Seven Who Complemented One Another and Succeeded

Occasion: A transcription of a lecture delivered on November 26, 2017Source: A transcription of a video lecture by Dr. Ahmed Abouseif — Watch the original video on YouTube

O Allah, we ask You for the good of this night, the good of what it holds and the good of what follows it, and we seek refuge in You from its evil, the evil of what it holds and the evil of what follows it, by a mercy and honor from You, O Lord of the worlds. O Allah, we ask You for pardon and well-being in our religion, our worldly life and our hereafter. O Allah, prepare for us right guidance in our affair, preserve for us the well-being of our hearts, make us firm upon the truth, make us content with Your pleasure, and overlook our misdeeds and our errors, by a mercy, kindness and generosity from You, O Lord of the worlds.

And now: in the hadith of Abū Hurayrah, may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him, the well-known hadith from the Prophet ﷺ, he said:

«سبعةٌ يُظلّهم الله تعالى في ظلّه يوم لا ظلَّ إلا ظلُّه: إمامٌ عادل، وشابٌّ نشأ في عبادة الله، ورجلٌ قلبه معلَّق بالمساجد، ورجلان تحابّا في الله اجتمعا عليه وتفرّقا عليه، ورجلٌ دعته امرأةٌ ذات منصبٍ وجمال فقال: إني أخاف الله، ورجلٌ تصدّق بصدقة فأخفاها حتى لا تعلم شماله ما تُنفق يمينه، ورجلٌ ذكر الله تعالى خاليًا ففاضت عيناه» (Seven are sheltered by Allah the Exalted in His shade on the Day when there is no shade but His: a just leader; a young man who grew up in the worship of Allah; a man whose heart is attached to the mosques; two men who love each other for the sake of Allah, meeting upon that and parting upon that; a man whom a woman of rank and beauty invites, and he says, "I fear Allah"; a man who gives charity and conceals it so that his left hand does not know what his right hand spends; and a man who remembers Allah the Exalted in solitude and his eyes overflow).^[1]

We Want to Connect Them

Let me remind ourselves of this number, and let us try to recall it in our minds so that we reach the stage of connecting these individuals: how does the complementarity among them come about? I think many people have spoken about each one of them independently. They have mentioned the importance of justice in society, and how we can bring up our youth and our children in obedience to Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted. They have also spoken about love for the sake of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic: meeting upon it and parting upon it. And we have spoken about chastity, purity, refraining from indecency and not yielding to desires, and we have spoken about charity and its benefits in lectures so long and so many that the count may not capture them. But I want, in a few minutes, to connect these individuals.

For the Prophet ﷺ does not speak out of emptiness. And the fact that he, peace be upon him, begins with the just leader, rather than with the man whose heart is attached to the mosques or the young man who grew up in obedience to Allah: why did he choose the just leader to begin his statement with?

The Just Leader: The Canopy

The reason, and Allah the Exalted knows best, and this is what I am trying to understand,^[2] is that the just leader represents the canopy under which society takes shelter. When justice is absent, injustice occurs because of its leader. The just leader is the caliph, the emir, the president or the guardian, whatever the description, the one who bears the general responsibility for that society. He is like the safety valve; when that valve is breached and corruption eats into the body of the nation, the environment in which generations mature becomes far from the law of Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted. You will never, ever find a young man growing up in obedience to Allah. Rather, where will that young man grow up? He will grow up in front of television screens, and he will fall in love with watching scenes and sights,^[3] and his ear will grow accustomed to listening to songs instead of listening to the Noble Qur'an, and his body will grow accustomed to frequenting indecency instead of being bowed and prostrate in the house of Allah, blessed and exalted. And his money he will spend on indecency or on his desire, instead of spending it on charity whose benefit goes beyond its giver to others. And his state, when he is alone with himself, will be that he is alone with disobedience, and he will not be alone with the remembrance of Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted. A very logical order, and Allah the Exalted knows best.

So if justice is established in society and people feel secure, then the first thing built upon the matter of justice is that people feel safe: I will not be wronged. And if I will not be wronged, I do what I wish within the bounds of this justice. I will not be wronged, and neither will anyone else be wronged;^[4] and that means I will not do what harms others, because if I cause harm to others, that will be a cause of retribution against me. So if I commit a wrong for which I am punished, I am also reassured that others will not commit a wrong, because they will be punished for it. That is the justice that settles in societies, which the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted, has made one of the laws of creation: if a society is founded on justice it is saved and succeeds, even if its members are not Muslims.

But if injustice spreads in a society, that society will not prosper under any circumstances, however high the pulpits raise their voices and microphones, however many shaykhs, speakers and preachers there are on YouTube, and however much WhatsApp serves as a means of passing on this or that benefit, "three things, if you do them you will never be lost," "five for five," "four," O Lord!^[5] A great deal of talk, but a society whose content is empty, whose hearts are hollow, whose minds are not aligned with the line on which Muslims ought to be.

"Allah Restrains Through the Ruler What He Does Not Restrain Through the Qur'an"

The Prophet ﷺ begins with that just leader because he is the safety valve of society. And he says in another hadith: «إن الله تعالى ليزع بالسلطان ما لا يزع بالقرآن» (Allah the Exalted restrains through the ruler what He does not restrain through the Qur'an).^[6]

Our uncle, Shaykh Ahmad, stood on the pulpit for ten years saying: Brothers, the dawn prayer, come to prayer; and the 'Ishā' prayer, folks; and congregational prayer and its merit over praying alone, and the degrees and elevations and status, he said what he said. Brothers, beware of wronging women in the homes; brothers, give women their rights; brothers, neighbors and the importance of neighborliness; brothers, fear Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted, regarding kinship ties. We have spoken a great deal, and the diseases are the same diseases. And if you observed the conditions of people here or there, anywhere, you would see that the diseases increase and the good shrinks, except among those on whom Allah, glory be to Him, the Exalted, has mercy.

For maintaining kinship ties today, despite all the talk, is no greater than it was five years ago, and five years ago it was no greater than ten years before that, and ten years ago no greater than twenty years before that. Compare the cohesion of families among themselves, the maintaining of kinship ties among them, and the cooperation of neighbors among themselves. Man, we have witnessed these scenes: the pot of milk passing through the houses until it had given drink to all of them, and no one could be content with the milk of the animal in his own house, whether a cow or a water buffalo or other, or even a camel or a goat. He could not; within the framework of the community, he would be ashamed to keep the milk of his animal to himself without giving some of it to others. Then manners shrank over time until that happened only on occasions, and then with the passing of time these customs vanished, and perhaps behind them lies the vanishing of something of manliness in the reality of people's lives.

Then we found ourselves facing the reality of children quarreling over inheritance until it reaches the courts, and they stand before the judge and dispute among themselves. And it reached the stage where daughters are deprived of inheritance because of pre-Islamic attitudes that linger in minds. Then we moved to another stage: neighborly ties have been severed, and people no longer have those bonds that existed in the past. And despite all the talk, I do not want to say that good diminishes, but the benefit of talk does not go beyond the throats it comes out of, because it finds no hearts that truly take it in.

The Prophet ﷺ says, listen to him, peace be upon him: «إن الله ليزع بالسلطان» (Allah restrains through the ruler), meaning that He regulates the movement of society through authority, through law, through instructions, more than He regulates it through the Qur'an in many situations. We talk a great deal and no one listens, but if a law is issued, if a constitutional article comes down, everyone complies with it without discussion. Imagine, for example, that we have spoken about the hijab for tens of years and people do not respond, and we have no executive authority inside the society, but if a decision came down from the government that a woman who walks around uncovered or bareheaded will be punished with such-and-such, you would never find an uncovered woman in the street, and Allah the Exalted would have restrained through the ruler what He did not restrain through the Qur'an. And that is merely by way of illustration and model.

So How Do the Seven Complement One Another?

So the Prophet ﷺ says: a just leader, to represent the canopy under which society takes shelter. When society senses security and souls grow calm and settled, the matter of responding in obedience begins, and you see children hurrying to the houses of Allah, blessed and exalted. If your son comes to the mosque and sees my son in the mosque and the two become companions, what kind of companionship is that? Do you think it is the companionship of good or the companionship of evil? Do you think they will grow up on "Allahu akbar" and "Peace be upon you and the mercy of Allah and His blessings," or will they grow up on the sound of a song and the beating of a tambourine? Do they line up in a single row, straightening themselves behind an imam, standing and bowing together, or do they stand to the sounds of drums in another place where they shake their bodies and dance to whatever? A kind of bonding will arise among them and a kind of moral cohesion, and the kinship of religion and the kinship of knowledge will arise among them. If they grow up in this atmosphere, there arises among them what the Prophet ﷺ spoke of, that they are attached to the house of Allah.

A young man who grew up in obedience to Allah: it is entirely natural that he is attached to the mosque, because the mosque is the place in which the minds and personalities of these individuals are fused together. If they grow up in this atmosphere and come to meet in the house of Allah the Exalted, because it is the window that radiates to them the light of faith and its illumination, they meet here and companionship forms among them, and so there is mutual love. So you find the third matter: two men who love each other for the sake of Allah, because they met in the mosque, and because they were brought up on obedience, so the two meet, loving each other for the sake of Allah, meeting upon that and parting upon that.

When that happens, immunity arises within the souls of this generation. So when he goes out into the street and a woman of rank, beauty or wealth, whatever she has, invites him, he is naturally immunized by what he received inside the mosque, so he refuses; because he does not look toward places of desires as much as he looks toward places through which he can benefit people. Hence the Prophet ﷺ follows with his words: «ورجلٌ دعته امرأةٌ ذات منصبٍ وجمال فقال: إني أخاف الله» (a man whom a woman of rank and beauty invites, and he says, "I fear Allah"), and he does not look to this place, but rather looks to: «ورجلٌ تصدّق بصدقة فأخفاها، فلا تعلم يمينه، أو لا تعلم شماله، ما أنفقت» (a man who gives charity and conceals it, so that his right hand, or his left hand, does not know what it has spent). His left hand does not know what his right hand has spent.

This person, let us start from the beginning: a just leader who shades society with his shade, so what happens? These children come to grow up in obedience to Allah, and where will they grow up? The place that brings them together is the mosques. Then after that they love one another for the sake of Allah, and this good companionship helps him refrain from disobedience and urges him to do good, so he gives charity. And this type of person, when alone with himself, is occupied by nothing but his remembrance of his Lord, and he refrains from any disobedience in which Allah, blessed and exalted, would see him engaged.

A Society Sheltered by Its Faith

So now we have understood how the seven are linked to one another. The man who fears Allah the Exalted in his solitude will not deceive people in public. And the man whose heart is surrounded by the shades of faith does not expose his heart to disobedience outside his home. So the society, from its head to its end, becomes a righteous, integrated society. And this society is fitting, just as all of it took shelter in the shade of faith in its worldly life, to take shelter in the shade of the Throne of the Most Merciful in its hereafter, on the Day of meeting the Lord of the worlds, glory be to Him, the Exalted.

On the authority of Abū Hurayrah, may Allah the Exalted be pleased with him, from the Prophet ﷺ, who said: «سبعةٌ يُظلّهم الله في ظلّه يوم لا ظلَّ إلا ظلُّه: إمامٌ عادل، وشابٌّ نشأ في عبادة الله، ورجلٌ قلبه معلَّق بالمساجد، ورجلان تحابّا في الله فاجتمعا عليه وتفرّقا عليه، ورجلٌ دعته امرأةٌ ذات منصبٍ وجمال فقال: إني أخاف الله، ورجلٌ تصدّق بصدقة فأخفاها فلا تعلم شماله ما تنفق يمينه، ورجلٌ ذكر الله تعالى خاليًا ففاضت عيناه» (Seven are sheltered by Allah in His shade on the Day when there is no shade but His: a just leader; a young man who grew up in the worship of Allah; a man whose heart is attached to the mosques; two men who love each other for the sake of Allah, so they meet upon that and part upon that; a man whom a woman of rank and beauty invites, and he says, "I fear Allah"; a man who gives charity and conceals it so that his left hand does not know what his right hand spends; and a man who remembers Allah the Exalted in solitude and his eyes overflow). The Prophet ﷺ spoke truly. And we ask Allah, the Most High, the Almighty, to grant us good understanding and good action.

--- ^[1]: Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim from the hadith of Abū Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him. Editor's documentation: The speaker repeated the hadith at the end of the lecture with a slight reordering of some wordings, and we have kept it as he uttered it in both places, except that at the end of the narration the transcript has a swapping of right and left in the phrase «فلا تعلم يمين شماله ما أنفقت يمينه», which has been corrected to the well-known wording. ^[2]: Editor's documentation: The phrase «أحاول أن أفهمهم» in the transcript could be read as «أفهمه» ("I understand it") or «أُفهِّمهم» ("I make them understand"); the former has been kept, so the audio needs to be heard. ^[3]: Editor's documentation: The transcript has «وسيع شق مشاهده», which is perhaps «سيعشق» ("he will fall in love"), and that is closer to the shape of the letters. ^[4]: Editor's documentation: The transcript is unvocalized (will not «اظلم», will not «يظلم»), so it is not known whether it is in the active or the passive voice; what has been kept agrees with his later statement that everyone is subject to retribution. The phrase «فمعنى أني لن أُظلم» ("so the meaning is that I will not be wronged") has been omitted because it is garbled. ^[5]: Editor's documentation: The phrase is garbled in the transcript («فيار ب 12»), so nothing of it has been kept beyond what is written. ^[6]: Editor's documentation: The speaker attributed it to the Prophet ﷺ, and the editor has not found a raised (marfūʿ) chain for it; the well-known view is that it is a saying of ʿUthmān, may Allah be pleased with him; the wording in the transcript is garbled («لا يزع» then «يزع»), so it has been corrected to the well-known wording.