Shaykh Muhammad Bin Salih Al-Uthaymeen
Mu’aadh bin Jabal reported from the Messenger of Allaah(SAW) that
he said,
"Fear Allaah wheresoever you may be, and follow up and evil deed
with a good one, it will efface it (the evil deed). And deal with
mankind with good manners." Reported by at-Tirmidhee and he said
that it was a Hasan hadeeth.
[al-Haakim reports it in al-Mustadrak and states that it meets the
conditions of Bukhaaree and Muslim. Adh-Dhahabee agreed.]
This hadeeth is one of the Forty Ahaadeeth of the author, may Allaah
have mercy upon him, and in it is that the Prophet(SAW) gave three
great and important pieces of advice:
THE FIRST: He said, "have taqwaa of Allaah wheresoever you may
be." Taqwaa means to stay away from the forbidden matters and to
enact the obligatory matters – this is taqwaa! That you enact what
Allaah has commanded you, sincerely for Allaah and in compliance
to the Messenger of Allaah(SAW), and that you leave what Allaah
has forbidden due to His prohibiting it and to steer clear of it.
For example that you establish the greatest obligation that Allaah has
imposed upon you after the testimony of faith – the prayer, and you
establish it completely - fulfilling all of its conditions and pillars and
obligations, fulfilling all of these perfectly. So whosoever leaves off
any of these conditions, pillars or obligations then he has not feared
Allaah (to the best of his ability), rather he has been deficient in this
to the extent of what he left out.
In Zakaah, the Taqwaa of Allaah lies in your calculating all of your
property on which the zakaah is due, and your giving the zakaah as a
means of purifying yourself without any miserliness or
tightfistedness, or delay. And whosoever does not do this than he has
not feared Allaah.
In fasting, the Taqwaa of Allaah lies in your establishing the fast as
you have been commanded, distancing yourself from idle speech,
obscene words and mannerisms, boisterous behaviour, backbiting
and spreading tales and other such things that would make the fast
deficient and remove the spirit of fasting. The true meaning of fasting
is to fast from that which Allaah, Azza wa Jall, has made forbidden.
The same applies to all of the obligations that are used to establish
obedience to Allaah, and compliance to His command, sincerely for
Him and in following His Messenger. Likewise all the forbidden
actions are to be left in compliance to His prohibition.
THE SECOND: "and follow up and evil deed with a good one, it
will efface it (the evil deed)." Meaning that when you perform an
evil action then follow it up with a good action for the good action
effaces the evil. And from the good actions to be performed after the
evil is that you repent to Allaah for this evil action, for indeed
repentance is from the most noble and excellent of the good actions
as Allaah has said, "indeed Allaah Loves those who repent and
those who purify themselves." (2:222) And He said, "and repent
to Allaah all of you, O believers so that you may be successful."
(24:31)
Similarly righteous actions expiate the evil actions as the
Prophet(SAW) said, "the five daily prayers and one Jumu’ah to the
next Jumu’ah, and one Ramadaan to the next Ramadaan, is an
expiation for what lies between them as long as one refrains from
the major sins." [Muslim], and he said, "one Umrah to the next is an
expiation for what is between them." [Bukhaaree].
Therefore the good actions efface the evil.
THE THIRD: "and deal with mankind with good manners." The
first two pieces of advice were those related to relationship with the
Creator, this third relates to relationship of the creation to the
creation. This being to deal with mankind with the best manners such
that you will be praised and not blamed. This by having a cheerful
complexion, being truthful in speech, speaking to others nicely and
other such good manners.
There are a large number of texts concerning the excellence of having
good manners to the extent that the Messenger(SAW) said, "the most
complete believer with respect to faith is the one with the best
manners." And he informed us that the most deserving of mankind to
him(SAW) and the closest to him in ranking on the Day of
Judgement would be those with the best manners.
So noble manners, along with their being a way to beautify gatherings
and the person who possesses them being beloved to the people,
contain a huge reward which will bestowed upon the person on the
Day of Judgement.
So preserve these three pieces of advice from the Prophet(SAW) and
Allaah is the Grantor of Success.
