Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa'l-Ḥikam 20: Modesty, Shyness Before Falsehood and Boldness Toward the Truth

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered at the American Imams Academy (AIA) on 11 October 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, we ask You for the good of this day, the good of what is in it and the good of what comes after it, and we seek refuge in You from the evil of this day, the evil of what is in it and the evil of what comes after it. O Allah, set right for us our religion, our worldly life and our Hereafter, and prepare for us right guidance in our affairs. And now, may Allah greet you, be pleased with you, and keep you in goodness, concealment, wellbeing, security, tranquillity and serenity.

Today we have an appointment with the twentieth hadith from the book «Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa'l-Ḥikam», narrated to us by Abū Masʿūd ʿUqba ibn ʿAmr al-Anṣārī al-Badrī (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: «إنَّ مِمَّا أَدْرَكَ النَّاسُ مِنْ كَلَامِ النُّبُوَّةِ الأُولَى: إِذَا لَمْ تَسْتَحِ فَاصْنَعْ مَا شِئْتَ» ("Among what people have retained from the words of the earlier prophethood is: If you have no modesty, then do as you wish."). Narrated by al-Bukhārī.^[1]

A modesty that seems negative

This is a hadith that makes us pause for a few simple, measured moments of thought, on the meanings of the moral qualities of faith. We have words of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that some people may take to carry a kind of passivity: the Prophet ﷺ passes by a man who is rebuking his brother, and asks him: Why are you rebuking him? It is said: He has modesty in him. And the Prophet ﷺ says: «دَعْهُ، فإنَّ الحياءَ ما كان في شيءٍ إلا زانَه» ("Leave him, for modesty is never in anything but it adorns it").^[2] So here there is one conception among people, and another conception with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. How do we combine the two well? And how do we understand the matter as our Messenger ﷺ made us understand it?

What is known among people is that modesty is connected in some way with the girl in her private chamber, as is reported.^[3] What does that signify? That she is shy, so she does not appear to people, nor speak with them, nor mix with them. So it is as though, on the surface, it is a negative trait that makes a servant feel shy about his very existence. But the matter is the opposite of that.

What is the opposite of modesty?

If we wanted to discern the meaning of the word «الحياء» (modesty), we would ask: What is the quality opposite to it? It is depravity (fujūr), and a loathsome boldness, for example. Boldness in itself is a positive trait, so it cannot be set against a negative trait; the point is that depravity, or negative, loathsome boldness, is the opposite of modesty. So what does depravity mean? Barging into situations without right or need, with audacity or with intent to harm, accompanied by foul speech. So I understood that modesty does not prevent speaking, but the speaking is accompanied by good manners, composure and calm.

And modesty is connected in some way with «life» (ḥayāh). So what does preserving life require? That you know what is yours and what is upon you, that you not transgress, not overstep and not act rashly, and that you protect your body, your mind and your faith, and protect your wealth and those around you. It is a word that requires of a person more alertness, awareness and perception.

So we are before modesty, which is also shyness, but a shyness that occurs inside a person at appearing in a bad light. And look at the girl in her private chamber: Is she shy before her father, for example? Yes, she is shy, but it is a modesty with a different meaning and concept; her appearing before her father in a certain state is not like her appearing before people who have no relation to her. It is as though she did the very same act, but distinguished between what is proper and what is not, between what should be and what should not be.

When Allah hates a servant

And it is as though, in sum, I am saying: When the Prophet ﷺ speaks to us in a hadith that has weakness, he ﷺ said: «إذا أبغض الله عبدًا نزع منه الحياء، فإذا نُزع منه الحياء لم تلقه إلا بغيضًا مُبغَضًا، فإذا نُزعت منه الأمانة نُزعت منه الرحمة، فإذا نُزعت منه الرحمة نُزعت منه رِبقة الإسلام، فإذا نُزعت منه رِبقة الإسلام لم تلقه إلا شيطانًا مريدًا» ("When Allah hates a servant, He removes modesty from him; and when modesty is removed from him, you will find him only hateful and hated; and when trustworthiness is removed from him, mercy is removed from him; and when mercy is removed from him, the bond of Islam is removed from him; and when the bond of Islam is removed from him, you will find him only a rebellious devil.").^[4]

And this saying is also attributed to Salmān al-Fārisī (may Allah be pleased with him), who says: If Allah wills destruction for a servant, He removes modesty from him; and when modesty is removed from him, you will find him only detestable; and when he is detestable, trustworthiness is removed from him, and you will find him only a traitor deemed a traitor; and when he is a traitor, mercy is removed from him, and you will find him only harsh and coarse; and if he is harsh and coarse, the bond of faith is removed from his neck, and when the bond of faith is removed from his neck, you will find him only an accursed devil, cursed.

What is this saying? When you look at the consequences of the situation, you realize that the removal of modesty leads to all these descriptions. So modesty is, as it were, a safety valve.

What is modesty?

Modesty is an inner feeling that stands between you and doing wrong. It is as though you are not ashamed before people so much as you are ashamed before yourself; you are ashamed to appear before creation in a disgraceful position, and ashamed to be before the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, in a place that is unbefitting, neither of your dignity nor of yourself. And modesty, from my point of view, is a person's sensing that he has dignity, that this dignity deserves to be protected, and that there are actions that squander this dignity in reality, so it must be preserved.

So if we want to apply this in reality: a man was ashamed to sleep while people were praying in the mosque; is this not praiseworthy modesty? And a man who could have answered with an ugly word and wounded the person in front of him with harsh speech, but was ashamed that such a word should come out of him, and so refrained. And a man who has a dispute with the members of his household, and could take them for everything they have before the courts and squander their dignity, but was ashamed to show his household to people in such a scene.

Have you seen how Allah, blessed and exalted, when He hates a servant, removes modesty from him, and when He loves a servant, places that modesty in his heart? For what is placed in the heart and soul settles in them, and the servant's fear that error may issue from him is the perfection of modesty.

Modesty is an adornment

And our Messenger ﷺ tells us that modesty is never in anything but it adorns it. Why? Because you choose your steps. Imagine a person who is ashamed to be stopped in front of people because his car exceeded the speed limit; so he drives calmly and with discipline, able to move but restraining himself, and so he adorns himself, adorns his vehicle, adorns the place he arrives at, and adorns those whose money he protects from paying fines and the like.

And the point is that when the Prophet ﷺ passed by a man who was rebuking his brother over modesty, saying to him, "You are too shy," as though to say: It has harmed you, the Prophet ﷺ said: «دَعْهُ، فإنَّ الحياءَ مِنَ الإيمان» ("Leave him, for modesty is part of faith").

"If you have no modesty, then do as you wish"

And in our hadith today: «إنَّ مِمَّا أَدْرَكَ النَّاسُ مِنْ كَلَامِ النُّبُوَّةِ الأُولَى» ("Among what people have retained from the words of the earlier prophethood"). And the subject here is modesty specifically, so it is an inherited saying, not only across generations but across the prophets and messengers.

«إذا لم تستحِ فاصنع ما شئت» ("If you have no modesty, then do as you wish"): What is the meaning of this sentence? Scholars speak of two aspects. The first is that it is by way of threat. The Prophet ﷺ says: «من كذب عليَّ متعمدًا فليتبوّأ مقعده من النار» ("Whoever lies about me deliberately, let him take his seat in the Fire"); how did the phrase "let him take his seat in the Fire" come, if not by way of threat and warning? So whoever's self permits him to lie about me deliberately, whoever's self permits him not to be modest, there in the first it says "let him take his seat in the Fire," threatening him, and in the other narration, or in what we have before us: Let him do as he wishes, for he will meet his punishment in the presence of the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, in the severest form.

And the second aspect is that the sentence came by way of report, and that the Prophet ﷺ is informing that this is the state that befalls people when modesty is removed from a person: he will do as he wishes. That indicates that he will not measure himself by the standards of the society in which he lives, nor by the standards of the life in which he moves, nor by the regulations of the mosque he enters.

An example of that: when you enter a place at the cashier, anywhere here, you find yourself naturally asking someone standing there: Are you in line? He says: Yes, so you go and stand behind him, and not a word and not a breath; no one has said anything. But in other situations and places, someone wants to barge into the situation because he is not psychologically tied to rules that govern his movement in that place.

Wariness of places of suspicion

And I have mentioned some examples that make me fear for my dignity and fear that people will think ill of me, and I ask the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, not to put me in a place of suspicion in people's eyes. And here we have a behavioral rule: Whoever puts himself in places of doubtful matters, let him not blame those who think ill of him.

And the very explicit hadith expressing that is that the Prophet ﷺ once stood at the door of the mosque talking with one of his wives (may Allah be pleased with them) — a man standing with his wife — but out of fear of suspicion in the eyes of the people, about whose inner workings he informed by saying «إنَّ الشيطانَ يجري من ابنِ آدمَ مَجرى الدم» ("Satan runs in the son of Adam like blood"), he ﷺ said: She is Ṣafiyya (may Allah be pleased with her). So it was said to him: O Messenger of Allah, you are the Messenger of Allah! And he said: «إنَّ الشيطانَ يجري من ابنِ آدمَ مَجرى الدم» ("Satan runs in the son of Adam like blood").^[5]

And accordingly, whoever keeps himself far from places of doubtful matters, in the forbidden and otherwise, saves himself from the suspicion of creation, and thus from the consequence of that with the Creator, glory be to Him, the Exalted. For although our Lord, mighty and majestic, knows the hidden things of souls and their secrets, He has commanded us to preserve our dignity before these creatures, and has made them witnesses against us.

Conclusion

So we conclude, at the end of the talk, that modesty is an inner trait that grows within a person, and it is not a shyness that prevents you from seeking the truth or defending yourself, and not a shyness that stands between you and striving among people and being provided for. For the modesty that people think is shyness is in reality boldness, but a boldness toward the truth and a shyness before falsehood; a boldness toward what is right and a shyness before what is wrong; a boldness in provisioning oneself with faith and a shyness before doing anything that could disgrace the human self before the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, or before any human being.

I ask Allah, blessed and exalted, to fashion us with the character of faith, and to plant that in the roots of our hearts. O Allah, we ask You…

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The hadith is in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, as the speaker indicated. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: What is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs, from the hadith of Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both), is that the Prophet ﷺ passed by a man of the Anṣār who was admonishing his brother about modesty, and he ﷺ said: «دعه فإن الحياء من الإيمان». As for «ما كان الحياء في شيءٍ إلا زانه», it is from another hadith in al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Māja from the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) (and it is ḥasan). The speaker combined the two wordings as in the transcript. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The speaker's allusion to "the girl in her private chamber" accords with the description of the Prophet ﷺ as «أشدّ حياءً من العذراء في خدرها» ("more modest than a virgin in her private chamber"), and the speaker mentioned the description in general terms by saying "as is reported." ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The speaker himself pointed out that this hadith has weakness, and relayed it as he said, then mentioned what is attributed to Salmān al-Fārisī (may Allah be pleased with him). Something similar is reported in Ibn Māja with a weak chain and with wordings differing from this in some places, so it is not to be relied upon as proof; and the word «مريدًا» in the text is preferred from a garbled transcript. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The hadith of Ṣafiyya (may Allah be pleased with her) is agreed upon, and in its narration the two men who passed by said: «سبحان الله يا رسول الله». The speaker's statement "So it was said to him: O Messenger of Allah, you are the Messenger of Allah" came in the transcript in abbreviated form, and has been recorded as it was said.