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 34 – Seeking Other’s Attention Is to Remove One’s Self from Allah’s Servitude
عَنْهُ عَنِ الْحَسَنِ بْنِ مَحْبُوبٍ عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ الْقَاسِمِ الْهَاشِمِيِّ قَالَ سَمِعْتُ أَبَا عَبْدِ اللَّهِ ع يَقُولُ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ ص مَنْ أَصْبَحَ مِنْ أُمَّتِي وَ هَمُّهُ غَيْرُ اللَّهِ فَلَيْسَ مِنَ اللَّه
Hadith #33: Imam Sadiq (a) from Prophet (p): Anyone from my nation who wakes up in the morning and their concern is other than Allah, then they are not of Allah.
This narration is saying that such a person is not a Godly person; this is because every step they take has nothing to do with God, they are concerned more so with people, what they will think, what they will say, how can I please them and make them happy. This is not a sign and identity of a Muslim, one who submits to God and is looking at God for direction in their life.
This is a serious problem some may be afflicted with and it isn’t just restricted to acts of worship either. In todays day and age, with social media becoming such an integral part of our life, we are naturally more prone to be concerned with people, how we look, what we post and what we conceal, what we share – it may have less to do with God and being genuine with yourself and your relationship with Allah (swt) and more to do with people and impressing them.
Because of this phenomenon, we are always vulnerable, and we ought to be careful. Allah (swt) only considers someone Godly when the person makes God their basis for everything, when a person recognized the right Allah has on them – if you recall episode 8, we said you are either with Allah or you are with Shaytan, and we said other than Allah and the goodness, truth, guidance and progress that emanates from being Godly, everything else is from Shaytan. Being concerned with others is a Satanic premise while being concerned with Allah is a Godly premise. Being concerned with others would mean that one wants to be in servitude of people and being in their servitude means you are taking yourself outside the domain of Allah’s servitude.
In the next episode, we will elaborate further on this key identity marker of a sincere believer, someone whose concern should only be Allah, as we’ll read a Prophetic narration describing how not being concerned with people can be understood with a metaphor of a camel.
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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.
