All praise is due to Allaah, Lord of all the worlds. May peace and blessings of Allaah be upon the Messenger, his household and companions.
Fellow Muslims! Fear Allaah and be dutiful to Him. Be conscious of Him in your public and private life; for He commands you to be conscious of Him in all that you say and do. He promised to reform your affairs for you, to forgive you your sins and to let you attain great reward in the Hereafter. He says,
“O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allaah and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allaah and His Messenger has indeed achieved a great reward.” (Al-Ahzaab 33:70-71)
In this noble verse, Allaah commands His believing slaves to fear Him in all their conditions and in word and deed, by fulfilling His Commandments and abstaining from all that He forbids.
It is by piety that a Muslim can achieve good in his religion and his worldly life. It is also through it that evils can be averted. Whoever fears Allaah and speaks the truth, Allaah will guide him to words that are good and unto His Praiseworthy Path. Whoever fears Allaah and uses his tongue to recite the Qur’aan, make remembrance of Allaah, repents to Him in repentance, seeks for His forgiveness, enjoins all that is good, forbids all that is evil and guard his tongue against forbidden utterances that harm people and are repugnant, Allaah will make things easy for him, guard him against all difficulties, provide him with good provision and give him security in this life and the Hereafter.
“And whoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make his matter easy for him.” (At-Talaaq 65:4)
Brethren in faith! Fear of Allaah is binding upon man in all his conditions; in his religion and worldly affairs; in his relationship with his Lord; in his dealings with family, relatives and neighbours; in his business transactions; in his covenants; in his work and trust; in fulfilling the right of Allaah, and the rights of his fellow human beings, with all sincerity, far from treachery, dishonesty, lying an false testimony. If a Muslim does not possess all these traits; where is piety then and where is real Eemaan? The Prophet said, “The believer is the one in whose trust people put their wealth and lives; and the real Muslim is the one from the harm of whose tongue and hands Muslims are safe.”
How can the one who neglects the obligations of Allaah be pious? How can the one who violates the things sanctified by Allaah, attacks people’s honour with his tongue, roams about gossiping, lies, commits sins, eats up usury and cheats people be pious? How can the one who cheats in the weight and scale measures and betrays public and private trusts be pious?
Many people nowadays are afflicted with betrayal and dishonesty. If he is obliged to others, he will not fulfil it completely; if he is assigned a responsibility, he would not perform it as it is due; if he owes others, he would delay the payment, he sometimes, even would not bother to pay up at all, or when he pays he mischievously withhold some, or takes a wage for that. Is this not an act of dishonesty? Is this not an injustice to people? Is this not an act of eating up an unlawful money? Is this act not far away from piety? Is this not an act of injustice that will be darkness on the Day of Resurrection?
Injustice certainly destroys inhabited edifices and blossoming structures. It turns the conditions of the unjust from bliss to misery and earns for them a torment that they never imagine. Allaah says,
“For the wrong-doing of the Jews, We made unlawful for them certain good food which had been lawful to them and for their hindering many from Allaah’s way, and their taking of usury though they were forbidden from taking it and their devouring of men’s substance wrongfully. And We have prepared for the disbelievers among them a painful torment.” (An-Nisaa 4:160-161)
Devouring people’s properties wrongfully, doing injustice to them and cheating on them regarding their rights are among the characteristics of despicable, weak-minded and faithless people. What will the usurper of other people’s rights do on the Day of Resurrection when he is told, “Return the properties to their rightful owners.”
Let him remember this great standing in a Day that men shall stand before the Lord of all the worlds. Let him remember the word of the Prophet when he said, “Do you know the bankrupt?” The companions said, “The bankrupt among us is the one who owns neither a dirham not a property.” The Messenger of Allaah said, “The bankrupt among my Ummah is the one who will come on the Day of Resurrection with prayer, fasting and Zakaah to his credit; but while he was in this world, he has insulted someone, defamed someone, eaten up the money of someone wrongfully, shed the blood of someone or beaten someone. So each of all these will be compensated from his good deeds. If his good deeds finish before he is through with, his victims will be compensated by having some of their own evil deeds shed and added to his evil deeds and he will then be thrown to Hell.”
Fellow Muslims! Fear Allaah and beware of His wrath and punishment. Allaah says, “Such is the seizure of your Lord when He seizes (the population) of the towns while they are doing wrong. Verily, His seizure is painful and severe. Indeed, in that there is a sure lesson for those who fear the torment of the Hereafter. That is a Day wherein mankind will be gathered together, and that is a Day when all will be present.” (Hood 11:102-103)
Brethren in Islaam! Fear Allaah and beware of sins and wrong-doing to men. Keep away from arrogance, haughtiness, revenge, aggression, evil deeds and harming people. Treat others as you will like to be treated with fairness, justice and compassion; for recompense will be in accordance with the kind of deed. Allaah says, “Truly, Allaah is with those who fear Him and those who are good-doers.”
Hasten unto repentance and seek forgiveness of your Lord before a person should say, “Alas! My grief that I was undutiful to Allaah and was indeed among those who mock at the truth!” The Messenger of Allaah said, “Let him who has done a wrong to his brother or has a right of his brother with him, free himself from that today before a time comes when, there will not be any dirham or dinar. If he has any good deed on that day, it will be taken from it in proportion to his wrong. But if he does not have any good deed, some of the evil deeds of his victim will be deducted and added unto his.”
Fear Allaah, for injustice is darkness on the Day of Resurrection.
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