Who deserves your envy in Islam?

There you go.

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Awesome.

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Alhamdulillah.

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Foram.

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Foreign.

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Alass,.

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Here We have a narration in the vein that we started yesterday in the vein of the virtue of knowledge. Well, in this narration, our prophet sallall.aii wasallam he teaches us that there are only two types of people who are worthy of our envy. And what's meant here by envy is not the destructive type of jealousy that consumes a person. Jealousy, envy. This is like drinking poison and hoping that the person you are jealous of dies from it. That's what jealousy and envy does to a person. It blackens your heart. And even the mushri of ancient Greece and Rome and Persia even they understood the dangers of envy where they mention and they give examples of the envious one is a person who eats snakes who eats poisonous snakes in their mythology and And that is because of the destruction that envy and jealousy reeks on the heart of the person who is jealous or envious. What's meant here in this context of jealousy is that a person wishes for himself something similar. You see someone who has something, someone that you are jealous of in this context means that you wish you had what that person has. Not that you wish that person didn't have it. Not that you wish you had it so you could be better than someone else. This is always destructive. Rather, what's intended here is that you wish you had what this person had. There's only two types of people worthy of that from you. Our prophet sallallah.aii wasallam mentions two types of people. Number one, a person who has knowledge. A person who has knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah and he teaches it and implements it. That person is worthy of your envy in this way. And the second type is a person whom Allah has given wealth to spend that wealth for the sake of Allah. A person who has wealth and then spends that wealth to access avenues of Allah's pleasure. Those are avenues that are not open to someone who doesn't have that wealth. You physically cannot do it. You may have the intention of doing it. You may have the wish of doing it, but if you don't have that wealth, you're unable to do it. And so the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us that there are two things that two instances where another person is worthy of your envy in this way. He says the first is a man whom Allah has given wealth to and he concentrates spending this wealth on the truth meaning on the things that please Allah. He uses this wealth to garner pleasure from Allah. The second is a person whom Allah has given knowledge to. In this narration, in this particular wording, he says hikma and hikma literally translates to wisdom. But in the diction of the Quran, al hiknah is knowledge of the Quran and sunnah in its implementation and its nuances. This is what wisdom is. And so here is not just knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah but knowledge of the intricacies of the Quran and Sunnah. The secrets, the nuances, the subtleties, the details of the book of Allah and the Sunnah of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam to the point where it becomes wisdom. This person now sees with the wisdom of the Quran. He hears with the wisdom of the Quran. He analyzes with the wisdom of the Quran. He speaks with the wisdom of the Quran. Because the Quran flows through his veins along with his blood. He breathes the Quran. He speaks. He implements. He embodies the Quran and Sunnah of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam. And what is the sunnah but the understanding of the Quran? That's what the sunnah is, right? It's the prophet's understanding of the Quran. Correct? And that's why Allah refers to the sunnah as hikma al hikmma in the Quran. He says to the wives of the prophet Sam,.

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Al Quran. And so why does Allah refer to the Sunnah as hikma? Because it is the understanding, the prophetic understanding of the Quran. And most of the Sunnah or a lot of it at least is derivative of the Quran. And this is why Allah sent a messenger. So that Allah says to the prophet, we have sent the Quran down to you so that you will teach people and show them the understanding, the implementation of the Quran. That's the whole point of the Sunnah. And so in short, any other person outside of these two types of people, they're not worthy of your your envy. They're not worthy of your aspirations. They're not worthy of you to aspire to be this person. And this is not an easy feat. If this were easy, if it were easy to spend your money for the sake of Allah, he didn't just say spend it for the sake of Allah. He said is to spend it as if you are trying to get rid of it for the sake of Allah. That's a very different breed of person. That's a very different person. Right?

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And so the point here is that these are not easy feats. In order for a person to be given wealth, to acquire wealth, that's okay one part of it. But to spend it for the sake of Allah in this way, this is very difficult. You have to go through a serious a serious metamorphosis in your heart of hearts to be able to trust Allah enough to spend your wealth for the sake of Allah you're trying to get rid of it. you are trying to get rid of it. person is thinking now Yesh this is dangerous people now are going to start spending their wealth because you no we don't have a problem with this who do you know has a problem with spending too much for the sake of Allah you've never met this person we don't have an issue with this we have an issue with h spending begrudgingly for the sake of Allah or if we do something out of the ordinary we really really, you know, look at that and we try to ride that wave for a long time. Who of us has ever given half of everything he possesses in one go for the sake of Allah? This was a common occurrence in the time of the prophet sallall.aii wasallam when they were preparing for one battle. He came and he brought half of all of his wealth. Half of it gave it all for this preparation of this battle. Sure that this time he had beat Abu Bakr and Abu Bakr Sud came with all of his wealth. What does that mean all of his wealth? His wealth is regenerating, right? He has income coming in. But he took everything he had at the moment to zero and gave it all in one go. Allah sends down the verse. Abu Tala hears this verse comes to the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam and says here is beh par parcel of land that is rich very rich soil palm trees it was so enjoyable it had its own water source it had a well in it that the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam used to go there to rest and to reprieve find reprieve there as soon As he heard this verse, he came and said, "This is the best that I own. Here it is for the sake of Allah." All of it. Another story. We have stories of companions who give away everything that they have and then they come home and tell their wife, "Come on, bring all the stuff out of the house. I gave this away for the sake of Allah. I dare you to do that. Huh? And someone would say, "Well, this is special. They're special. How are they special? Are these things we're not supposed to do? Who Who's going to do this? Or is this a lost part of our religion? It's gone. Nobody does that stuff anymore. Come on. That that was a good that was a generation that are beyond us. But that stuff that's not for us, you know. I'm just a regular guy. I just give my little $5 on J right as I'm leaving and and and that's where I go impulsively spending your money for the sake of Allah. you're trying to get rid of it. Why? Because you are certain that the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam's promise. No charity given has ever has ever depleted a person's wealth. Not ended it, depleted it. It's never depleted it. Now there are verses in the Quran such as the statement of Allah to be moderate in your spending even for the sake of Allah. This is in the majority of your dealings. But there are instances where you give extreme amounts. Let me ask you a question. These things that I just mentioned, these stories, I don't think a single one of us has never heard them. We've all heard these stories, right? Okay. Here's a question that I have. If somebody were to do this today, we would consider this in our culture today to be what? What's the word we would give something this? Extreme. Yeah, we'd call it extreme, right? to give everything that you have right now. give it all for the sake of Allah at this moment. We would say that's extreme, right? What about if your son got sick? Would you give it all and spend it all on medical bills? Would you? If your son got sick, if your daughter got sick, would you spend it all? Would you think twice? You would think that's very heroic. Correct. So, it's not extreme then. It is not extreme because there are instances where we would say that's correct. What we are really saying when we say that's extreme is to do it for that reason is extreme. This is the difference between us and the companions. They save those extremes for the sake of Allah. We will often see these extremes being practiced but for something of the dunya. Your son, my son, your daughter, my daughter. I have three children. They're going to die eventually. No matter what you do, they're going to be dust. The best thing you can do for them is teach them these kinds of extremes. Subhanahu wa'tala.