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Ep: 22: Establishing the Best in Character | Guidebook to God
What does it mean to have good ethics and morality? Watch Sh. Yahya Ibrahim explore how to establish the best character.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. The importance of ethics. Another word for that is akhlaaq. Usually it's wrongly translated as good manners. Akhlaaq, having khuluq, having a demeanor that is pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is a very important concept. And the importance of our ethics as Muslims is one that is unrivaled in our makeup with any of the other nations and traditions that are found on the earth today. You and I must be exemplary because we are the followers of the one who Allah described, wa innaka la'ala khuluqin azeem. Ya Muhammad, I destined for you, I created you to be the one who is on the exalted, unreachable, unblemished, highest standard of ethics, morality and character, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. I wish to explain to you the word khuluq, akhlaaq. So the word khuluq is your physical being, right? Ana makhluq, I am created by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. My physical standing is the khuluq and the khuluq that Allah created me on. But my khuluq is how I use my physical being. My khuluq is the demeanor of the habit of my physical existence. And therefore if you change khlaaq to a dhamma khuluq, therefore you see that it's the same three letter words that define your physical presence and your demeanor or spiritual existence and your way of life. So notice that how you are created is beyond your control. You can be created by Allah tall or short, dark or light, male or female. You are not accountable to Allah on account of the khalaq that you have. And therefore the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he said, inna Allaha la yanzuru ila suwarikum wala ila ajsamikum, walakin yanzuru
ila quloobikum wa a'malikum. Allah does not make note of your physical stature. He doesn't make note of how you were created in your physicality. What he does make note of, what he holds you accountable to is what is in your heart and the actions that are performed congruent of it. What comes out of you and your behavior out of the khalaq is what is important, not how you look, not the shape or color or shade of your skin. And therefore the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam says, kullukum li Adam, all of you are from Adam, wa Adam min turab and Adam was from dust. To Allah it is insignificant and immaterial what your physical standing is, what the color of your skin is, whether you're male or female. What is important is what you've used your creation in. And that's where the word kulluk is. Therefore the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam doesn't make mention of our physical standing but he makes mention of the importance of our character. So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam speaks of our ethics by saying, inna a person la yudriku bi husnu kullukihi, that a person on account of their high standard of ethics, their mighty standard of morality, can reach the level of a person who fasts all day, prays all night. As-sa'imul qa'im, a person who fasted every day of their life, prayed every night, all night of their life. Who can attain that? Nobody can attain that. Even the Prophets of Allah, they would pray part of the night and sleep part of the night. They would fast some of the days and break some of the days. The best of fasting was the fasting of Dawud alayhi as-salam where you would fast one day and break it one day. So how can you reach a level even higher than the Prophets of Allah? He said, on account of good ethics, good morality. Therefore it's important for you and I to pay attention to this. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was a highest example of character and therefore his sunnah becomes the reflection
that you and I seek to establish the best of character in his name, sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallim. When we speak of ethics, when we speak of character, what do we mean? Do we mean it just to be pleasant and to say, thank you and please and forgive me and I'm sorry when it's necessary? What does it mean to be on a high standard of morality of character? Well, it's first to understand that your greatest accountability isn't to the creation and to others, but it is to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. That whether there are people to see you there or not, that your accountability is with Allah. Whether there are cameras trained on you or not, your ethics are maintained. That you do what is right because it's right and you abstain from what is wrong because it's wrong. You don't do what is right because others observe you doing what is right and you expect acknowledgement from them. You don't abstain from what is wrong because other people are there to tell you stop or will hold you accountable. You abstain from error because Allah is always material in your life, in your presence. That he is always there observing you. You are always aware of your place and your dealings with him. So that gives you a higher standard of akhlaq, of character, of ethics, of morality in dealing within yourself and with others. The greatest of importance in your khuluq is established in this beautiful hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. It's a dua of the Prophet ﷺ. Whenever the Prophet would see his image in a mirror or in a reflection in water or something, he would say, Allahumma ahsin khuluqee kama ahsanta khalqee. Oh Allah, beautify my ethics, my morality, my character as you have made perfect and ethical and made perfect my figure and my physicality. As you appreciate the strength and the symmetry of your body, the prevalence of your physical existence, the happiness you enjoy, the sensations you experience, it is also important to make dua
to Allah to increase our prosperity of the soul and our ethics in dealing with each other. The signs of good character is that it is a byproduct of your tawheed and submission to Allah. And therefore a very important standard is tawheed, belief in Allah, knowing Allah is the one true God that we worship, that we hold our devotion to. The only one that we turn to asking for help and seeking assistance from. Having that as a belief increases our ethics and morality in our character, makes us accountable to our families and our friends and our neighbors and our enemies, makes us from those who seek to be pleasing to Allah so that he will allow us to be pleased in this life and the next. Husnul khuluq is the greatest of acts of worship that is most neglected by humanity and human beings. And therefore when a person understands that they can reach the level of the one who fasts and prays every day and every night, but they don't attain that level because they are incapable of establishing a higher standard of character, although it is something that can be achieved. Therefore it is upon myself and you to seek a path to achieving that character. So three important incremental steps, one that will build upon the other. How do I know what is a good character and ethics? I have to learn the shari'ah and the teachings of our deen, the teachings of our nabi, the sunnah of our ethics. I have to learn what is halal and what is haram. What is sunnah and what is bid'ah? What is recommended from what is disliked? What is ethical from what is immoral? I have to learn the fiqh of this deen and therefore the Prophet ﷺ said, man yuridillahu bihi khayran yufaqqihu fideen. The one whom Allah wishes for them good in this life, wishes for them to attain the heights of Jannah in the next life, then Allah allows them a process and a path to learn the fiqh, the understanding, the wisdom,
the jurisprudence of the intricacies of this deen. No one will worship Allah in any better way than through knowledge. When you know what is expected of you and know how to achieve the successes you seek from Allah, you elevate your ibadah and elevate your prosperity. So the first step is to learn, to become acquainted, to study and to take serious our methodology as Muslims in what is right and what is wrong. Number two is to disband from those who we know have bad ethics. And it doesn't matter how much you try to become a truthful person, how much you try to become honest in your dealings, how much you try to become ethical in your behavior, if you have surrounded yourself with friends, with individuals who are dishonest, who do not have a care and a concern for the akhirah, whose whole life is about the here and now, if your whole life is built on a structure of, you know, get it while you can, you know, you only live once, you might as well enjoy life before it's too late, if that is the type of structured environment that you have around you and those are the type of people who have that lower sense of morality, where they believe that this life is a scarcity and there's nothing after it, that you just become fertilizer after you have ended this life, then know that you will never achieve that higher exalted standard of character. Number three and finally, the best place to practice your ethics and character are with those who it's most difficult to practice it with, which is family. You know, subhanAllah, they're always in your face, it's your brother, it's your sister, it's your, you know, your children, your wife, your husband, your mother, your father, it's the people who you have to work harder to and that's why Allah subhanAllah puts it such a high standard of character, that those who obey Allah are those who are also good to their parents. It's the next step, you know, to be good to your, within your relationship with Allah, shows in your
relationship with your parents, because it's so tough to have good character with those who we take for granted. My dad will always forgive me, my mom will always love me, my brother will always be in my life, I can never get rid of them. So we take them for liberty and for granted and that's why having the best of character begins, shows itself in its truest nature with those who you live amongst, who are in your face at all times. It's not with people you meet incidentally once or twice a week, it's with the one who you see every morning and every night, all throughout your day and life that you can't be separable from. May Allah subhanAllah increase our ethics, our morality, our character. May Allah bless us with husnul khuluq, may Allah make husnul khuluq the reason of our shafa'ah on the day of judgment from our Nabi Muhammad salallahu alayhi wa sallam. May Allah bless us with doing better with our family than we seek to do with other people and may Allah subhanAllah repair whatever rifts are there and whatever inconsistencies are there in our character. Nobody wants to have cognitive dissonance that what way they have in their heart is different to what they show in other people and the worst of characteristics that we can have and the lowest of morality and ethics is to be hypocritical, that we appear in one way that we know is inconsistent in our life. Begin inward and let it shine outward.
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