Class 1
BEST OF YOU
I H S A A N
The Best of You
The idea of excellence is something we are all familiar with. It is the praise you always want to hear when you’re young, the epitome of good behaviour. We remember the feeling of getting homework back in primary school, having your work marked as “very good” was nothing compared to having “excellent” written across the top of your page. And as we grow, those standards don’t change. Whether it is in high school, university, the workplace, or even our appearance, we always want to be the best we can possibly be.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also said, “Verily, Allah has prescribed excellence in everything….” (Sahih Muslim)
Being Muslim is the greatest blessing of Allah Almighty. We should try to become a better Muslim with the passage of time. We should know that being a better version of ourselves will help us to be more successful in the Hereafter but also in this life. Islam is the religion that covers more than just a faith in One Lord. Islam is a way of life. It is a pathway that has been laid by Allah Almighty around the ages of human history.
But sadly, sometimes the world can get too much for us, and in the fast-paced, tick-box lives we live; we don’t always remember to strive for excellence. Over the years, we become content with mediocrity, and often the first area in our life to fall to this standard is our spirituality. Our daily ibadah can easily become monotonous, and we don’t put the same thought into our actions as we did when we started them.
Sufyaan al-Thawri said: Faith is not wishes or pretence, rather it is what settles in the heart and is proven by actions.”
The sincere believer has a heart like a burning coal, hence it was narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said, “Faith wears out in your heart as clothes wear out, so ask Allaah to renew the faith in your hearts.” (al-Haakim and al-Tabaraani with a saheeh isnaad)
If a person want to know how he stands before Allaah and how he stands in relation to His commands and prohibitions, let him look at himself and see what he is preoccupied with. If he is busy with da’wah and with saving people from the Fire, striving to attain Paradise, helping the weak and needy, honouring his parents, then let him rejoice in the fact that he is close to the King of kings, for Allaah does not help anyone to do good except those whom He loves.
But if he has no interest in da’wah, dislikes the daa’iyahs and does not do good things, if he is preoccupied with this world and its gains, and with gossip and asking too many questions, whilst not doing much or following his whims and desires, let him know that he is far from Allaah and has been deprived of that which will bring him closer to Paradise, because Allaah says in His holy Book (interpretation of the meaning):
“Whoever desires the quick-passing (transitory enjoyment of this world), We readily grant him what We will for whom We like. Then, afterwards, We have appointed for him Hell; he will burn therein disgraced and rejected ( far away from Allaah’s Mercy).
And whoever desires the Hereafter and strives for it, with the necessary effort due for it (i.e. does righteous deeds of Allaah’s obedience) while he is a believer (in the Oneness of Allaah Islamic Monotheism) — then such are the ones whose striving shall be appreciated, (thanked and rewarded by Allaah)” [al-Isra’ 17:18-19]
There are numerous other hadith related to the importance of achieving this excellence where we are clearly invited to seek “excellence” in everything; excellence in one’s spiritual observances, excellence in one’s relationships with others whether this other is Muslim or not, regardless of whether they are even human or not! Allah has made this an obligation upon us.
But despite the importance given to striving for excellence in all things, this can be very hard in the society we live in today.
Excellence is oftentimes neglected hugely in our faith. As an Ummah, we somehow find ourselves satisfied with doing the least possible acts of goodness. Most likely, we don’t even put in our full effort when performing our acts of goodness. We might do it with laziness and fatigue. We might find ourselves grudgingly doing the good deeds, and more often than not, the sincerity will be lacking.
As Muslims, we understand that Allah (swt) has given us guidance for everything in our lives, and when trying to improve ourselves, we turn back towards the Deen. And in this case, we find that Islam has a unique view towards excellence, holistically summarised within the concept of Ihsan.
IHSAAN
What is Ihsan?
Linguistically ihsan is derived from the verb ahsana, which means doing things better and in an excellent manner. Thus the literal linguistic meaning of Ihsan is doing the best, namely goodness or excellence.
But in terms of how this applies to our lives, our blessed Prophet Muhammad ﷺ explained it best, in the famous hadith Jibril. In this hadith, Jibreel (as), disguised as a man approached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while his companions were present and proceeded to ask him questions about the Deen. The third question he asked was: “What is Ihsan?”. To which Muhammad ﷺ responded: “Ihsan is to worship Allah as if you see Him, for though you cannot see Him, He sees you.”
This is such a simple, but at the same time deep statement. What does it mean to worship Allah as if we see him?
If we were to see Allah (swt), we would be in so much of awe of His greatness and majesty, that we would not only worship because we had to, but rather because we wanted to. Nothing else would be more important in that moment than showing our utter humility in front of the Lord of the worlds. This zeal for our worship is what it means to achieve ihsan.
Worshipping Allah as if you see Him means to strive for excellence in worship and in all of our deeds. Imām al-Nawawī explains the meaning of this phrase, writing:
This statement is among the comprehensive sayings (jawāmiʿ al-kalim) brought by the Prophet ﷺ. If one of us is able to worship as if he sees his Lord, Glorified and Exalted is He, he would never abandon any good thing he can do, such as being humble, reverent, behaving well, and taking care to combine outward and inward aspects completely, in the best possible manner.
We all tend to be more modest and shy to do wrong in public, rather than in private. It is easier to disobey your parents when they are not looking over you, or to disobey a teacher when their back is turned. In a similar way, we feel more shame in doing wrong when we have the conviction that Allah is watching our every deed, even what we do in the innermost part of our being, our hearts. But unlike our parents or teachers, Allah is always aware of what we are doing and is more deserving of our obedience, as the Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah is more worthy of your modesty than people.”
Islam teaches us to perform all of our good deeds—prayer, charity, fasting, or any beneficial activity we do—as best as we possibly can, as if Allah were right in front of us.
Of course, doing our best means both outwardly and inwardly.
From the external perspective, we are often presented with a range of options in a given situation. In fiqh terms, we may have a choice between doing something that is recommended or merely permissible. In this regard, Allah said, “Give glad tidings to My servants who listen to the word and follow the best of it.”
For instance, when we are wronged, we can choose between legal retaliation or forgiveness for the offender.“It is said that they listen to the Qur’an and follow the best in it, such as in the choice between retaliation and pardon, one chooses to pardon, as in His saying, ‘If you are patient, it is better for the patient.’”
There are many recommended sunan actions we can choose to practice or not, just as one could choose to decorate his house (his faith founded upon the five pillars of Islam) or not. Moreover, sometimes we are presented with two benefits or two harms, in which we need to consider the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils. Ibn Taymiyyah said, “The intelligent one is not one who knows good and evil, but rather only one who can recognize the better of two goods or the worse of two evils.”
In this way, identifying and implementing the better action within an appropriate framework of fiqh is part of striving for excellence in our worship and deeds.
From the internal perspective, we must purify our hearts from all kinds of spiritual diseases, such as hypocrisy, arrogance, worldliness, envy, and malice. Allah tells us that no one will be safe on the Day of Judgment except for “one who comes to Allah with a pure heart.”
Each of us has strengths and weaknesses, which means iḥsān may not look exactly the same for each and every believer. We have all inherited different means, so excellence is to do our very best with what we have.
So in this course, we will study about the deeds or traits that the Prophet ﷺ enlisted after saying the THE BEST OF YOU are those who do/possess this.
The Rewards of Ihsan
Our purpose in life is to acquire reward in the hope that our scale of good deeds will outweigh our bad. To have ihsan is to multiply those rewards to such a level that Allah (swt) is offering us the opportunity of our lives – to seize as much reward as possible for the same action.
But the rewards of ihsan are not only reserved for the afterlife as Allah (swt) tells us in Surah Rahman, verse 31: “Is any reward for Ihsan except Ihsan?”
Our Lord, the King of all Kings is promising us for an excellent reward.
Reward of Ihsaan in Prayer
Ibn-Al-Qayyim Al-Jawziyyah (rahimahullaah) said: And mankind, with regard to their performance of prayer are in five levels:
Level 5: The level of the one who is negligent and wrongs his soul: He is the one who falls short in performing wudhoo (ablution) properly, performing the prayer upon its time and within its specified limits, and in fulfilling its essential pillars.
Level 4: The one who guards his prayers upon their proper times and within their specified limits, fulfills their essential pillars and performs his wudhoo with care. However, his striving (in achieving the above) is wasted due to whispering in his prayer so he is taken away by thoughts and ideas.
Level 3: The one who guards his prayers within the specified limits, fulfills their essential pillars and strives with himself to repel the whispering, thoughts and ideas. He is busy struggling against his enemy (Shaytaan) so that he does not steal from the prayer. On account of this he is engaged in (both) prayer and jihaad (against his nafs).
Level 2: The one who stands for the prayer, completes and perfects its due rights, its essential pillars, performs it within its specified limits and his heart becomes engrossed in safeguarding its rights and specified limits, so that nothing is wasted from it. His whole concern is directed towards its establishment, its completion and its perfection, as it should be. His heart is immersed in the prayer and in enslavement to his Lord the Exalted.
Level 1: The one who stands for the prayer like the one mentioned above. However, on top of this, he has taken and placed his heart in front of his Lord Azzawajall, looking towards Him with his heart with anticipation, (his heart) filled with His love and His might, as if he sees and witnesses Allaah. The whisperings, thoughts and ideas have vanished and the coverings which are between him and his Lord are raised. What is between this person and others with respect to the prayer, is superior and greater than what is between the heavens and the earth. This person is busy with his Lord Azzawajall, delighted with Him.
The Level 5 type will be "PUNISHED",
The Level 4 type will be "HELD TO ACCOUNT",
The Level 3 type will have his sins and shortcomings "EXPIATED",
The Level 2 type will be REWARDED
and
The Level 1 i.e. The Top Level will be CLOSE TO HIS LORD, because he will receive the portion of the one who makes his prayer the delight and pleasure of his eye. Whoever makes his prayer, the delight and pleasure of his eye, will have the nearness to his Lord Azzawajall made the delight and pleasure of his eye in the hereafter. He will also be made a pleasure to the eye in this world since whoever makes Allaah the pleasure of his eye in this world, every other eye will become delighted and pleased with him. (Source: Al-Waabil us-Sayyib)
May Allah give us all the hidayah to do Ihsan in whatever we do.
TIPS FOR THE TEST
Do not have to memorise the ayahs or hadeeths word for word and their references, but remember their meanings and the msg being given.
Remember the Levels of PRayers
ASSIGNMENT
There will be an Assignment Question asked in the Test. Marks will be given based on the following: -
Invite atleast 15 people to the course (can invite via WhatsApp, Facebook, Email, telegram or word of mouth) 3 Marks. (check the note below for exceptions)
Note:
Those who have already invited whether on Whatsapp, Email or FB, do not need to invite again.
It does not matter, whether people join or not, our job is to invite.
Implement any 3 of the deeds covered from week 1. (5 Marks)
Talk about any 3 topics covered in this week’s classes with atleast 3 people. 5 Marks.
Pray for the Ummah, pray for the ease of all the poor & oppressed Muslims and pray that Allah make us all strong in imaan and give us the hidayah to work for the aakhirah and to help each other. Pray for this applying any three Sunnahs from class 4. - 2 Marks
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