Giving in Seeking the Face of One's Lord, the Most High

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 6 June 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

We stop at the end of Sūrat al-Layl, at His saying, the Exalted: ﴿وَمَا لِأَحَدٍ عِندَهُ مِن نِّعْمَةٍ تُجْزَىٰ ۝ إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَىٰ﴾ (And no one has with him any favor for which reward is expected, but only seeking the face of his Lord, the Most High)^[1]. What does that doer look to, who gave his wealth with generosity and munificence and giving, and considered it to be for Allah and not for any of the people?

People's Credibility and Their Credit

The building of what is called credibility, or identity, or the making of a character and a self among people, varies with the variety of creation. The people of social media, and what a thing they are, build this credibility or this being through the abundance of what they publish and the refinement of what they publish, and people receive that and a credit accumulates with them; until, when one single slip comes, they squander all that credit, and bring down the owner of these great achievements, not only on the earth, but beneath the soil. Such is the nature of dealing with people. And look at our teachers the doctors, may Allah preserve their station: the surgeon performs a hundred thousand successful, outstanding operations for which he is acknowledged, then one mistake occurs from him, and someone comes to stand before him and hold him to account: how did this come from you? And his license may be withdrawn in some cases, or he may be referred or punished. Such is the judgment of people upon people.

Allah's Judgment Is Not the Judgment of People

But in the station of divinity, when we are dealing with the Lord of the worlds: ﴿وَمَا لِأَحَدٍ عِندَهُ مِن نِّعْمَةٍ تُجْزَىٰ إِلَّا ابْتِغَاءَ وَجْهِ رَبِّهِ الْأَعْلَىٰ﴾ (And no one has with him any favor for which reward is expected, but only seeking the face of his Lord, the Most High), Allah, Blessed and Exalted, deals with people according to what He knows of the God-consciousness in their souls and the presence in their hearts. And in very many ḥadīths from the words of the Prophet ﷺ, he tells us about the nature of Allah's, Mighty and Majestic, forgiveness of people's sins, and how Allah forgives sins for the creation. You see Him, Glory be to Him, before He punishes, He takes to account; but He does not take to account with that familiar reckoning of yours. With us, when the word "reckoning" is mentioned, you are being reckoned with so that you will be fined shortly after: come, let us settle accounts, I gave you something and you returned part of it to me, and I returned some to you, and we deduct this in that place, and it turns out that you owe such-and-such. I do not sit with you to settle accounts except knowing that you will be fined in the end, for example. But with the Lord of Might, Glory be to Him, what is hoped from Him, for the most part, is that He takes people to account by mentioning to them all their virtues, and then mentioning to them their faults that issued from them^[2]. That is what is hoped, for His mercy precedes His wrath, Mighty and Majestic, and His favor precedes His punishment, Glory be to Him.

Abū Bakr and Withholding Spending

From here we learn the concept we want to derive from the verse: ﴿وَمَا لِأَحَدٍ عِندَهُ﴾ (And no one has with him); he does not look at people, does not deal with the creation, and does not take them to account. And most of the scholars of tafsīr say that this verse concerns Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be pleased with him, and that the verses, in most of what the people of tafsīr said, were revealed about him, even His saying: ﴿وَلَسَوْفَ يَرْضَىٰ﴾ (And he is going to be satisfied)^[3]. And the only time he felt that some people did not deserve this moral generosity from him was when they spoke about the honor of his daughter, may Allah be pleased with her and with her father and with all the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ and the Mothers of the Believers, and the matter, as you know, is very grave. So Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, wanted to withhold his giving from those he supported; and people of generosity have known monthly expenditures for particular people, he looks at people's needs and gives them as much as sustains them. So he withheld his money from one of those who had waded into the honor of his daughter. Then the verse came down from above the seven heavens from the Lord of the worlds, Glory be to Him: ﴿أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أَن يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ﴾ (Would you not like that Allah should forgive you?)^[4]. This sentence alone made Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, step back several steps.

The Framing of the Matter in the Verse

And look at the framing of the matter in the verse, that is, the description of the case. Like someone who goes to the doctor and says: my eye hurts. And thousands of questions are turning in the doctor's mind: how does it hurt? And why? And what are the tools and the side symptoms? And the patient knows no circumstance or cause for it, but sees the doctor going on at length and wasting his time: Doctor, what are you doing? My eye hurts! So he says to him: Calm down, my son, so that we understand how to frame the case. So when I look at this framing in people's minds, I find our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, saying: ﴿أَلَا تُحِبُّونَ أَن يَغْفِرَ اللَّهُ لَكُمْ﴾ (Would you not like that Allah should forgive you?), and He turns the doer's concern away from being someone who works with people and among people, to being someone who works with the Lord of people alone, Glory be to Him, the Exalted.

Vertical Dealing, Not Horizontal

And today on the road I was thinking about the ḥadīth of the Prophet ﷺ, famous among all the creatures of the world: that when the son of Adam dies, his deeds come to an end except for three^[5]. And what are the three? A righteous child who prays for him, knowledge, and ongoing charity. You see that in these three there is dealing with Allah, Mighty and Majestic, and not with social media, not with likes, not with people's praise and their applause and their saying: Well done, mā shāʾ Allāh! It is not horizontal dealing, but dealing at the vertical level: if he gives, he gives for Allah, and if he speaks, he speaks for Allah, and if he fulfills a need for someone in creation, he does so for Allah; his whole life is for the Lord of Might, Glory be to Him. So you see him bearing fruit in offspring and a generation that grows up after him to glorify the remembrance of Allah, Blessed and Exalted, on earth, or leaving knowledge that spreads among people and changes the concepts of awareness, perception, comprehension, and movement, that is, he works on what renews the pattern of life.

And in my childhood I used to see that farmer who goes down to the earth with his plow. I used to see him go down with his plow to turn over the earth. And we would say: My son, leave it asleep and calm, it looks good and calm! And the problem is that we, as children, if we went down to work in it, when the mud had dried a little from the sun, it would cut your feet if you walked in it, however you were shod. Leave it calm and asleep. But he turns it over so that it brings out the best of what is in it in a new generation of giving. Likewise those who work, if they leave a charity called ongoing, the Prophet ﷺ described it as ongoing charity. You know, if someone builds a business and then after a while this business runs by itself, this is the same mechanism: the work itself goes on by itself, having been set in a system.

Praise Comes to an End

The point is that the Prophet ﷺ teaches us how to do what reaches the Lord of Might, Glory be to Him, directly, and then teaches us to do what renews life itself. And people's praise comes to an end. Yesterday at night we were speaking with some of the noble brothers about one of our loved ones who has passed away, may Allah have abundant mercy on him, and he was a well-known man with his history and his standing, but who mentions him now? And the projects he established, who runs them? Very many questions. And we reminded one another: which of us, after a while, will be mentioned among the creation except now and then, as we mention our friend now, for example? So if we know this reality, and that we are certain to die, and that after death there is certain forgetting, why do our minds not open to the fact that dealing should be with Allah and before Him alone, Glory be to Him? So do not turn to anyone, and do not look at a word that comes, and do not take account of a liar or a fabricator, and do not care about someone who praises you or flatters; for all of that comes to an end after a while, and nothing remains for the servant except his standing before Allah, Glory be to Him, the Exalted.

He Draws His Cover and Makes Him Acknowledge His Blessing

Then He, Mighty and Majestic, draws His cover over him, Glory be to Him, and makes him acknowledge His blessing^[6]. Do you know what it means that He makes him acknowledge His blessing? As if He were saying to him: Do you remember such-and-such a day, that I gave you such-and-such and did such-and-such? I concealed it for you in the world and I conceal it for you now.

We ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to make us understand the value of life, to teach us the measures of creation, that we deal with people only in ways that bring us closer to Him, Mighty and Majestic, alone, and that we seek from creation nothing but reward from the Lord of creation, Glory be to Him.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: Al-Layl: 19–20. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The speaker presented this meaning in his own words, and did not cite the text of any particular ḥadīth. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: Al-Layl: 21. The speaker mentioned the interpretation that it was revealed about Abū Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, on the authority of most of the commentators. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: Al-Nūr: 22. The context is the story of the incident of the slander (ḥadīth al-ifk), and the one from whom Abū Bakr withheld his spending was Misṭaḥ ibn Uthāthah, may Allah be pleased with him, whom the speaker did not name. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The ḥadīth is in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, and the speaker mentioned it by meaning. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The speaker mentioned this meaning by meaning, without citing the context of a ḥadīth, and it is close to what is in the ḥadīth of the private conversation (al-najwā) in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, without certainty that the speaker intends it, and its wording in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, from the ḥadīth of Ibn ʿUmar, is: «سترتها عليك في الدنيا، وأنا أغفرها لك اليوم» (I concealed it for you in the world, and I forgive it for you today).