A group of ladies walk into a Masjid. They are all beautiful
physical examples of Muslim women. They are fully covered, some even
in face veils with gloves with Jilbabs, Khymars and even abiyas
over. They are the perfect picture of Islam. They make beautiful
salat, and even more beautiful recitation. As they are about to
leave, one of them looks to a sister who is praying in the masjid
and thinks, “So and so should not call herself Muslim, for she does
not even wear hijab, except when she comes to masjid.”
This woman has harmed herself. Islam is certainly the physical -
outward appearance. It is a very valid and significant part of the
deen, but it is also the heart and the behavior and the soul. This
woman may not have backbitten the woman who was not a muhajibah,
because she did not actually say anything, but she has done
something much more dangerous, much worse.
Arrogance and pride have affected her. She has allowed the practices
that she does, for Allah’s sake, to make her feel she is superior or
even safe. No one has a guarantee. We do our best to please Allah,
but we all have to rely on Allah’s Mercy. Also, we can not judge who
is going to be saved from the fire. We do not know what Allah will
do, so to look down on one who does not practice as we do is
arrogance, and we must avoid it.
Narrated Abdullah ibn Mas’ud: The Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him) observed: He who has in his heart the weight of
a mustard seed of pride shall not enter Paradise. A person (amongst
his hearers) said: Verily a person loves that his dress should be
fine, and his shoes should be fine. He (the Prophet) remarked:
Verily, Allah is Graceful and He loves Grace. Pride is disdaining
the truth (out of self-conceit) and contempt for the people. Sahih
Muslim: Book 1, Number 0164.
Some of our beloved Prophet’s companions used to fear so much that
they were not doing enough that they would sometimes faint from fear
of Allah, while they were spending the nights praying and the days
fasting and devoting their lives to Allah. Who are we to think we
have a guarantee?
In the previous hadith, Rasool Allah is clearly warning us that we
have no right to look down on one another. No matter what. Even if
the person is a sinner, we have no right. Look to the example of the
adulterous man being punished. The man had confessed and been stoned
to death.
"…Then the Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) heard one of his companions
saying to another: Look at this man whose fault was concealed by
Allah but who would not leave the matter alone, so that he was
stoned like a dog. He said nothing to them but walked on for a time
till he came to the corpse of an ###### with its legs in the air. He
asked: Where are so and so? They said: Here we are, Apostle of Allah
(peace_be_upon_him)! He said: Go down and eat some of this ######'s
corpse. They replied: Apostle of Allah! Who can eat any of this? He
said: The dishonor you have just shown to your brother is more
serious than eating some of it. By Him in Whose hand my soul is, he
is now among the rivers of Paradise and plunging into them. Sunan
Abu Dawud: Book 38, Number 4414.
Look to this example. The man had committed a major sin. He had
confessed to the sin. Yet, his repentance for that sin was sincere.
We must not judge others because they sin, for that is for Allah
Only. We can give out the punishments that Allah has mandated, and
then leave it to Allah to forgive them or not. We can not decide. We
are not privy to what is in the heart. We can talk to the one who is
not doing something Islam mandates, like hijab or beard or avoiding
music or whatever, but we can not even try to believe that we are
better than they are. For we do not know their circumstances or what
is in their hearts or even their fates. That is for Allah.
Look to the example of the prostitute. If we had seen her in the
street, what would we have thought of her? Yet she was granted
Paradise for a small deed she did.
Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “A prostitute was
forgiven by Allah, because, passing by a panting dog near a well and
seeing that the dog was about to die of thirst, she took off her
shoe, and tying it with her head-cover she drew out some water for
it. So, Allah forgave he because of that.” Sahih Bukhari: Volume 4,
Book 54, Number 538.
We can not be happy with her sins, but we must teach her, maybe
punish her, but we should not abuse her, nor should we be certain
that we are so much better than her. Furthermore, we should take the
time to befriend those who we see committing sins, if we can. The
person may simply be ignorant of the correct Islamic practices. We
should try to teach them and maybe gain something ourselves from
this effort. It may be that this person has something to offer you
in the way of goodness.