking Allah (SWT), “May Allah be pleased with him, as he pleased me.” It is a strange yet a great feeling! Try it, and you will feel much more satisfied than you would have been if you had reaped all the benefits for yourself.

To conclude, a good man once said at the moments of his death, “My daughter I don’t fear death any more, even if it came now. I took a lot from life I mean I gave a lot! Sometimes my daughter it is very hard to differentiate between taking and giving, because for a believer they carry the same meaning. Every time I gave, I took. Actually I took more than I gave.”


-Let’s try to do an act of selflessness today

June 28, 2007 Da'wah/Naseeha Halaqah

given by: Hajira Ali

- "istiqaamah" = calling Muslims to Islaam
- when you're counseling others, don't hide anything, be honest and the rest is up to Allah swt
- don't love people more with your words than your heart (don't exaggerate)
- be good to people and don't backbite -->this is how you can be a good counsel to others, how it'll build trust between people
- the absence of good counsel is indicative of envy; so if you don't advise someone in a matter that needs to be addressed, it probably means you're envious of her/him
=============================
Envy consumes good deeds like fire burns up dry wood (hadith)
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- as sincere Muslims, we should dislike all praise, both for dunya and deen; liking praise can sometimes mean that you think you earned whatever it was that they people praise you for = pride develops

- when someone praises you, you should make the du'a : 'O Allah, do not hold me accountable for what this person has said about me and make me better than that.' (It was narrated that Sayidna Ali would make this dua)

- don't say explicitly what you can say implicitly; this is the more gentle approach, just like how the Prophet (S) was in everything

- hadith: the Prophet (S) said, "He who cannot keep a trust has no faith."

- there are 3 things that are beneath the throne of Allah
1)benefaction
2)kinship ties
3)trust

- be wary of argumentation and wrangling
- when a person starts to argue, shaytan is with him/her

- Story of man who was cursing Abu Bakr (RA) and he stayed quiet until the man said something that really got under his skin, so he replied with a simple refutation; at this point the Prophet(S) left; Abu Bakr (RA) became scared that he did something wrong and asked the Prophet (S) what he did wrong; he (S) replied that the moment he opened his mouth, shaytan came and the Prophet (S) left to get away from shaytan

- it is sufficient evil that at Muslim despises his brother
- humility is the characteristic of the believers
- pride is to deny the truth (and there was another part to this statement that i didn't get)

- signs of a true believer:
>like obscurity (meaning not being famous)
>love the poor
>take advice from any rank; just because a person is poor, it doesn't mean their knowledge is questionable
- these are signs of humility
- we should excuse those who are amiss and give each his right

*anything good that's written is from Allah, and may HE swt forgive me for any mistakes I may have made*