His eminence, venerated Sheikh Saud Al-Shureem – may Allah protect him – delivered this Friday's Khutbah titled “Conscientiousness: its Significance and Merit.” He talked about the importance of conscientiousness and the sense of scruples in society. Then, he defined their significance and stressed their intrinsic worth. He equally outlined the three subtypes of conscientiousness and described the consequences of their absence from people’s lives.
"All the praises and thanks be to Allâh, the (only) Originator [or the (Only) Creator] of the heavens and the earth, Who made the angels messengers with wings, two or three or four… " [Fa?er: 1]; "The Forgiver of sin, the Acceptor of repentance, the Severe in punishment, the Bestower (of favours). Lâ ilâha illâ Huwa (none has the right to be worshipped but He), to Him is the final return." [Ghafer: 3]; "all praises and thanks be to Him (both) in the first (i.e. in this world) and in the last (i.e. in the Hereafter). And for Him is the Decision, and to Him shall you (all) be returned." [Al-?ašaš: 70]
I bear witness that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah with no associate, and I also bear witness that Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) is Allah’s Servant and Messenger, portrayed in the Holy Quran as "…the Prophet who can neither read nor write (i.e. Muhammad Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam), who believes in Allâh and His Words [(this Qur’ân), the Taurât (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel) and also Allâh’s Word: "Be!" – and he was, i.e. ‘Îsâ (Jesus) son of Maryam (Mary), ?????? ??????]…" [Al-Arâf: 158]. May Allah send His bounteous Salat (i.e. Graces, Honours, and Mercy) and Peace on him, his chaste and virtuous family, wives (mothers of the believers), Companions, and the tab'în (the contemporaries of the Companions of the Prophet [Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam] after his death), and on all those who have virtuously embraced their tradition till the Day of Judgement.
O Servants of Allah! Observe Taqwa (i.e. fear of violating Allah’s commands) and bear in mind that the Herein is but an ephemeral form of life rather than a locus of eternal residence. Allah has made you trustees of its resources to test your conduct: "As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allâh and fears Him" "And believes in Al-Husnâ " "We will make smooth for him the path of ease (goodness)" [Al-Layl: 5-7]
O Muslims! The world nowadays is experiencing a most sophisticated era of technical advancement and ultra-modern information technology. It is witnessing a state of euphoria stimulated by successive innovations and inventions in all walks of life. No sooner do people get familiar with an original novelty through scrutinising its structure and function than another equally ingenious innovation bewilders them to the extent that they forget about the previous one.
Thanks to its strong motivation and high sense of curiosity, the world has reached outer space and manufactured the atomic bomb. Yet, it has been unable to stimulate the conscience and resuscitate the scruples of societies and peoples. It has failed to fill the spiritual void reigning over society and affirm the concept that life is simply a means rather than an end in itself. Paradoxically enough, they do have the capacity to observe stars in the sky but remain quite sightless when it comes to detecting a particle of dust in the eye.
In fact, much ink has been spilled on the topic of individual conscientiousness and scruples which has been constantly advocated by many earnest reformers and advisers who are dutiful to their nation and people. Unfortunately, such advocacy had little echo in real life as it failed to move the Islamic nation from confinement to liberty, from humiliation to glory, from egotism to self-effacement, and from dearth to worth. Quite often, awareness is only available when it is too late—if ever it is the case. It is reactive rather than proactive. More often than not, rescue coincides with the disaster itself instead of resulting from the vociferous warnings of counsellors. This confirms the poet’s verse:
The Sheikh cites a line of poetry:
(I offered them advice while we were going round the tortuous turning of the district by night, but they only understood its essence the following morning).
O servants of Allah! Conscientiousness is that inner human feeling which makes individuals monitor their own behaviour. It is a sense of scrupulous self-monitoring that fosters in the individual a psychological predisposition to distinguish between good and evil in speech, action, and thought. It enables one to appreciate what is good and repel what is evil. In essence, Islam is a divinely revealed religion founded on freedom. This is why it emancipated people from worshipping humans and orientated them to the worship of Allah alone and unrivalled. Islam affirmed that glory is the fruit of faith whereas humiliation and inferiority are strongly associated with unbelief, wickedness, and sinful disobedience.
All such meanings manifest themselves through individual conscientiousness and a sense of ethical awareness to be subsequently extended to the entire Islamic society. Whenever this dynamic sense of ethical awareness is absent from a given society, its members will systematically turn into spiritless bodies. Certain societies might paradoxically promote their members to the status of satanic entities in human disguise.
Each manifestation in social reality of such common issues such as strength vs. weakness, wealth vs. poverty, faith vs. immorality, and justice vs. injustice is inevitably closely connected to the state of people’s conscience and their sense of ethical awareness: whether vigilant, lost, or dormant. Nowadays, Muslim societies are suffering from the absence of fully committed conscientiousness and sense of ethical awareness. In the past, when such principle was prevalent in their daily lives, people in the Levant used to say “bless you” to someone who sneezed in the western side of the territory, and when someone sought succour in the north those in the south would answer his cry for help.
In fact, one can but look aghast at what is going on in the life of this nation. Quite surprisingly, even the screams of pain from someone just next to you would remain unheard; his helpless hand gestures to seek urgent assistance would fail to attract the attention of passers-by: "…Verily, it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts which are in the breasts that grow blind" [Al-?ajj: 46]
The nation’s conscience will never awaken before its individuals’ conscience regains life, for how can the shadow of a body be straight if the body itself is crooked and how can someone with crippled fingers wear a ring? As a rule, the weaker conscience is, the later this sense of conscientiousness and ethical revival will be. It seems as if certain people’s conscience had been resistant to change to the extent of sterility and absolute inefficacy.
People can be categorised into different groups depending on the nature of their inner conscience. The first category is endowed with an unmistakably energetic conscience allowing them to recognise and enjoin what is good and reject what is evil. They share their nation’s worries, sufferings, and hopes. They relieve people’s grief, alleviate their sufferings, and echo their sighs. They are modest with true believers but relentless opponents to criminal tyrants. They implacably ignore human reproaches: "…That is the Grace of Allâh which He bestows on whom He wills. And Allâh is All-Sufficient for His creatures’ needs, All-Knower" [Al-Maîda: 54]
As to the third category, these are people characterised by inert conscience. They are dominated by evil and contain little, if any good. They are neither at the forefront nor at the rear . They only share all that is evil and are only noticed enjoining evildoing and proscribing good conduct and noble values. These people are typically tight-fisted. They have forgotten Allah; as a result, Allah has totally ignored their existence and doomed them to oblivion. They are typically liars, cheaters, egotists, slanderers, fault-finders, and going about with calumnies.
An internal voice betrays their inner thoughts: “I must just rescue myself; after me the deluge! Attack is the best defence strategy.” They are like houseflies targeting bleeding injuries. Their society abhors their existence and constantly seeks protection from their imminent threat. It seems as if they were created just to commit evil acts and have their action scales burdened with sins until their final encounter with Allah, suffering total disfigurement.
So, observe Taqwa (i.e. fear of violating Allah’s commands)—may Allah bestow His grace on you—and never forget that living conscience is the stimulator of real faith. Its fruit is mutual love, compassion, and empathy. It acts as a catalyst for unity in the entire complementary organism of the nation—as confirmed in the Prophet's (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) Hadith , “The case of the believers in their mutual love, compassion, and empathy is similar to that of the (human)body: whenever a single organ suffers from pain, the rest of the body will respond by showing symptoms of sleeplessness and fever.” (Narrated by Imam Muslim in his Sa?i? Book).
If each one of us tried himself before his own conscience one would realize that the tree of negligent conscience never bears fruit. Should any of us completely surrender to the dictates of his conscience, whether good or evil, he would feel so intolerably uptight and disturbed about it and his eye will never be able to see the truth the way it should be seen. Right then everyone calling to account will realize that turning a blind eye to accountability to one’s conscience and patronizing it have much more serious consequences than the causes of such failure.
It follows then that every faithful must take the initiative to interrogate his conscience; for a silent conscience is a ‘silent devil’. Likewise, a conscience that speaks only evil is a ‘speaking devil’.
The Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alayhi Wa Sallam) said: “Don't nurse envy against one another! Don’t practice Najsh ! Don't nurse aversion against one another! Don't be inquisitive about one another and don't outbid one another (with a view to raising the price)! Be fellow-brothers and servants of Allah! A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not oppress him, nor does he fail him, lie to him, or scorn him. Taqwa (piety) is right here” [and he pointed to his chest three times]. O Servants of Allah! That is indeed what is meant by ‘living conscience’.
“Taqwa is right here”. Then he says: “ It is a serious evil for a Muslim that he should look down upon his brother Muslim. All things of a Muslim are inviolable for his brother in faith: his blood, his wealth and his honour.”
May Allah bestow His blessings, for you and for me, in the Qur'?n and sunnah and benefit us with the verses, Dhikr and wisdom therein. I have said what I have said; if it is true it is thanks to Allah, but if it is wrong it is because of me and the accursed Satan. I seek forgiveness from Allah. He is All-Forgiving!
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