Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa'l-Ḥikam 18: Fear Allah Wherever You Are

Occasion: Transcription of a Fajr khatira delivered on 20 September 2026 Source: A transcription of a video khatira by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, set right for us our religion, our worldly life and our hereafter, and prepare for us right guidance in our affairs. O Allah, bless us in what You have provided us, protect us from the punishment of the Fire, and turn away from us the causes of punishment in this world and the next, through mercy from You, good pleasure and generosity, O Lord of the worlds.

The Hadith and Its Three Counsels

Today's hadith is narrated to us by Abū Dharr (may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him), and among its narrators is also our master Muʿādh ibn Jabal (may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him), from the Prophet ﷺ, in the well-known hadith: «اتَّقِ اللهَ حَيْثُمَا كُنْتَ، وَأَتْبِعِ السَّيِّئَةَ الحَسَنَةَ تَمْحُهَا، وَخَالِقِ النَّاسَ بِخُلُقٍ حَسَنٍ» ("Fear Allah wherever you are, follow a bad deed with a good one and it will erase it, and treat people with good character")^[1].

In this narration the Prophet ﷺ brings together three counsels in a single meeting, in brief words and a concise sentence. Some narrations mention that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ told Muʿādh this hadith as he was setting out on his mission to Yemen.

A Pause with Abū Dharr

Now, when Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī (may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him) narrates this hadith to us, we have something to say about this; so let us pause with him for a few minutes. Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī, as you know, was from the tribe of Ghifār, which represented a direct threat to everyone who travelled on the road; they were highway robbers, and no one passed by them and then escaped from their hands; they lay in wait for people with great precision. Abū Dharr was born, raised and brought up in this environment, the environment of highway robbers, but his sound natural disposition was never at ease with it, so he was always asking questions. Especially when he heard of the emergence of Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdillāh ﷺ, he sent a special envoy of his to ask about the truth of the matter. His envoy went in, asked, and returned to him, but he was not satisfied with these answers; they did not cure him or satisfy his hunger, so he himself set out for Mecca to search for the truth of what he had heard, and he grasped the truth of the matter and embraced Islam at the hands of the Prophet ﷺ.

His conversion is a story in itself, but I will shorten it for the sake of time. So there he is before the Prophet ﷺ, who orders him to conceal his affair, that is, to keep quiet for a while, as we had not yet been given permission to proclaim openly what we had. But this was not Abū Dharr's nature; he was a highway robber, and the matter of hiding and keeping silent was simply not his business. So he went out the next morning and, in the middle of Mecca, called out: I bear witness that there is no god but Allah and that Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allah. And the men there had not been given any counsel about him, so they taught him a great lesson and beat him very severely, until someone came to him (I do not remember the name) and called out to the people: Woe to you, he is a man of Ghifār, and your wealth passes by them going and coming! So they came to their senses a little and held back from him.

He returned the next day and declared his Islam once more in the midst of the people, so they went back to beating him, until he was rescued from their hands. (If we were to recall the whole narration, you would truly enjoy it.) Then the Prophet ﷺ permitted him to return to Ghifār and to join him at some later time, so he went to Ghifār, acting among them upon what he had heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and then returned to the Prophet in Medina after the Battle of the Trench, and remained with the Prophet ﷺ from the Battle of the Trench until his death, peace be upon him. So we are speaking of roughly six to seven years at the most, and what he narrated does not exceed two hundred-odd hadiths from the Prophet, peace be upon him.

A Question About the Narrator's Personality

So here I ask a very simple question: when Abū Dharr (may Allah, Blessed and Exalted, be pleased with him) narrates a hadith like this, what kind of personality did he have? And what kind of personality did he possess on the day he came to the Prophet ﷺ? He was this person who was psychologically in rebellion against the nature of life itself; the one who goes out onto the road to bring back people's money. This is a rebellious personality. There are very many people who live below the line of extreme poverty, and the people are resigned, sitting where they are, merely enduring, but this person was not content with that, and went out against the people. This is not praiseworthy in itself, but we are speaking of people's psychological motives. So this psychologically rebellious person comes to us one day and tells us this hadith from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. And the psychological study of every Companion is a very important matter for us, in our reality, our learning and our lives.

But let us move on: what are the three counsels?

The First Counsel: «اتق الله حيثما كنت» (Fear Allah wherever you are)

What is the significance of «اتق الله» (fear Allah)? We said previously that taqwā of Allah varies in its description, its manner and its measure according to the situation a person is in. For the one entrusted with people's money, his taqwā of Allah is that he safeguards people's money. For the one who deals with women in selling or buying, his taqwā of Allah is that he safeguards the modesty of those women. For the one who rules over people, his taqwā of Allah lies in that rule. Likewise, whoever has a wife has a kind of taqwā of Allah, whoever has children has a kind of taqwā of Allah, and whoever works as an employee who attends at such-and-such a time and leaves at such-and-such a time, with people coming to him to get their affairs done, must not neglect that. These are different kinds of taqwā of Allah, Glorified and Exalted. And on the basis of buying and selling: cheating, deception and lying, all of this falls under taqwā of the Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted.

However, the phrase that appears here seems to address the reality of this diversity in taqwā, but in different wording: «اتق الله حيثما كنت» (fear Allah wherever you are). So what is the significance of the word «حيثما» (wherever)? Does it mean place, or time, or state? Or does it mean all of this? That the servant should fear his Lord in every situation and every state, as if it were an awareness of the concept of taqwā that is constantly remembered, present in memory all the time: while I am speaking, while I am teaching, while I am learning, while I am heading to my work, while I am driving my car, while I am attending a meeting, while I am answering people on the phone, while I am writing a message, I fear Allah in everything, in every matter of my life. This concept comes: the relationship in taqwā between the servant and Allah.

The Second Counsel: «وأتبع السيئة الحسنة تمحها» (follow a bad deed with a good one and it will erase it)

We understand this phrase: whenever you commit a bad deed, you follow it with what? With a good deed, because the good deed erases the bad one. And this personality, striving to reach a certain level of righteous deeds: when the Prophet ﷺ said «اتق الله حيثما كنت» (fear Allah wherever you are), it is natural to imagine, behind this phrase, that you will never make a mistake at all, since you are a man of taqwā. But this is contrary to human nature; for in human nature the basic condition is slipping and erring, and this is an explicit narration from the Prophet ﷺ: «كل ابن آدم خطّاء، وخير الخطّائين التوابون» ("Every son of Adam is a constant sinner, and the best of sinners are those who repent often")^[2]. It is as though he ﷺ is saying: taqwā of Allah and awareness of Him will not stand between you and your human nature.

It is part of human nature that a person gives a sermon once and an inappropriate word comes out of him; this is a mistake, so what do we do? And it is part of human nature that a person gains something that may be small or trivial. And it is also part of human nature that a person looks once at what is not lawful for him. And when the Prophet ﷺ speaks, he is dealing with a human being, and from this human being error issues, and righteousness issues, and wickedness issues in some of his situations and moments. So it is as though the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is commanding me to have within myself (I do not say this conflict, but rather this kind of) inner striving: that a person remain persevering toward a greater goal, which is that he completes his day with what he fell short in forgiven, and what he did well accepted. You know, when you come at the very end to settle your accounts, and you find that you have profit straight away, no losses, by the permission of the Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted: «وأتبع السيئة الحسنة تمحها» (follow a bad deed with a good one and it will erase it).

And the intention present at the time of committing bad deeds: is it an intention of deliberateness, or an intention of error? Let us say: the one from whom the bad act issued, did he do this act deliberately, I am going off to commit this crime? Or is he a man of taqwā from whom a mistake issued? A mistake is not deliberate, so intent is not one hundred percent present in it. Fine, when I do a good deed to follow up the bad one, is it preceded by an intention or not? Preceded by an intention without doubt, this is certain. So imagine that your intention is always set on doing good, or doing good with awareness of a previous state of bad deed that we want to erase.

It is as though the person is walking with an eraser in his hand (which is the "astika" in the Egyptian dialect), and the Prophet ﷺ says, concerning the reward, «تمحها» (it will erase it), that is, it is an "eraser" with which we wipe out wrong writing. So there is a person walking with something in his hand to wipe with. And imagine a person who has what they call obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): this fellow is always walking with his hand as if wiping and wiping. I have another kind of this, which is obsessiveness about bad deeds, but not at the pathological level, rather at the healthy level. «أتبع السيئة الحسنة تمحها» (follow a bad deed with a good one and it will erase it): this is a relationship between a person and himself, because it is the relationship of producing inner self-monitoring.

The Third Counsel: «وخالق الناس بخلق حسن» (and treat people with good character)

Imagine a person who tries as best he can to fear Allah in everything, fine, and if a mistake issues from him, he is aware of it. The "antenna" is always up, and the sensors are ready to pick up any mistake so that he corrects it. Do you think such a person would curse someone, or hurt another, or fall short in the right of so-and-so, or wrong so-and-so in his money, or violate his honor? Impossible. So it is as though character, which is the essence of the divine messages, means that a person has character with his Lord, with himself, and with people. So the Prophet ﷺ says: «وخالق الناس بخلق حسن» (and treat people with good character).

And the assumption among people who think in a limited way is that good character is between believers and one another, "we are a family together." But Islam commands you, as Allah said: ﴿وَقُولُوا لِلنَّاسِ حُسْنًا وَأَقِيمُوا الصَّلَاةَ﴾ ("and speak to people good words, and establish prayer")^[3]. Imagine the two commands: the command to establish prayer is joined with the command to speak well to people. And if we consider the Qur'anic context, we would see that the kind word does not stop at being a charity, and may in some understandings take the same rank as establishing prayer. So is establishing prayer an obligation or a voluntary act? And is speaking well to people an obligation or a voluntary act? An obligation; meaning not an obligation upon which reward and punishment follow in the technical sense of the jurists and the scholars of legal theory, but rather a considered obligation in keeping with the essence of the message we carry in our hearts and minds.

Conclusion

I have taken a long time, but the conclusion here is that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wanted us to gather all noble characteristics in strengthening our relationship with the Lord of the worlds, Glorified and Exalted, strengthening our development of ourselves, and fortifying the relationships between us and people.

I ask Allah, Glorified and Exalted, to join us with the righteous, to cause us to die as Muslims, to mend our hearts in all that He has given us, and to make us worthy of carrying this message and this trust.

--- ^[1]: Editor's documentation: The text of the hadith is given as the speaker pronounced it; he indicated its narration from Abū Dharr and Muʿādh (may Allah be pleased with them). The hadith was narrated by al-Tirmidhī from the hadith of Abū Dharr and Muʿādh, and it is a ḥasan hadith. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: Narrated by al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah from the hadith of Anas (may Allah be pleased with him), and it is a ḥasan hadith; the speaker did not attribute it. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The verse is from Sūrat al-Baqara (83); the speaker mentioned the part of it that I have given, and did not name its location.