LESSON 4: Striving for Ihsan (Righteousness and Sincerity) and Staying Away from Riya (Showing Off) Ihsan means to worship Allah as if one seeks Him, and even though one does not see Him, He sees all. Hasan al-Basri said: By Allah, in the last twenty years, I have not said a word or taken something with my hand or refrained to take something with my hand or stepped forth or stepped back, except that I have thought before I have done any action, Does Allah love this action? Is Allah pleased with this action? So when one is fasting, one should gain this quality of watching oneself and also staying away from riya (showing off). That is why Allah said in a hadith qudsi, Fasting is for Me and I reward it. [Al-Bukhari] Allah singles out fasting from all other types of worship saying, Fasting is for Me, because no one knows whether you are fasting or not, except Allah. For example, when one is praying or giving charity or making tawaf, one can be seen by the people, so one might do the action seeking the praise of the people. Sufyan ath-Thawri used to spend the nights and the days crying and the people used to ask him, Why do you cry, is it due to the fear of Allah? He said, No. They said, Is it due to the fear of the Hellfire? He said, No. It is not the fear of Hellfire that makes me cry, what makes me cry is that I have been worshipping Allah all these years and doing scholarly teaching, and I am not certain that my intentions are purely for Allah.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 01:27:23 +0000
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