Soar to the Sky in my Wheelchair

Buat Yang Masih Keliru Antara Istilah Jin, Syaitan, dan Iblis

As you can see, bukan semua Jin adalah Syaitan, dan Iblis ≠ Syaitan. I mean, Iblis < Syaitan < Jin, dari segi bilangan.

Penerangan:

"Jin". Ermmmmmmmhhhhh... You know him. Makhluk ghaib yang....... hidupnya macam kita manusia jugak. Ada puak Muslim, ada puak Kafir, ada yang baik, ada yang jahat, ada yang berakal macam manusia, ada yang macam 'haiwan' dalam dunia kita.

So yang jahat dari kalangan jin tu lah yang kita panggil "Syaitan". Sama jugak manusia. Kalau manusia tu jahat kita panggil dia "setan" kan? Lol. But seriously. Dalam Qur'an pon, walaupun most of the time bila Allah 'Azza wa Jal sebut "Syaitan" tu, memang ia merujuk kepada Syaitan-dari-kalangan-Jin, tapi ada juga pernah dirujukkan kepada "Manusia" (Qur'an, 2:14). Yup. Manusia-yang-jahat/against-Allah.

And then last sekali: "Iblis". Iblis wujudnya hanya seekor/seorang sahaja. Yang menghasut Nabi Adam untuk memakan Buah "Khuldi", dan berjaya mengeluarkan Nabi Adam dari Syurga itu adalah Iblis. Iblis adalah ketua para Syaitan. Iblis akan terus hidup sehingga Hari Kiamat, kerana Allah s.w.t. telah perkenankan doanya untuk terus hidup sehingga Hari Kiamat (Qur'an, 7:15).

SPEAK TO PEOPLE ACCORDING TO THEIR LEVEL

Rafi' bin Amr At-Tha'i was a thief.

He was the type of thief who would raid caravans alone.

You had gangs/groups that would attack caravans; and then you had these lonely figures who would do their own thing; They don't need any gangs, they would just attack on their own. They have enough confidence in themselves to do it by themselves.

Rafi' bin Amr was one of these characters, who would go on his own; he is his own army, and he would go and raid caravans.

This (Rafi') was the best -guide- that the army of Islam could find at the time (in the context of this story).

Rafi' bin Amr was the best guide; for he knows his way around the path of the desert very well. — Because that's his job.

So the army of Islam hired Rafi' to take them around. So Rafi' spent time with this Muslim army. And Rafi' was quite impressed with what he saw.

And he narrates this following story himself:

I saw this man — who had this cloth on; Whenever he is riding, he would hold the cloth with a pin; and then whenever he sits down, he would take out that pin and take off the cloth. (Who he meant by that is Abu Bakr As-Siddiq r.a.)

So I went to him and said, "O you, the one with the pin (Abu Bakr). I can see on you some marks of intelligence. And I'm choosing you out of all of the people, coz I have a question for you".

Abu Bakr As-Siddiq says, "What do you want?"

Rafi' said, "I want you to teach me something, so I can be like you. BUT DON'T MAKE IT LONG because then I'm gonna forget."

Hhhh. I think he meets the profile of a thief. Not interested in a lot of education. Hhhh.

~Give me something brief and fast, I wanna be like you. But make it easy~

So Abu Bakr As-Siddiq made it as easy as he could.

Abu Bakr said, "Do you remember that your hand has five fingers?". Hhhh.

Rafi' said, "Yes, I do".

Abu Bakr said, "Then remember this:

1. The first finger. أشهـد أن لا إله الا الله وأشهـد أن محمد رسـول الله
2. The second finger. You pray five times a day.
3. The third finger. You pay zakah if you have money.
4. The fourth finger. You fast in the month of Ramadhan.
5. The fifth finger. You make haj to the House of Allah.

Did you remember that?"

Rafi' said, "Yes".

Abu Bakr said, "Then I will add something else: "Never assume a position of authority, even over two people"".

Rafi' said, "We have given all position of authority to you, the settlers".

[A little background information]: In Arabia, the Bedouins used to have this respect for the settlers/people-of-the-urban-towns; And they would give them the authority.

And thus Rafi' said, "We don't take authority. You know that. The authority is for you, the urban people".

So Abu Bakr As-Siddiq said, "A time will come, when they will be so many positions of authority, that it will reach you and it will even reach the people who are below you. And when you are a leader among people, and there is any oppression that goes on, you will be asked about it on the Day of Judgement".

And what Abu Bakr As-Siddiq said came true: The Muslim Khilafah grew so fast and it expanded with a swift speed, that there were so many post that needed to be filled. And it reached the people like Rafi', and the people who are lower than him.

__________________________________________

Lessons from the conversation between Abu Bakr and Rafi' bin Amr At-Tha'i:

Number One

Speak to the poeple according to their level.

-This- is a thief. He didn't go to school. He has no education background. Don't give him Bukhari and tell him to memorize it; and don't tell him "you have to go on a syari'ah course for a few years and study 'ilm".

People have different capabilities.

Not everybody will become a great Sheikh and scholar. And not everybody will become an Imam.

Imagine if Abu Bakr As-Siddiq r.a. recite to this man Suratul Baqarah and told him to memorize it. He could barely remember the five fingers. That's it.

So with the gangsters and brothers from that background, take it easy with them.

Take it easy with them in your da'wah.

And Alhamdulillah. Some of these brothers turned out to be wonderful brothers when Allah guides them to the truth.

The spirit that they have is sometimes a spirit that you cannot find with the scholar. It happens that it's a rizq from Allah. I mean, Imam Ibn Hambal once he heard somebody speaking about Bishr Al-Hafi; People said, "Bishr Al-Hafi is not a scholar".

Bishr Al-Hafi wasn't a scholar in terms of memorizing a lot of Hadith; He's nothing to compare to Imam Ahmad Ibn Hambal. But what did Imam Ibn Hambal said? Imam Ibn Hambal said, "He (Bishr Al-Hafi) already has the fruit of knowledge. Which is: The Fear of Allah".

What does the ayah say? إنما يخشى الله من عباده العلماء

"The ones who have fear of Allah, the scholars". [Qur'an, 35:28]

So Allah s.w.t. is saying that the fruit of knowledge is The Fear of Allah.

There is no benefit in knowledge that's not make you fear Allah.

If you have all the knowledge in the world, but if you don't fear Allah 'Azza wa Jal, then it's worthless.

Imam Ahmad Ibn Hambal's saying, "This man already has the fruit of the knowledge. Therefore, really in this situation (knowledge is important, but) Bishr Al Hafi is a scholar in that sense. He has The Fear of Allah 'Azza wa Jal.

[Back to the point]: Rasulullah s.a.w. would speak to people differently. And the sahabah understood that. Now Rasulullah s.a.w., when he's speaking to Ibn 'Abbas (even though he was a child, but because he had a mind of a scholar) Rasulullah s.a.w. would speak to him on a very high level. While a Bedouin would come to Rasulullah s.a.w., he would give Bedouins very brief orders that are easy to remember.

So you have to have hikmah in da'wah. Speak to the people according to their abilities.

Number Two

Be honest.

Abu Bakr As-Siddiq r.a. did not hold back anything. He said, "Don't be a leader".

And this is the first conversation he's having with the man. Abu Bakr doesn't even know him well.

—Don't be a leader—

Abu Bakr As-Siddiq, for some reason or another saw some things in this man that do not be fit position of authority, so he was very honest with that man. He told the man, "Don't be a leader".

So also when you see something wrong in your brother, correct them. It's fine. It's okay. Do it in a very nice way.

AS A LAYMAN, HOW EXACTLY DO I KNOW IF A HADITH IS SAHIH OR NOT?

Briefly, Hadith may be classified into two broad categories. (1) Acceptable; and (2) Unacceptable.

For a Hadith to be acceptable/authentic, it has to meet 5 conditions:

1. It must have a continuous and unbroken chain of narrators [FROM THE COMPILER, BACK TO THE PROPHET ﷺ]
2. ALL of these narrators be trustworthy in their character and religion.
3. These narrators have precised memories and make no mistakes. So they must also be trustworthy in their memory.
4. The Hadith not contradict anything more authentic than it. If it does it is called Shadz (شاذ).
5. There has no hidden defects (called 'Ilal (علل)) in the Hadith or its chain. —And this is the most difficult aspect to verify; Only a Hadith master has the capability of doing this.

Any Haidth that meets all of these five conditions is called Sahih (صحيح). —And that is the highest level of Hadith.

If however, one or more of the narrator(s) does not have as strong of memory as others, yet overall he is still reliable and he does have good character and an acceptable memory, then the Hadith will be lowered to the status of Hasan (حسن)/Good. But not as high as Sahih. So a Hasan Hadith differs from a Sahih Hadith in only one of these five conditions (which is, the 3rd condition). It is not that he is weak in his memory, it is just that he might not be as famous as those in the Sahih category (in term of trustworthiness in memory).

If on the other hand, one of these five conditions is not met, and yet at the same time there is no known fabricator or liar in its chain, the Hadith shall be categorized as Weak or even Very-weak —Dhaif (ضعيف) or Dhaif-jiddan (ضعيف جدا). And there are MANY different types of weak Hadith; over 30 different types of weak Hadith.

If a weak Hadith is reported from 2 different chains, (and in general each weak Hadith supports the other one), thus the Hadith itself is raised to a category of Hasan. We call it Hasan-li-ghairihi (حسن لغيره) or Hasan-due-to-external-factors.

A weak Hadith is of doubtful authenticity. We are not sure if the Prophet ﷺ said it or not. —This is in contrast to a Sahih or even a Hasan Hadith where we are pretty certain (or in fact in some cases certain 100%) that the Prophet ﷺ did indeed said that Hadith.

Obviously, if a Hadith is fabricated and Mawdu' (موضوع), there is no doubt in our minds that Prophet ﷺ did not say this Hadith.




Getting back to the topic at hand, we accept Sahih and Hasan Hadith; And we base our theology and our legal law on them. This is the case regardless of whether the Hadith has been narrated through one (Ahad (أحد)) or a few chains of narrations (Mutawatir (متواتر)). Of course there is no doubt that a Mutawatir Hadith is stronger than Ahad Hadith. And Ahad Hadith is not to the level of the Mutawatir. The point being that: an Ahad Hadith is not disqualified merely because it is Ahad. And this is the opinion of ALL of the scholars of Ahlil Sunnah Wal Jama'ah that: an Ahad Hadith can indeed be used for theology and for Fiqh. And there is some slight disagreement amongst the scholars in the finer details of applying this rule, but overall rule is agreed upon, and that is that: an Ahad Hadith is accepted and is something that we should act upon/believe in as long as it is authentic and it has met the five conditions listed above.

Regarding Weak and Very-weak Hadith, then by the unanimous consensus of the scholars, this cannot be used to base our theology on. Some scholars were a bit more lax about taking Weak Hadith in the performance of some voluntary-acts-of-worship. But there is no difference of opinion regarding the inadmissibility of using Weak Hadith for 'Aqidah/Theology. Therefore, any Hadith that is weak regarding our theology cannot and should not be taken as a source of our beliefs.




With this prelude to the actual science, the question that most of you might be asking is:

"How exactly do I know -as a layman- if a Hadith is
Sahih or Dhaif (is authentic or not)???"

Well, to be very realistic and frank : there simply has to be an authority that a layman takes as his or her reference point. In other word: for the layman, there HAS TO BE an element of BLIND FOLLOWING.

Of course, this rule does not apply to Sahih Al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. These two books, -Bukhari and Muslim- are taken as authentic, and each and every Hadith in them, the lay person need not ask anyone else about them, they are authentic.

But this CANNOT BE APPLIED to ANY OTHER work of Hadith including the 4 sunan works: The Sunan of Abu Dawud, and At-Tirmizi, and An-Nasaie, and Ibn Majah. No doubt, these 4 books are -for the most part- more authentic than the other books of Hadith besides that Two Sahih works, yet, there are -in these collections- some Ahadith which are NOT authentic, particularly the sunan of Ibn Majah, it has a significant corpus of weak and very weak Hadith, and even some fabricated narrations.

So the question arises then, -the average layman has to follow an authority because he doesn't know how to analyze the Hadith himself-:

Who should he follow?

This is the question that each and every person needs to decide for himself, -if you wishes to-, have a reference point for Hadith.

Just like every lay person needs to find a scholar (or a few scholars) whom he takes as his reference for Fiqh, similarly, he should try his best to trust some of the specialist in Hadith.

And of course, of the greatest scholars of the past, known as the Khaatimal Huffaadh (The Seal of the Hadith Masters) is Al-Haafidh Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani (died 852 A.H.), a great 'aalim and a great muhaddith. And he is the author of the most important explanation of Sahih Al-Bukhari called "Fath al-Bari" (and not just of Sahih Bukhari; it is the most important and authoritative explanation written on any Hadith book et al).

And there are many other scholars that are famous -past and present-. Of the ones who died in mid part of the last century is Shaykh Ahmed Shaker. Also in our times recently: Shaykh Muhammad Nasiruddin Al-Albani has done much work in Hadith and -in my humble opinion & the opinion of the vast majority of scholars as well-, his work is of extremely great benefit.

And of course the point being: the more that one studies the sciences of Hadith, the more one can judge by himself who he is qualified to take Hadith verdicts from.

Source: Shaykh Yasir Qadhi's lecture - The Mahdi ~Between Fact and Fiction~

The Story of Abu Dzar r.a.

—I'm gonna mention to you the Imam Ahmad version—

Abu Dzar r.a. stated that, "Me, my brother and my mother left our land of Ghifar because our people used to be disrespectful of the Asyhurul Hurum".

—Al-Asyhurul Hurum are four months in which the Arabs used to considered sacred. And this would give them a break from warfare. So they would not allowed killing and war during those four months. And it was a firm tradition among them that you do not break the sanctity of these four months.

The people of Ghifar were different. These were professional raiders of caravans; they didn't care about Asyhurul Hurum and all these stuff. They were Bedouins who would raid caravans, steal, kill, corrupt, and they didn't follow any rules or customs. —These were the people of Ghifar. And they had a bad reputation in Arabia, I mean people in Arabia knew Ghifar; That these people don't abide by the rules and violent.

Abu Dzar r.a., before Islam, he disagreed with this style of life. So he, his brother and mother decided to leave Ghifar.

Just, go out.

So they went and they visited an uncle of theirs who used to be a member of different tribe. And they stayed with him. And Abu Dzar says, "He was very generous and hospitable to us. Very kind".

"But his relatives were becoming jealous of how he's treating us so well".

So what they did: they went up to the uncle of Abu Dzar and they told him, "When you are absent, Unais (Abu Dzar's brother) goes and visits your wife. And he's interested in her".

The uncle quite naively, went to Abu Dzar and Unais and mentioned to them what he heared. He said, "People are saying that Unais is interested in my wife".

Abu Dzar was angry and upset, for this was false. He was very angry and he said, "All of the good that you have done to us, you have cancelled it. All of your hospitality, your kindness, is gone after this accusation of yours".

And they immediately packed up and left.

Abu Dzar said, "My uncle was quite sorry and regretful for what he's done and he wrapped himself in a cloth and was crying. But we were so angry and we just left".

And now they settled in a place close to Makkah. Abu Dzar says, "My brother Unais went to do some business in Makkah. And he met a man who claims to be a prophet". —He met Muhammad s.a.w.

So Unais came back and said, "I found a man who is preaching a new religion: Worshiping Allah alone".

Abu Dzar said, "And at that time, I have already worshiped Allah for three years; and revoked all of the worshiping of idols, and renounced it". —Subhaanallah. You see these people; their fitrah guides them and tells them that [this is wrong], [this is false].

Abu Dzar says, "I've been praying to Allah for three years".

So Abu Dzar was asked, "How were you praying to Allah?".

He said, "I would pray to whichever direction Allah would point me to, and I would pray in whatever way Allah would guide me to. And I would pray at night until I fall asleep. And only the sun would wake me up in the morning".

So he would pray. He doesn't know how to pray, but he would pray to Allah s.w.t.

For three years.

—[Back to our main story] Abu Dzar asked his brother Unais, "What does he (Muhammad s.a.w.) teach?".

So Unais mentioned some of the teachings of Islam that he learned from Rasulullah s.a.w. and then Abu Dzar asked, "What are the people saying about him (Muhammad s.a.w.)?"

Unais said, "They're claiming that he's a sorcerer, a magician, a liar...(and he went down the list)".

Abu Dzar said, "You haven't satisfied my hunger. I want to go and investigate the matter myself".

—What the people say might not necessarily be right.

The media of Makkah, the 'CNN' of the day, or the 'ABC', or whatever you call it, had all of these labels that they would brand Rasulullah s.a.w. with. But Abu Dzar did not have trust in what the people are saying. He would have to go and meet Rasulullah s.a.w. and hear it from the messenger himself.

And that is what a Muslim is required to do.

—Tabayyanu—

Allah s.w.t. says, "When you receive some information, verify it".

And that's where our scholars learned the science of Hadith. They would verify it. It's not just enough to hear a Hadith narrated from someone. The scholars use to say, "Whenever they would hear a Hadith, they would say [Mention the name of your man; Where did you hear this from; Tell us the name; We want to know who you got this information from]".

We just don't follow any hearsay.

—Abu Dzar said, "I went in to Makkah and I asked the first man I saw in front of me; I told him [Can you please guide me towards Muhammad s.a.w.?]."

"That man immediately started calling the men of Quraisy and they started pelting me with stones, rocks, and whatever they could get their hands on, until I fell unconscious".

"By the time I woke up, I was like Nusub Ahmar".

—A Nusub: The people of the Quraisy used to have this stones/idols, which where they would slaughter and sacrifice their animals over. So they would be soaked with blood. That is the description Abu Dzar gave of himself: Soaked with blood from head to toe.

"So I went to the well of Zamzam, I drank water and I washed the blood off my body. And then I went next to Al-Ka'bah."

—In the narration of Imam Ahmad, it says that he stayed there for three days. Not knowing where to meet Rasulullah s.a.w.

Abu Dzar said, "I did not have any food for the entire period except for drinking the water of Zamzam".

—Now I think physicians can tell us that a person can survive by drinking water for quite a while. So maybe that's not such a surprise. But the surprising thing is what comes next.

Abu Dzar said, "And I started picking up weight until I was getting folds on my stomach".

—You know, for the Bedouins, they would have flat tummies. Hhhh.. They're very fit.

—Abu Dzar said, "I was gaining weight. And now the flesh on my stomach was folding".

—You know, when you sit down, and the flesh on the stomach folds?

—Abu Dzar states that he then saw two women making tawaf, and they would touch Isaaf and Naila on every turn.

[Side Story 1] — What's the story of Isaaf and Naila?

Isaaf and Naila are man and woman; who were in love. And they couldn't get married. And they had an appointment/a date to meet next to Al-Ka'bah. And they intended to fornicate next to the house of Allah.

Allah s.w.t. turned them into stones on the spot.

After the passage of some time, the Musyrikin of Quraisy started worshiping them; Started worshiping these two stones: Isaaf and Naila. —To show you, how when you open the flood gate for Syaitan, you can't close it. He just throws you in dungeons of darkness. Can never get out of it. This is spiral. If you get in, you never come out. Darkness over darkness. One vail after another.

[Side Story 2] — Now, the story of idol worshiping actually started as erecting statues after righteous men die. —Syaitan came to the people of Nuh a.s., then told them, "After the righteous men have passed away, why don't you erect statues of these righteous men so that they would remind you about Allah"; Syaitan came to teach them good; for Syaitan said, "They would remind you about Allah s.w.t.".

So the people of Nuh did that.

And then after a few generations, Syaitan start telling them, "Worship them (idols)".

—That's how the idol worshiping grew.

[Back to the Main Story] — So here you have Isaaf and Naila being worshiped. And these two women would make tawaf and they would touch Isaaf and Naila on every turn.

Now Abu Dzar despised idol worshiping, so he threw out a comment.

He said, "Why don't you make one of them (Isaaf and Naila) have intercourse with the other?".

Either the women did not understand what he said, or they didn't believe what they heard, they continued the tawaf.

When Abu Dzar saw that his words did not deter them, he threw out an even cruder comment. Hhh. And I'm not gonna metion it.

Now the women were sure of what they heard. They immediately just started running and screaming. Wailing down the streets of Makkah. —And who they did run into?: Muhammad s.a.w. and Abu Bakr.

Muhammad s.a.w. and Abu Bakr are seeing these two women running in the streets screaming.

"What's wrong with you?"

They said, "That heretic over there".

Rasulullah s.a.w. said, "What's the matter with him?".

They said, "He spoke a word that filth the mouth". —In another word: something that is unspeakable/very bad words.

Rasulullah s.a.w. and Abu Bakr went to meet this man (Abu Dzar r.a.) and they started the conversation.

Rasulullah s.a.w. asked Abu Dzar, "Where are you from?".

Abu Dzar said, "I am from Ghifar".

Rasulullah s.a.w. placed his hand on his forehead.

Abu Dzar said Rasulullah s.a.w. was surprised and amazed to see somebody from Ghifar coming to Makkah in search of the truth. —From Ghifar? These people who raid caravans? The ones who do not follow any rules or any customs? —And he is searching for the truth in Makkah.

—"And the people of Makkah, the ones who are considered to be the religious authority of Arabia are rejecting my messege".

Abu Dzar said, "I felt that he might have disliked that I mentioned that I'm from Ghifar. So I extended my hand to pull Rasulullah s.a.w.'s hand from his forehead".

"Abu Bakr slammed my hand and told me, [put your hand down]".

And then the conversation continued and Abu Dzar ended up embracing Islam.

Rasulullah s.a.w. told Abu Dzar, "Keep your Imaan secret".

Abu Dzar went out the next day; Rather than keeping his Imaan secret, he went in front of the people of Quraisy, and said "أشهـد أن لا إله الا الله وأشهـد ان محمد رسـول الله". Hhh.

He doesn't care about the consequences.

He said, "The people of Quraisy gathered around me and they beat me up; so bad. I was gonna die".

Until 'Abbas bin Abdul Muthalib came in and said, "Do you know where this man is from?" —Just one question.

"He is from Ghifar".

"Immediately they just run away".

All what you would see is them fleeing; Running away from him.

But Abu Dzar did the same thing next day. And he did the same thing third day. And everyday, the same thing would happen; they would come and beat him up until Al Abbas comes and tells this new group of people who are hitting him that, "The man is from Ghifar".

Al Abbas said, "And you know if this man gets killed by you, none of your trade will make it safely to Syria. They're gonna take revenge of you".

—Rasulullah s.a.w. then told Abu Dzar, "Go back to your people and convey the message to them. And when you hear that I prevailed, come to me".

—How long did Abu Dzar stayed with Rasulullah s.a.w.? —Quite a short time.

—How much did Abu Dzar learned from Rasulullah s.a.w.? —Probably not a lot. A few verses, a few Ahadith here and there; And that was it.

—Abu Dzar went back to his people; Ghifar. And he started giving them da'wah. Slowly and slowly, people were accepting Islam among the people of Ghifar.

Abu Dzar said, "By the time Rasulullah s.a.w. made Hijra, almost half of my tribe were Muslim; The whole tribe of Ghifar. And then we decided to go and visit Rasulullah s.a.w. and the rest of the tribe have said, [When Rasulullah s.a.w. arrives; when we go and meet him, we will become Muslim]".

So now the whole tribe is Muslim. All of them are Muslim.

The other half just said, "We're gonna wait. It's the matter of time but then we'll become Muslim". And they did.

So one day when Rasulullah s.a.w. was in Madinah, they see in the horizon this 'dust cloud'. Sign of an army approaching; —Large group of people.

So some of the Sahabah rushed to their weapons, thinking that, "Maybe an army is approaching us". But Rasulullah s.a.w. said, "Be Abu Dzar". And the prophecy of Rasulullah s.a.w. was true.

It was Abu Dzar and all of his tribe of Ghifar coming to pledge their allegiance to Rasulullah s.a.w.

The entire tribe.

—Now; there was rivalry between two tribes: Ghifar and Aslam.

When Aslam heared that Ghifar became Muslim and they went and pledged allegiance to Rasulullah s.a.w., the Aslam immediately went to Rasulullah s.a.w. and said, "We also want to become Muslim".

Two tribes.

Rasulullah s.a.w. said, "Ghifar, may Allah forgive them. And Aslam, may Allah give them peace".

All of it started by the work of one man.

And how much did 'this man' know? Was he a scholar at the time? —No. He just knew a few ayat. It is later on that Abu Dzar came to learn a lot. But at that stage, he just spent a few days with the Rasulullah s.a.w.; And that was it. —All of Ghifar became Muslim. —The last people in the desert that you would expect to accept Islam; they did become Muslim.

What can we learn from the Story of Abu Dzar?

Number One

The ones who search for guidance, Allah will give it to them.

Abu Dzar investigated the matter and Allah showed him the light; showed him the truth.

Number Two

Rasulullah s.a.w. says, "Convey even one verse from me".

Whatever you have, convey it. —Share it; Teach it; Don't keep it to yourself.

Number Three

Courage.

Abu Dzar is an example of person who have courage. He wasn't intimidated by the fact that he's a foreigner in Makkah. He stood and said, "I am a Muslim". And he was proud. And he paid for it dearly.

And then he went to his people and preached the message to them.

So this shows you the courage of the personality of Abu Dzar. Which is shown again and again and again by the Sahabah of Rasulullah s.a.w.; And this reveals to us the inherit qualities that they had.

And this is also one of the reasons why Allah s.w.t. chose them to be the bearer of the message; Because they had simplicity, and they had courage, and they had honesty, and they had commitment to a course; When they believe in something, they commits their life to it.

Number Four

Verifying the truth.

Just because the people say, "He's a sorcerer, a liar, a magician"; that doesn't mean anything. You have to go to the source and verify the information yourself.

Allah has given you a mind. Allah has given you intelligence. Use it. Don't just follow what the people are saying.

Rasulullah s.a.w. says that, "Don't be an 'Imma'ah".

And when he was asked what is the meaning of 'Imma'ah, he said, "Whenever the people say yes, you say yes. And whenever they say no, you say no". —Don't just follow.

Number Five

لا تحقرن من المعروف شيئاً ولو أن تلقى أخاك بوجه حسن \ طلق

Rasulullah s.a.w. says in this Hadith, "Do not belittle any good deed. Even if it is as small as smiling in the face of your brother". —Don't belittle anything.

Whatever good there is, don't consider it to be insignificant. Because everything good is significant, and maybe that small thing will make a difference on the Day of Judgement for you. And it will be the criteria between Hellfire and Paradise.

Maybe one small deed that you would do; which you don't pay any attention to, would take the scale to your side for your favor.

And how do we deduct this lesson from the Story of Abu Dzar?

—Abu Dzar r.a.; He learned very little and all what he went to did was propagate the message. And maybe he never expected that this small effort of his would end up causing the whole tribe of Ghifar and the whole tribe of Aslam to become Muslim.

Maybe he only felt that he could convince a few group of people; maybe a few of his relatives.

But for this work to end up bearing the fruits of two major tribes becoming Muslim; maybe Abu Dzar never thought about that.

—But you throw the seed. And Allah s.w.t. will make it grow.

And I mentioned to you one contemporary example about how sometimes you would do something very small and you would never pay attention to it, but it will make a big difference.

And there is a Hadith by the way, that says, "A person might speak a word that will please Allah; and they don't pay attention to it; but Allah s.w.t. will raise them up -levels- because of that. And a person might speak a word that will anger Allah; and because of that they will be thrown in Hellfire (Na'uudzubillah)".

It's the matter of a word. Here or there.