Don't fall prey to hypocrisy

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) says:  The love of a believer is for Salaat, fasting and worship and the love of a hypocrite is, like animals, for eating and drinking.

 

A believer remains busy in remembrance and worship of Almighty Allah whereas a hypocrite is busy in desires.  A believer has no hopes of anybody except Almighty Allah and a hypocrite has hopes of everyone except Almighty Allah.  A believer spends wealth in the path of Allah and a hypocrite spends religion in the path to wealth.  A believer obeys and is still apprehensive and a hypocrite disobeys and laughs.  A believer likes solitude and a hypocrite likes the company of other men.  A believer sows a seed and is apprehensive that he might not be able to reap it whereas a hypocrite doesn’t sow and still has hopes of reaping.

 

Hadhrat Ibrahim bin Adham (May Allah shower His mercy on him) was passing through a desert.  A soldier asked him:  Where are the people?  He gestured towards a graveyard.  The soldier repeated that he wanted directions to the habitat of humans.  Hadhrat Ibrahim (May Allah shower His mercy on him) replied:  This is their habitat and their city.  On this, the soldier hit him with his stick and Hadhrat Ibrahim’s (May Allah shower His mercy on him) head was cut and started bleeding.  When people reproached the soldier for hitting a great ascetic of the era, he fell at the feet of Hadhrat Ibrahim (May Allah shower His mercy on him) and requested his forgiveness.  He replied:  I have forgiven you.  The moment you cut my head, I had prayed for you that very moment.  People asked him:  Why like that, O Shaykh?  He said:  With the thought that I would get reward because of his beating me.  I didn’t like that I should be rewarded and he should be punished.

 

A Parsi would get his clothes stitched from Hadhrat ‘Abdullah Khayyat (May Allah shower His mercy on him) and give him unusable coins and the Shaykh would accept it.  Once, the Shaykh wasn’t present and his student refused to accept such coins.  When he came back, he reproached his student:  Why did you do so?  From many years, he has been dealing with me in the same manner and I didn’t reveal it to him and took those unusable coins so that he wouldn’t deceive any other Muslim.  I kept throwing those coins in a well.

 

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  The love of worldly wealth and honor cultivates hypocrisy in the heart the way water cultivates greenery.

 

Hadhrat ‘Ali (May Allah be well pleased with him) said:  The creation has been destroyed because of 2 things:

 

1.    Following their whims and desires

 

2.    Praising oneself

 

Only that person can be safe from this who doesn’t want any fame and is content with obscurity.  That’s why Almighty Allah says that We have kept the felicity of the hereafter for that person who doesn’t desire honor, status and corruption in the world.

 

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) said:  Those people will enter paradise who are in dirty, unkempt clothes and nobody values them.  The moment the desires for status, fame and the praise of the creation takes root, the path of religion is cut off and hypocrisy and bad manners fill the heart.

 

Hadhrat Fudhail bin ‘Iyaadh (May Allah shower His mercy on him) says:  The sign of a hypocrite is that he is pleased when praised for things that are non-existent in him and is displeased when condemned for faults present in him.  He is annoyed with the person who reveals his faults to him and feels happy when he hears the faults of others.

 

Hadhrat Malik bin Deenaar (May Allah shower His mercy on him) says:  The sign of a hypocrite is that he gathers food for the next day as well and fights with others for the sake of the world and he desires to become famous and harbors jealousy against those who hurt him or those who have exceeded him in worldly status and talks more and works less.

 

The Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) says:  The person who has these 4 qualities is an absolute hypocrite and the person who has less than 4 is not an absolute hypocrite but has signs of hypocrisy in him.  (May Allah Most High protect every Muslim from these):

 

1.    Breaching of trust

 

2.    Lying all the time when talking

 

3.    Always breaks promises

 

4.    If he gets into a fight, he utters obscenities