Why True Righteousness Becomes Rarer Each Generation
The Scarcity of the Righteous: Understanding True Righteousness in Islam
Summary
This lecture discusses a hadith about the increasing scarcity of righteous people throughout generations, using the metaphor of leftovers at the bottom of a barrel to describe the quality of humanity that will remain. Sh. Ali Mashhour provides detailed Islamic theological clarification on what constitutes righteousness in Islamic terminology, explaining that true righteousness can only come through knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah, not through natural goodness or character alone. The lecture emphasizes the distinction between being excused in the afterlife and being truly righteous, arguing that while non-Muslims may possess individual virtues or be excused for lack of guidance, they cannot achieve complete righteousness without Islamic guidance.
Note: This transcript was generated using YouTube's automatic captioning, with AI-assisted cleanup for readability. It may contain inaccuracies due to background noise, audio quality, or limitations of the transcription software — particularly during Arabic recitation. Listener discretion is advised; please refer to the original video for precise wording.
Continuing in the 18th or 19th book of offered by Allahala. He says, Fore.
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Collects a narration and reports on the authority of Mdas He narrates to us that the prophet sallall.aii wasallam said the righteous will continue to become more and more scarce and more and more rare. Each generation will contain less than the previous until what is left of humanity, meaning in spite of their numbers, the ratio of righteous to unrighteous amongst humanity will be the leftovers. ers in the bag after taking out. you know, if you have a a bag full of wheat or a bag full of barley or a bag full of grain and you take out all of the grain and or if you have a bag full of let's say some dates, right? Well, there's other things in that bag. It's not just pure grain. There are the skins of the grain. There's some of the stems that are in there. There's some of the grain that has turned to powder, right? there's some little branches in there, little bits of leaves and so forth. Things that are not something that you would want to put in your food. It's leftover usually at the very bottom of the bag. In America or in the west in English, we have the same type of saying where we say the bottom of the barrel. You've heard this before, right? That this is this this product or this person is bottom of the barrel. What does that mean? bottom of the barrel. Meaning, if you have a barrel full of any goods, the weakest, most the thing that you would throw away, the thing that no one wants, the thing that is more of a nuisance than it is useful is what settles at the bottom of a barrel. Right? And so the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam tells us that the righteous people from amongst humanity when we say righteous in the prophet's lingo in his terminology in the terminology of the Quran and Sunnah does righteous include Muslim and non-Muslim and we say righteous does this mean righteous from amongst Christianity and righteous from amongst Juda Judaism and righteous from amongst Buddhism and righteous from amongst Hinduism and righteous from amongst atheism. Is there any such thing as righteousness withoutahill? Linguistically, customarily people may refer to righteous meaning someone who has good character or acceptable character. But that's not what is meant in the Quran and Sunnah in the language of the prophet sallall.aii alaihi wasallam that is the same language as the Quran and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says right when he speaks about those who are righteous those who are people of salah and they are the people of righteous deeds speaking about those who have accepted Islam now there is often a misunderstanding with respect to this and that is that a person says, "Well, what about a Christian or a Jew or a non-Muslim who's never heard about Islam before, right?" And they do the best with what they have. we say that's all well and good and that may excuse a person in the hereafter and that may be something of an excuse between them and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala however the characteristic of Islam and Muslim this is not something that you can stumble upon it's not something that you can accidentally just because you're so good nature be a Muslim doesn't work that you have to have guidance happens from the messenger of Allah Muhammad Sam. If that were the case, then it would be enough to just have the fra. We all agree as human beings that, you know, stealing is wrong, murder is wrong, goodness is is good, trustworthiness is a good trait, dignity is a good trait, right? then we could just have that be the yard stick. However, that is not the case. Righteousness, this is something that can only come about by way of knowledge. And if that person has not received that knowledge, they have no way to righteousness without it. This is not to be confused with someone who does not have an excuse or someone that does have an excuse. Someone who never received that knowledge. Someone who had no access to that knowledge. The people of Alat in right. They may have an excuse. That's all well and good. But righteousness is not something that a person naturally comes about. It's something that can only be earned and only earned by way of knowledge, by way of revelation, by way of guidance by a messenger. This is a very important point because often times these two things are conflated and confused. The idea of being excused and being righteous, they are two very different things, right? someone who is who does not have the guidance of the Quran, could they perhaps obtain sparse bits of wisdom through life experience and through you know the wisdom of of other people's experience and be naturally prone to good. , could they not have elements of wisdom? Yes. Could they not? Could you not find a an atheist that is trustworthy? It's possible. Is it possible to find a Buddhist that is generous? Yes, it's possible. And and and not only that, but it exists, right? Are there not Hindus which are courageous right who defend the weak and and and so forth. Yes, these things are found. But are all of these traits found in a single person without the guidance of the Quran? No, that is not possible. That is not the case because the light of Allah that is the light of the Quran and Sunnah cannot be replicated by humanity. It has to come from outside of us. Right? We hear often the believe in yourself and you know these kinds of statements. This is a circular argument. I cannot both I cannot be knowledgeable and ignorant at the same time of the exact same things. It's either day or night, black or white. And so for the human being, I am either weak or I I am strong. I can't be weak and strong simultaneously in the exact same way. Therefore, if I need something, it's something that I don't have in myself. I have to get it from outside of myself. And so, this is akin to the paradox of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. You've ever heard of this before? I want you to imagine with me someone who grabs their feet and lifts themsself off of the ground. Is that possible? Huh? Of course it's not possible. That is that is circular physically. I have to have something to support myself on in order to raise myself. Therefore, the idea that there are righteous people outside of the of Islam. This is a fallacy in itself. There are elements of righteousness outside of the of Islam. Sure. And are there generally acceptable people outside of Islam? Yes, of course. But someone to have the qualities that can only be learned by way of the Quran and Sunnah, to have them without having the Quran and Sunnah, this is an impossibility. And if we were to say this, that means that the Quran and Sunnah are redundant. Humanity already had these traits. We didn't really need the Quran and Sunnah to guide us then after all. And so the prophet sallall.aii Wasam tells us here that righteous people, the righteous from amongst humanity will continue to become more and more sparse, more and more infrequent, less and less every generation following the next. until what is left of humanity is of the quality that is left at the bottom of the barrel. That is going to be the the top quality found in humanity. The prophet sallall.aii Wasam says that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will have no will not entertain them in the least. He has he has no use for them. This is not speaking about before the death of Isaam. This is speaking about after the sun rises from the west. This is speaking about after the animal, the creature appears upon humanity. This is speaking about after the three major earthquakes. This is speaking about just before the day of judgment when Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala takes back the Quran and then takes back everyone who has in his heart even a grain's weight or a seed's weight of faith. And the only ones that will remain on the earth are those who are the bottom of the barrel whom Allah will have no use for. And upon them the day of judgment will commence.
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Forham. Alhamdulillah. Thanks. I don't want you. Have you seen his daughter?
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And she's without Are you ready? They made it big.
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Years. My oldest.
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Color I said. Thank you. How are you?