A Clean Heart?

During one of our lessons my Ustadh, Maulana Anwar Sahib, mentioned an incident which he experienced whilst offering Salaah in the Masjid.

My Ustadh would mention this story on many occasions to inform us and educate in regards to the religion and to show us the importance to understand the teachings of religion to ensure that the individual is actually following the true teachings of the religion and not just his whims and desires.

He mentioned, on one occasion when I was offering Salaah in the Masjid I saw an individual whose back was exposed whilst in Sajdah due to the short top he was wearing. I was offering Salaah behind him and when I completed my Salaah and he had completed his I approached him and told him politely, 'brother, I believe that your Salaah has become invalidated because your back was visible during Sajdah. However, it is best if you seek advise from a learned scholar just to confirm.'

Hearing this the brother became very annoyed and said, 'Dil Saaf Hona Chahye', translated as 'the heart needs to be pure'.

By this statement the individual was implying that these 'small' things don't matter, what actually matters is your intentions and the purity of your heart. If within your heart you have a clean intention then these things are trivial.

My Ustadh would relate this story and then inform us how many people's understanding religion is misplaced and through this misplaced understanding how people's actions become invalidated.

Indeed, one's heart needs to be pure and clean. Yet this does not mean that the teachings of the Prophet صلى الله عليه و سلم can be overlooked and misinterpreted. It is therefore essential that one learns the teachings of Islam in light of the Qur'an and Sunnah; an important lesson for any individual but more so for a student of knowledge.

Request or Order?

Alhumdulillah, the religion of Islam has outlined a complete way of life whilst balancing the rights given to each individual.

These rights are distributed and balanced to create harmony between various people, whether it be family members, colleagues, friends, teachers, students etc.

On this point my respected Shaykh, Hadhrat Maulana Adam Sahib, mentioned one of his rights as a father over his children. He mentioned that when he would want his son, my Ustadh, Maulana Imran Sahib, to return home at a certain time or to complete a certain task then he would never command by saying 'do this' as this would be within his rights and require his son to abide; and failing to do so would make him sinful.

Instead he would request through words such as 'can you...' which, whilst not exercising his rights, conveys the message of what he wants.

Alhumdulillah, through informing us of his personal practice, Hadhrat has shown as that the rights in Islam are their as a guidance to ensure that the needs of individuals are not violated and that each person is aware of their rights and responsibilities. However, many a times it is more beneficial to forego your rights to display your love and affection to those you love and also saving them from an obligation which could have lead to the individual becoming sinful.

Alhumdulillah, if we consider our rights in this manner then it will create an atmosphere of love and affection with those close to us. At the same time each person will learn to do things for another not because they 'have to' bit rather because they 'want to'

May Allah give us all the understanding to create an atmosphere of loge and affection within our homes and lives. Aameen.