Transcript
Al-Salam ‘Alaykum, this is Syed Ali Imran – and you are listening to the Forties podcast, brought to you by Mizan Institute.
This is episode 13 – Under the Shadow of God’s Throne
عَنْهُ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ سِنَانٍ عَنْ خَضِرٍ عَمَّنْ سَمِعَ أَبَا عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع يَقُولُ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ص ثَلَاثٌ مَنْ كُنَّ فِيهِ أَوْ وَاحِدَةٌ مِنْهُنَّ كَانَ فِي ظِلِ عَرْشِ اللَّهِ يَوْمَ لَا ظِلَّ إِلَّا ظِلُّهُ رَجُلٌ أَعْطَى النَّاسَ مِنْ نَفْسِهِ مَا هُوَ سَائِلُهُمْ لَهَا وَ رَجُلٌ لَمْ يُقَدِّمْ رِجْلًا حَتَّى يَعْلَمَ أَنَّ ذَلِكَ لِلَّهِ رِضًى أَوْ يُحْبَسُ [سَخَطٌ] وَ رَجُلٌ لَمْ يَعِبْ أَخَاهُ الْمُسْلِمَ بِعَيْبٍ حَتَّى يَنْفِيَ ذَلِكَ الْعَيْبَ عَنْ نَفْسِهِ فَإِنَّهُ لَا يَنْتَفِي عَنْهُ عَيْبٌ إِلَّا بَدَا لَهُ عَيْبٌ وَ كَفَى بِالْمَرْءِ شُغُلًا بِنَفْسِهِ عَنِ النَّاس
Hadith #12: The Holy Prophet (p): If someone possesses three qualities or even one of these three qualities, they will be under the shade of Allah’s Throne on a day where there will be no shade except its shade. Firstly: A person who gives to others that which they expect from others. Second: A person who does not take one step forward except that they know Allah (swt) is satisfied with this step or else they refrain from taking that step. Third: A person who does not point out the flaws of another Muslim until they have negated the presence of that flaw from themselves. A flaw will not cease to exist except that another flaw will take its place and become apparent for them. It is sufficient that a person occupies themselves with finding their own flaws, rather than others.
There are 3 qualities mentioned in this report – firstly it is a person who gives to others what he expects from them – meaning they aren’t someone who only has expectations from others, but don’t do anything themselves, they think as if others do not have the same expectation from them. For example, they expect to be respected by others, but don’t give respect to others, he expects others to overlook his mistakes and shortcomings but doesn’t do the same for others. So this quality is important.
We’ll mention the second quality in a bit, since that is the one that is relevant for us, but let’s quickly mention the third quality first: it is that a person does not busy and occupy themselves with just finding flaws in other people. There are people who have nothing better to do but to focus all their attention and time and effort in concentrating on others, findings their flaws and mistakes. This is while the good quality to have is that before you even look for flaws in others, see if you yourself have that flaw and in which case you should pause and fix yourself first. The hadith says if a person begins doing this, they won’t even have time to find flaws in others, because they’ll realize how many flaws they themselves have.
But what is relevant to our episode today is the second quality. The second quality is for a person who before taking any step and making any decision – think and figure out whether Allah will be happy and satisfied with them or not. We’ve already explained in a previous episode that maintaining sincerity in all our actions, whether they concern acts of worship or non-worship, is expected – even though for worship it is a condition for their validity and for non-worship it’s a condition for their perfection, but nevertheless it’s expected in both cases.
This hadith says that a person who is able to do this for any and every decision they make and every step they take in this world, they are going to be given protection under the shade of Allah’s Throne on the Day of Judgement. A day where everyone will be seeking protection and no one will care about anyone else – a parent won’t care about their children, a brother won’t care about his sister, nor a sister about her brother – when everyone will be trying to find a place to seek refuge, that is when such a person will find peace and tranquillity under Allah’s Throne.
May Allah give us the tawfīq to tread the path that he Loves and that He is satisfied with.
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Sayyid Ali studied in the seminary of Qom from 2012 to 2021, while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College of London in 2018. In the seminary he engaged in the study of legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. He is currently completing his Masters of Education at the University of Toronto and is the head of a private faith-based school in Toronto, as well as an instructor at the Mizan Institute and Mufid Seminary.
