Part of Lives of the Salaf — the Pious Predecessors (series completed)
· Lesson 38 of 72
A summary of the life of the Salaf between words and deeds | Episode (38) | Modesty, generosity, generosity and altruism
0:000:00
Transcript
Machine translation — may contain errors
0:00
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
0:04
The life of the salaf between speech and action.
0:11
Modesty.
0:13
Modesty before Allah.
0:18
Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, once addressed the people and said:
0:22
"O assembly of Muslims,
0:25
show modesty before Allah, the Almighty and Majestic.
0:28
For by Him in whose hand is my soul,
0:30
I remain, when I go to relieve myself in the open,
0:34
covered by my garment out of modesty before my Lord, the Almighty and Majestic."
0:40
Abu Musa, may Allah be pleased with him, also said:
0:43
"I bathe in a dark room,
0:46
and I do not straighten my back while taking my garment,
0:49
out of modesty before my Lord, the Almighty and Majestic."
0:53
Abu Sulayman al-Darani, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
0:57
"If a servant feels modesty before my Lord, the Almighty and Majestic,
1:00
then he has attained complete goodness."
1:05
Modesty before people.
1:09
Zayd ibn Thabit, may Allah be pleased with him, went out intending to attend the Friday prayer,
1:14
but he met people returning [from it].
1:17
He entered a house, and it was said to him:
1:20
"Are you shy before the people?"
1:22
He replied:
1:23
"Indeed, whoever is not modest before people,
1:26
will not be modest before Allah."
1:28
Salman, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
1:33
"When Allah, the Almighty, intends evil or destruction for a servant,
1:38
He strips modesty from him.
1:40
Then you will find him only hateful and hated.
1:44
Once he is hateful and hated,
1:47
mercy is stripped from him.
1:49
Then you will find him only harsh and callous.
1:52
Once he is like that,
1:54
trustworthiness is stripped from him.
1:57
Then you will find him only treacherous and a traitor.
2:01
Once he is like that,
2:03
the bond of Islam is stripped from his neck,
2:06
and he becomes accursed and a source of cursing."
2:09
Some wise men said:
2:11
"Whoever is clothed in the garment of modesty,
2:14
people will not see his faults."
2:16
A poet said:
2:19
"If you do not fear the consequence of the nights,
2:22
and you have no modesty, then do as you wish.
2:26
By Allah, there is no good in life,
2:29
and no world, once modesty is gone.
2:33
A person lives well as long as he has modesty,
2:36
just as a branch remains as long as its bark remains."
2:39
Modesty before one's own self.
2:44
Some wise men said:
2:47
"Let your modesty before your own self
2:50
be greater than your modesty before others."
2:54
Some scholars of etiquette said:
2:56
"Whoever performs an act in secret
2:58
that he would be ashamed of in public,
3:01
then his own self has no value to him."
3:04
Generosity, munificence, and altruism.
3:09
'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
3:14
"Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, embraced Islam
3:17
while possessing forty thousand dirhams."
3:20
'A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her, informed me,
3:23
saying: "Abu Bakr passed away
3:26
and did not leave behind a single dinar or dirham."
3:30
'Umar ibn al-Khattab, may Allah be pleased with him, took
3:33
four hundred dinars,
3:35
placed them in a pouch,
3:37
and said to his servant:
3:39
"Take this to Abu 'Ubaydah ibn al-Jarrah, may Allah be pleased with him."
3:44
The servant went,
3:46
and said:
3:47
"The Commander of the Faithful says to you:
3:50
'Use this for some of your needs.'"
3:53
He said:
3:54
"May Allah join him [to goodness] and have mercy on him."
3:57
Then he said:
3:58
"Come here, slave girl,
4:00
take these seven to so-and-so,
4:03
and these five to so-and-so,
4:06
and these five to so-and-so,"
4:09
until he had spent it all.
4:11
The servant returned to 'Umar
4:13
and informed him.
4:14
He found that he had prepared the same amount for Mu'adh ibn Jabal.
4:18
He said:
4:20
"Take this to Mu'adh ibn Jabal, may Allah be pleased with him."
4:24
He went to him with it.
4:26
He said:
4:27
"The Commander of the Faithful says to you:
4:30
'Use this for some of your needs.'"
4:33
He said:
4:34
"May Allah have mercy on him and join him [to goodness]."
4:37
"Come here, slave girl,
4:39
take this much to the house of so-and-so,
4:42
take this much to the house of so-and-so."
4:46
His wife came out
4:48
and said:
4:49
"By Allah, we are also needy,
4:51
so give us something."
4:53
There were only two dinars left in the cloth,
4:56
so he tossed them to her.
4:59
The servant returned to 'Umar
5:01
and informed him of that.
5:03
He said:
5:04
"They are brothers, one from the other."
5:08
Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, may Allah be pleased with him, used to say to his children:
5:14
"Remember the owner of the loaf of bread."
5:16
Then he mentioned that a man from the Children of Israel worshipped Allah for seventy years,
5:22
then Satan made a woman appear beautiful in his eyes,
5:26
and he stayed with her for seven days.
5:29
Then he fled,
5:32
and stayed with some poor people.
5:34
He was given a loaf of bread as charity,
5:37
which one of those poor people wanted.
5:40
He preferred him over himself with it, then he died.
5:43
His worship was weighed against the seven days he spent with the woman,
5:48
and the seven days outweighed his worship.
5:51
Then the loaf of bread was weighed against the seven days,
5:55
and it outweighed them.
5:58
Sa'da bint 'Awf, the wife of Talhah ibn 'Ubayd Allah, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
6:04
"Talhah once gave one hundred thousand dirhams in charity,
6:08
and it kept him from going to the mosque
6:12
because I had gathered it for him between the folds of his garment."
6:15
Al-Zubayr ibn al-'Awwam, may Allah be pleased with him, had one thousand slaves
6:20
who paid him tribute,
6:22
and he would distribute it every night,
6:25
then go to his house with nothing of it left.
6:30
'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him,
6:34
freed his slave girl who was called Rumaythah.
6:39
He said:
6:40
"I heard Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, say in His Book:
6:44
﴿You will not attain righteousness until you spend from that which you love.﴾
6:50
And by Allah, I truly loved you in this world,
6:54
so go, for you are free for the sake of Allah."
6:58
When he, may Allah be pleased with him, fell ill,
7:01
he craved a fish, so it was prepared for him.
7:04
Just as it was placed before him, a beggar came.
7:08
He said: "Give him the fish."
7:11
His wife said: "We will give him a dirham,
7:15
it is more useful to him than this,
7:18
and you fulfill your craving with it."
7:20
He said: "My craving is not what I want."
7:23
Twenty thousand were brought to him,
7:27
and he did not rise from his seat until he had given it all away.
7:31
Ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said:
7:34
"There are three whom I cannot repay:
7:37
a man who made space for me in a gathering—
7:40
I cannot repay him,
7:42
even if I gave him everything I own.
7:46
The second is he whose feet became dusty walking to me—
7:50
I cannot repay him,
7:53
even if I shed my blood for him.
7:56
And the third I cannot repay,
7:59
until the Lord of the Worlds repays him on my behalf:
8:02
one who brought a need to me
8:05
and found no one else to fulfill it but me."
8:08
'Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
8:12
"If one of you gives something to Allah, the Almighty and Majestic,
8:16
let him not give Him what he would be ashamed
8:19
to give to someone noble,
8:21
for Allah, the Blessed and Exalted, is the most noble of the noble,
8:25
and the most deserving of that which is chosen for Him."
8:28
Ja'far ibn Muhammad, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
8:31
"A good deed is not complete except with three things:
8:34
hastening it, belittling it, and concealing it."
8:38
Some wise men said:
8:40
"If you do a good deed, conceal it,
8:43
and if a good deed is done to you, spread it."
8:46
The annual income of Sahnun ibn Sa'id, may Allah have mercy on him, from an olive grove
8:52
was five hundred dinars a year,
8:55
yet the year would not end without him being in debt
8:59
due to the abundance of his charity and kindness.
9:02
'Uray ibn al-Husayn, may Allah have mercy on him, was thought to be stingy,
9:06
but when he died, they found he had been feeding one hundred households in Medina.
9:14
He, may Allah have mercy on him, used to carry a sack of bread on his back at night,
9:19
give it in charity, and say:
9:22
"Indeed, secret charity extinguishes the anger of the Lord, the Almighty and Majestic."
9:27
When he died, may Allah have mercy on him, and they washed him,
9:31
they began to notice black marks on his back.
9:35
They asked: "What is this?"
9:38
They said: "He used to carry sacks of flour on his back at night
9:42
to give to the poor of the people of Medina."
9:45
Al-Muhallab ibn Abi Sufrah, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
9:49
"It is strange that one would buy slaves with his wealth,
9:53
but not buy free men with his kindness."
9:56
Maimun ibn Mihran, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
10:00
"That I give a dirham in charity during my life
10:04
is more beloved to me than one hundred dirhams being given on my behalf after my death."
10:10
A beggar came asking at the door of al-Rabi' ibn Khuthaym, may Allah have mercy on him,
10:16
and he said: "Feed this beggar sugar."
10:21
His family said: "He only wants us to feed him a piece of bread."
10:25
He said: "Feed him sugar,
10:29
for al-Rabi' loves sugar."
10:32
Ibn al-Muqaffa' said: "Generosity with what one can afford is the ultimate generosity."
10:39
Some of the salaf, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
10:42
"One of them belittles a small thing,
10:44
so he ends up doing what is worse than it,"
10:47
meaning withholding.
10:49
And the one who said it spoke the truth:
10:51
Be kind to people, and you will enslave their hearts.
10:54
For how often has kindness enslaved a human being.
10:58
Whoever is generous with wealth, all people will incline
11:02
toward him, for wealth is a great temptation for man.
11:07
Be kind whenever you have the possibility and the means,
11:11
for the possibility will not last forever for any man.
11:15
Hubaysh Ibn Mubashir, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
11:20
I sat with Ahmad Ibn Hanbal and Yahya Ibn Ma'in, may Allah have mercy on them,
11:25
while many people were gathered around,
11:27
and they unanimously agreed that they did not know a single righteous man who was a miser.
11:32
Ibn al-Jawzi, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
11:36
Nizam al-Mulk, may Allah have mercy on him, fell ill,
11:39
so he began to treat himself through charity.
11:42
A crowd of the needy would gather before him,
11:46
and he would give charity to them, and he was cured.
11:49
Al-Hafiz Ibn Fadl Allah al-'Umari, may Allah have mercy on him, said:
11:55
Wealth would come to Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him,
12:00
“Beautified for mankind is love of the joys (that come) from women and offspring; and stored-up heaps of gold and silver, and horses branded (with their mark), and cattle and land. That is comfort of the life of the world. Allah! With Him is a more excellent abode.” (3:14)
12:04
such as branded horses, livestock, and crops,
12:08
and he would give it all away,
12:10
placing it in the hands of those in need where it belonged.
12:14
He would not take anything from it except to give it away,
12:18
and he would not keep it except to spend it all in the path of righteousness.
12:23
This is the way of the humble, not the way of the arrogant.
12:27
He was not swayed by the love of worldly desires,
12:30
nor was anything from the three worldly delights made dear to him,
12:33
except for prayer.
12:35
Wealth would come to him every year
12:38
in amounts that could hardly be counted,
12:40
yet he would spend it all, in the thousands and hundreds,
12:44
never seeking to keep a single dirham for himself,
12:47
nor spending it on his own needs.
12:50
Rather, if he had nothing else to give,
12:52
he would take one of his own garments
12:55
and hand it over to the person asking.
12:59
A life of peace,
13:01
between word and deed.