Salman ibn Fahd al-'Awdah
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “The likeness of two people, one who remembers his Lord and one who does not, is that of the living and the dead.”9
Allah says: “Verily in this is a message for any that has a heart.” [Sûrah Qâf : 37]
All of this confirms a great truth that we must pay attention to: that the purity of the heart and sincerity of purpose is the basis upon which all of a person’s works must rest. If the heart becomes corrupted, good deeds are of no avail. When a person’s intention is no good, nobility of purpose is lost and the person swerves from what is right. When the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “Actions are but by intentions”, he was talking about all actions. The acceptability of any outward action is contingent on the intention behind it, as the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “…and every person will have only what he intended.” Actions of the heart, however, are a different matter. The heart’s deeds such as fear, hope, and love, differ from outward actions, in that they, being unseen by others, are not subject to the risk of being for show. They either happen for the sake of Allah or they do not happen at all. One of the distinguishing features of the actions of the heart is that they can be cause for rewarded even if the person possessing them does not perform any outward act.
When the Prophet (peace be upon him) was approaching Madinah on his return from the Battle of Tabûk, he said to his Companions: “In Madinah there are some people who did not travel nor did they even cross a valley, but they were with you.”
His Companions asked him: “O Messenger of Allah! While they were in Madinah?”
He replied: “Yes, while they were in Madinah and were prevented by circumstances.”10
This idea was expressed by a poet who wrote:
O you who traveled to the Ancient House! It is thus,
That you went in body while we went in spirit.
We were prevented by hardships we had to endure,
And thus we are like the ones who went forward.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) mentioned that there will be people who will enter Paradise who did not do good works because they were prevented from doing so. Abû Hurayrah used to ask his peers to tell him about a man who went to Paradise after never having prayed a day in his life. When they could not answer, he would mention to them al-Usayrim from the tribe of Banû `Abd al-Ashhal.11
Al-Usayrim was a man who refused to accept Islam when the rest of his people did so. On the day of the Battle of Uhud, he came to accept Islam. Then he picked up his sword and went out to join the battle along with his people. He fought until he was mortally wounded. After the battle, when the tribe of Banû `Abd al-Ashhal began looking for their dead, they found al-Usayrim on the verge of death. They were surprised because they had left him behind.
They asked him: “What brought you here, your love for your people or a desire for
Islam?”
He replied: “My desire for Islam brought me here. I believe in Allah and his Messenger so I accepted Islam. Then I picked up my sword and went forward with Allah’s Messenger and fought until I came to this.”
He died shortly thereafter. They mentioned this to Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) who said: “He is among the inhabitants of Paradise.”12
Showing Off as a Way of Destroying One’s Deeds
A person can receive great rewards from Allah on account of his good intentions alone, even if he is prevented from carrying out the intended deed. On the other hand, the deeds that he performs can become bereft of blessings if they are not accompanied by a good intention. Such deeds can actually be sinful.
There are many hadîth that warn us against destroying our good deeds. One of the most serious causes of our deeds going to waste is that of showing off.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) relates to us that Allah will say: “Go to those who used to show off in the world and see if they found their reward.”13
He also relates that Allah says: “I am in no need of partners. Whoever does a deed for the sake of others as well as me, I leave his deed for those others.”14
The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “A man will be brought forward on the Day of Resurrection and thrown into the Fire. His entrails will come forth from his throat and he will hang from them going around like a donkey goes around a mill. The inhabitants of the Fire will gather around him and ask: ‘What is with you? Didn’t you used to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong?’ He will reply: ‘Yes, I used to enjoin what is right but not do those things myself, and I used to forbid what is wrong but not refrain from them myself.’”15
Some people might get the idea that this man was punished because he enjoined what is right and forbade what is wrong while he was had many shortcomings in his own deeds. This is a big mistake, because the task of enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong is worthy of reward in and of itself as long as the person engaged in it is sincere and has the right intention. This man was being punished because he did the very evil deeds he forbade others from doing and he abandoned the very duties he called others towards. He was merely beautifying his outward conduct while his inner being remained corrupt. His punishment was for his sins, not because he enjoined what is right and forbade what is wrong.
As for the verse: “Do you enjoin right conduct on others and forget to practice it yourselves and yet you recite the Scripture? Do you not have any sense?” [Sûrah al- Baqarah: 44], it means that Allah rebukes them and punishes them because they turn away from the truth though they know it full well. This makes them different from those who are ignorant of the truth, who if the come to know it would most likely follow it. Therefore, we should know that enjoining what is right is something we owe to the people, even if we fail to do what is right ourselves. The same goes for forbidding what is wrong. A poet once said:
If no sinner exhorts others to righteousness,
Then who will exhort the sinners after Muhammad?
No one after Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) is divinely protected from committing sins. It is, however, the duty upon every person to do the following four things:
1. Do what is right.
2. Enjoin others to what is right.
3. Abstain from what is wrong.
4. Forbid what is wrong.
Failure to perform one of these four duties does give us the right to neglect any of the others. Therefore, someone who commits a sin still has the duty to call others to avoid it. Showing off in words and deeds is a sickness that can get a person thrown into the Hellfire. That person on the outside appears to be righteous. His concern for what others think of him earns him the reward of their high esteem but not the pleasure of Allah. The praise of the people is sufficient for him.
This is the type of hypocricy that the earliest Muslims were afraid of falling into. Al-Hasan al-Basrî said, speaking about the tendency to show off: “I swear by Him in whose hand is my soul. No one feels safe from it except for a hypocrite and no one fears it except for a believer.” They were afraid that it would creep unnoticed into their deeds as Allah says: “…lest your deeds become vain and you perceive it not.” [Sûrah al-Hujurât:2]16
Al-Bukhârî placed in his Sahîh a chapter entitled: “A person being afraid that his deeds will become vain while not perceiving it”. In this chapter, he mentions a hadîth related by Anas b. Mâlik that Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) inquired of the whereabouts of Thâbit b. Qays. A man said he would go and find out about him. The man found Thâbit sitting in his house with his head hanging down.
The man asked : “What is the matter with you?”
Thâbit replied: “It is very bad. A person used to raise his voice above the voice of the Prophet (peace be upon him) so his deeds have become vain and he is now one of the people of the Fire.”
The man returned to the Prophet (peace be upon him) and informed him of what Thâbit had said. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said to the man: “Go back to him and say to him: ‘You are not from the people of the Fire but from the People of Paradise’.”17
Footnotes:
9 Sahîh al-Bukhârî (6407). Sahîh Muslim (779).
10 Sahîh al-Bukhârî (4423).
11 Musnad Ahmad (23634).
12 Al-Haythamî, Majma` al-Zawâ’id (9/362). Al-Haythamî states that all of its narrators are trustworthy (thiqât).
13 Musnad Ahmad (23119, 27442).
14 Sahîh Muslim (2985).
15 Sahîh Muslim (2989).
16 The entire verse reads: “O you who believe, raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet nor speak aloud to him in talk as you may speak aloud to one another, lest your deeds become vain and you perceive it not.”
17 Sahîh al-Bukhârî (3613). Sahîh Muslim (119).
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