Five Takeways from Hadith 12 & 13

Hadith 12 & 13

Hadith 12

Leaving That Which Does Not Concern You

On the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said:

"Part of the perfection of one's Islam is his leaving that which does not concern him."

Hadith 13

Love for Your Brother What You Love for Yourself

On the authority of Abu Hamzah Anas bin Malik (may Allah be pleased with him) - the servant of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) - that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said :

"None of you will believe until you love for your brother what you love for yourself."

Key Takeaways

One : Non-beneficial pursuits can also compromise our good deeds

Two : Levels of Iman

Iman consists of its witnessing by tongue, affirmation through our hearts and the subsequent action manifesting faith itself. Tying back to hadith 12, it becomes pertinent for Muslims today to actually focus on the actions either through the performance of deeds that will further nurture one's relationship with his Creator or being of benefit to the society around him.

Three : The Pursuit of Complete Faith

This ties in perfectly well with hadith 13 on complete faith where the Muslims' preoccupation today must be for the spiritual and physical uplifting of the condition of the Muslim community in general. Eg providing Islamic education for the ignorant, attending to the material needs of the poor

Four : Two Permissible Envies

A Muslim is only allowed to envy his fellow Muslim on two matters: knowledge which is acted upon by a fellow Muslim and a fellow Muslim's wealth which is spent in the path of Allah.

Five : Imam Ghazali's guide

Imam Ghazali in Bidayatul Hidayah highlighted paths to ensure that our time can be beneficially spent:

a) Preserving the discipline of starting one's day with the recitation of the awrad (litanies) taken from the Qur'an, hadith and practices of the ulamas.
(Note: it is best that this is done with the guidance of a Syaikh whose supervision will ensure that we remain responsible and disciplined in the performance of our awrad)

b) Pursuit of sacred knowledge (eg aqidah, fiqh, tasawwuf etc) to attain closeness to Allah

c) Acting upon knowledge through acts of worship (ibadah)

d) Khidmah: Service to the ulama's and/or the community

e) if one cannot perform a)-d), then the very list he can do is to steer himself and his family from matters which are forbidden in religion and causing harm onto society.

Apart from the performance of forbidden matters, one must also be wary of spending more time than necessary on pursuits of things which are not forbidden but compromises our faith if done excessively.