40 Hadiths on Social Justice
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Hadith #11 – Don't "Shortchange" Anyone
It was narrated that Ibn Abbas said, “When the Prophet came to Al-Madinah, they were the worst people in weights and measures. Then Allah, Glorious is He, revealed: "Woe to the mutaffifeen (those who shortchange others)," and they became the best of people in how they dealt with weights and measures after that.” [Ibn Majah]
Shortchanging, or tatfeef, is to cheat or be stingy in the way you give back. Sh. Omar Suleiman describes the different concepts of tatfeef and how we can avoid shortchanging others.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Bismillahir rahmanir raheem. Alhamdulillahi rabbil alameen. Wassalatu wassalamu ala rasulihi al kareem. Wa ala anhi wa sahbihi wa salamu tasliman kathira. So as is the case with every halaqan class, the numbers start to dwindle. But inshallah those that are consistent are taking notes and keeping up with it. Just to remind everyone, the notes are being taken every week and they're being put up on the website at yaqeeninstitute.org. So if you go to yaqeeninstitute.org you'll see the notes there. And in fact you can subscribe to the email list of Yaqeen and you'll actually have them emailed to you inshallah ta'ala. But I think that again we're moving into concepts that are often constricted to one or two applications. We think of them in one or two ways. And one of the goals of this series is to actually broaden our concepts, to broaden some of these themes that we see that are specific to financial transactions, or specific to social interactions, but then talk about how the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is really addressing a behavior and a concept in a much bigger way. And so many of you might have heard, or you should have heard if you've read the Quran, the term al-mutaffifoon. There's a surah in the Quran called al-mutaffifoon, waylun lil-mutaffifeen. Al-mutaffifeen or al-mutaffifoon. And this is a term that has many many different applications and meanings to it. But I'll start off with the hadith, and that'll actually be the hadith, the narration that we'll go off of today, that mentions the reason for the revelation of this verse. Ibn Abbas narrates that when the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam came to the city of Medina,
when he arrived in the city of Medina, he said that the people used to cheat with their weights and their measures. And in fact he says, he uses strong language, he says, lamma qadiman nabiyyu salallahu alayhi wa sallam al-madina kanu min akhbathi al-nasi kayla that they were the worst of people in cheating with scales. Meaning there was a reputation in the markets of Medina, in the marketplaces of Medina, particularly you have Suq Banu Quraizah, which was the most famous marketplace, where people used to cheat with their weights, they used to cheat with the scales. Fa anzal Allahu ta'ala, so Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala revealed, waylun lil-mutaffifeen, woe to those who cheat with measures and weights. Woe to those who cheat with measures and weights. And Ibn Abbas says, fa ahsanu al-kayla ba'da thalik, they became the best of people in the way that they dealt with one another, with their weights and their measures after that. Meaning people started to take very close account of how they would do business, of whether they were cheating the person in front of them or not. And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala continues, waylun lil-mutaffifeen, and he highlights, alladheena idha kta'alu min al-nasi, what is the word that's used? Okay, yastawfoon, wa idha kaloohum awwazanoohum, yukhsiroon. Alright, so what does this mean in Arabic? Because there are actually two different forms of tatfeef, two different forms of this concept. And the word that I'm, the definition that I'm going to give for tatfeef, mutaffifoon are people who do tatfeef, tatfeef is to shortchange, tatfeef is to shortchange. Mutaffifoon are people that shortchange. I don't know if shortchangers is a word or not, alright, but people who shortchange. So Allah gives it two different meanings. Those who when they take their measure, when they take their weights, when they take their product, they take it in full.
But whenever they're in the place of distribution, they cause loss to the other party. They're two separate things. When they take their right, they take it in full. When they give the right that's due upon them, they minimize it. You know, someone asked in the Q&A, I think last week or the week before, what's the problem with insurance, the contract of insurance in Islam? Why did the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, not like the concept of insurance? The concept of people pooling their money together and people that are, this is another topic for another day, but let's say for example, one of the practical applications, a bunch of fishermen put some money into a pool and basically that money will be used to protect their boats. So if one of their boats is damaged, then they'll take from that pool to take care of their boat. That's fine. It's actually an Islamic concept. There's nothing wrong with that. But the concept of insurance where there's risk and there's gambling, and the idea of the insurance company is to give you as little as possible while making sure that they collect their full payment from you. That's where you start to have what's known as gharar. There's a form of cheating in that. You take your full, you take your maximum payment, but you do your minimum responsibility. So Allah describes it in that way. And just for the sake of those who are into the tafsir of these verses, Imam al-Sudi, he says that there was a particular man by the name of Abu Juhayna in Medina. Abu Juhayna was a master salesman basically. So when he would collect his payments, when he would collect his waste, he had a way of playing with his hands and playing with the scales. So he made sure that he tipped it up a little bit. But whenever he would distribute, he would always have a way of playing with it just to take a little bit more. And he basically made his money off of quantity. So if you cheat a bunch of people with ten cents, but you have quantity, then that becomes a lot of money.
So these ayat were revealed in accordance to him. In addition, Imam bin Kathir says, al-tatfif, al-baqs fil mikyal wal-mizan. So it's to cheat or to be stingy or to be unfair in the way that you collect and in the way that you give back. All of this goes back to, and it's really interesting because Allah SWT ends this discourse by saying, yawma yaqoomu an-naasi li rabbil alameen. But the day will come where everybody is gathered before the Lord of the worlds. And so the scales will take place there. Allah SWT will fulfill everyone's right and will make sure that everyone is repaid in full. And Allah's scales are unlike any other scales. And there's a very powerful narration, just to think about the scales of Allah and then how he projected onto this discussion. Allah SWT, the scales that he will use on the Day of Judgment, the Prophet, peace be upon him, he said that if you were to put the entire heavens and the earth in the scales that Allah will use on the Day of Judgment, la wasi'atum aw la wazinatum, it would fit them and it would weigh them accurately. That Allah will not wrong anybody. So there's something profound, the wazinatum, so imagine if everything was put in there, God will weigh it to the exact detail, to the exact decimal, right? Everything to the exact detail. That means that Allah won't cheat anyone on the Day of Judgment. He may by his mercy tip the scale towards the good. But Allah will never tip the scale towards evil. So Allah out of his mercy may allow, just like the Prophet SAW mentioned that the card of the testimony of faith, that card of the testimony of faith, la ilaha illallah Muhammad Rasulullah, that testimony of faith would come into the scale of good deeds and it would cause the scale of bad deeds, all the books to go flying out.
Just that testimony, that acknowledgement. So Allah will tip the scale in a way that's favorable to some of his servants, but Allah will not look at someone on the Day of Judgment that was rebellious and a transgressor and say, you know what, let's give him an extra sin. So Allah does the opposite of what he's condemning in this Quran, right? What he's condemning in these words. Those who when they take their right, they take it in full, but when they distribute, they distribute it deficient. Allah takes his right and it's inherently deficient because we cannot give Allah his due right upon us. وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِي You are incapable of giving Allah his due right upon you. But when Allah SWT gives, he's shakur, he gives you way more than you deserve. And remember that the goal is to actually amplify or to exemplify the traits of Allah, the attributes of Allah, when there is a human application of them, that's the best way to do tatbiq, to fulfill the right of that name upon you. Most merciful, then be merciful yourself. Most just, then be just yourself. So in this case, look at how Allah deals with you. فَلْيَعْفُوا وَلْيَصْفَحُوا أَلَىٰ تُحِبُّونَ يَغْفِرُوا اللَّهُ لَكُمْ Don't you want Allah to forgive you, so forgive others. So in this situation here, Allah says the mutaffifeen are people that do the opposite of what Allah does with them. They do the complete opposite. Now this is just in businesses, and there are some modern day applications to this, many of them. Especially as money is disappearing from trading with currency, and it's becoming just these imaginary dots and numbers and figures on a computer screen, right? Where an entire crash, a crisis could be caused by pressing a button or by deleting a number. So it's a lot easier to do tatbif now than it was back then. Back then you've got to find a way to play with the scales. Now in the financial sense, to cheat someone,
to take a little bit more, to throw in some percentages into the contract, to round up for yourself but round down when you give to somebody else, that's all a lot easier, and we don't pay as much attention to it because of the way that money works today. So it's something that we have to pay attention to. And the fact that this was so strong, you imagine, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when he first got to Medina, Allah SWT saw it as a priority to condemn this practice. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam has not been there yet for a long enough time, but Allah already saw that as a priority. So we have to pay close attention in the way that we deal with one another, that it's so easy to just deduct a little bit more, or to give a little bit more. Now here's the thing. How do we broaden this concept? Because tawtfeef, as we recognize it, in the sense of playing with scales or playing with the weights, sometimes we restrict it to the financial sense, but there are other ways that the companions understood this word, tawtfeef, to shortchange. Is it possible to shortchange your Lord? Now, people try to cheat Allah, but they actually cheat themselves, right? But this is a very beautiful narration. Umar ibn Khattab radiAllahu ta'ala anhu, he once left the Asr prayer and he found a man that didn't attend the Asr, out of laziness. So he said to him, what kept you from the Asr prayer? And the man made some excuse to him, and Umar radiAllahu ta'ala anhu said, tawtfeef, you are shortchanging Allah, right? You are not giving Allah his full right upon you. Why were you just making some lazy excuse? Don't be excused. Don't make up excuses. There's another hadith where some of the scholars actually say it's mawqoof, it stops at Umar, it's not a saying of the Prophet, salallahu alayhi wasalam, but someone was praying and they were rushing through their prayers.
You did not give Allah the full rukur, the full standing, the full sajda, the full prostration. And realize that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said that that is the invalid prayer. He made a man repeat his prayer until he recognized that at the very least, in every position of prayer, you should have a moment where your bones stop, where your body actually finds or settles in that posture, in that position. So if a person does this, Allahu Akbar, sami'aAllahu liman hamida, and then jumps into sujood before they straighten up their back and they actually stop and take a moment to recite their remembrances, or between the prostrations, between the sajdas, they don't actually relax for a moment, they don't actually settle into that posture, that is tatfeef. And so the Messenger, salallahu alayhi wasalam, saw this person in this situation and said, la tatfeef min salatik. Don't shortchange your prayer. Don't cheat your prayer. You're not giving that right. You're taking away from those basic rights. It appears to be fulfillment, but it's not fulfillment. And all it takes is an extra few seconds, but you're already on something else. Your mind is already on something else. This is your time for God. Give it to Him. Do not shorten it in a way that would be cheating. And of course those who cheat Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in reality only cheat themselves. You cannot truly cheat Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Now if you brought in tatfeef, there are so many applications that the scholars mentioned. So some of them mentioned tatfeef in regards to the student. You guys are really going to hate this one. But the ulama mentioned that talib al-ilm, adab talib al-ilm, from the mannerisms of a student of knowledge is that they arrive early to the lectures, that they are prepared, that they're enthusiastic, that they take notes,
that they're actually giving the right of that knowledge that's being disseminated to them. So some of them mentioned that. So playing with your phone while someone's trying to teach you is tatfeef. You're supposed to be giving a teacher, a scholar, and I'm not talking about myself, we're talking about Shaykh Yasir on Wednesday, give them their right. So some of the scholars mentioned it in regards to attention. The Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam when he was sitting with his companions and he had a ring on his finger and he looked at his ring a few times and he didn't give them the attention that he usually used to give to his companions. What did he do? He took off his ring and threw it to the side and apologized to them because he wasn't giving them his undivided attention. That could be tatfeef, because they have a window of time, they have a right upon you in that moment, and you're not giving them that. On the other hand, a teacher that doesn't prepare properly, and I prepare like 120 hours, no, I'm just kidding, but I prepare right for my classes, but if I don't prepare properly when I'm going to lecture, when I'm going to teach, then I'm doing tatfeef to the student that took the time to come and listen and learn, but they were not taught properly. That's tatfeef to the students. To favor, in the concept of a classroom, to be unfair to one and to be lenient to others, to do tatfeef with the one you're being unfair to, because you're shortchanging them, you're not giving them their full right upon you. And in regards to the employees, or in regards to our families, preferring one child to the other, you're doing tatfeef to one of those children, you're shortchanging them, because you're giving preference to one over the other without reason. Tatfeef is when, some of the scholars mentioned, this is very powerful, they said if you get into an argument with your spouse, and because of that your kids have to suffer, other people have to suffer, what did your kids do to you in order to suffer?
What was their fault to you? So you're doing tatfeef with your children. Tatfeef with the spouse. How is there tatfeef with the spouse? Remember, it comprises of two things. You take your full and you give your minimum. And in fact, you shortchange what's due upon you. You take more than, the full of what you deserve, you're right, but you give the minimum. So Ibn Abbas, may Allah bless him, is a very famous example, where he said that, before he used to get into his house, he used to dress up, and he used to put on some cologne and straighten himself out, comb his beard, and people would make fun of him. And he would say, look, I like to look good for her, just like I like her to look good for me. And he said, and on the Day of Judgment, look at the words he used, just like I want that from her, I do it for her. So he said, and on the Day of Judgment, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will ask me of the rights that were due upon me and the rights that I gave. And I want the rights that I gave to be more than the rights that I took, so that Allah could fill in that gap. So I want the rights that I gave to surpass the rights that I took, because I want Allah to show ihsan to me, to show excellence to me. Because if I fall short, but she doesn't, she gives more, then that means that I wronged her in that gap. I did tatfeef. There is a form of tatfeef. I shortchanged her. Subhanallah, one of the biggest issues with marriage is when we, instead of talking about rahma, or what is the best thing to do, we talk about what's required. And you know that it gets bad when you start talking about it like a business contract, start talking about it like requirements, as opposed to ihsan. Ihsan is not the defining characteristic or the defining trait of the marriage, but instead, hukook, excellence, ihsan is not the defining trait. Instead it becomes a form of rights, and you owe me this and I owe you that, and that's it. It doesn't work that way.
So that could be a form of tatfeef with the person's spouse, for the husband or for the wife. So Allah mentions, wa la hunna mithlu allathee alayhinna. And for them is what is upon them. And for women are the rights that are due upon them from men. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala put this equality in fulfillment of rights. So when one of them transgresses, then one of them is doing tatfeef. One of them is overwhelming or is transgressing the other. And it could be where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam mentioned, al-kufr bil-ashir, that a woman's husband would do everything for her, but then he messes up one time and she says, you've never done anything for me. So that's tatfeef with the goodness that he did, and it's neglecting, just on that one bad spot, neglecting all the good that he did. So that's tatfeef. There's an interesting fatwa here, I'll just share it with you. Imam bin Uthaymeen, rahimahullah, this is actually a question that he was asked. He said, look, a woman is asking, she said, my husband is negligent of his rights to me. So do I have the right to fast, do Siyam, without his permission, even if he's at home not traveling, I just want to do Siyam. So he said, yes, because the scales of justice deem that if he rebels, then she has a right to rebel. And he said, that's why, fa-in a'tadoo alaykum fa-a'tadoo alayhi bimithni ma'atada alaykum. That if they rebel against you, you rebel against them. But he said, what's that going to solve, technically speaking? Yeah, one person goes rogue, the other one goes rogue, but what does that end up creating? What type of situation does it end up creating? So you're doing tatfeef. You guys are going to hear tatfeef all night, you're just going to be sleeping, tatfeef, tatfeef, tatfeef. But hopefully you won't forget the meaning, because then it'll just be some word that you keep on repeating to yourself that you don't know.
So the idea is that every evil that you are met with, you do not respond except with, at the bare minimum, justice. Every evil that you are met with, or every shortcoming that you are met with, you only respond with justice. At the bare minimum. You don't go beyond that justice. You don't go beyond that justice. Instead, you reciprocate with ihsan. The best thing is to reciprocate with excellence. So you forgive the shortcomings to you, and when you fulfill the rights of others upon you, you go above and beyond so that you are not shortchanging them. So if you think about it this way, in every relationship, every single relationship, an employer with an employee, a husband and a wife, a wife and a husband, a father and a child, a mother and a child, a child and the parents, grandparents, a brother and a brother, a friend with a friend, all of these different interactions, and again, in a very tangible way, the financial way, the employer and the employee, one is doing more than what's required of them, and the other is taking advantage of it. It's almost going to always be the case that one is going to be doing more for the other than the other is doing for them. It's almost impossible to have a situation of perfect justice. But that gap should not be so big that it's a situation of vuln, that it's a situation of transgression. So for example, if I have an employee that shows ihsan to the employer, that shows excellence, they don't just do the job, but they do the extra. If that extra is just enough ihsan, and it's out of the goodness of their heart, but I'm not wronging them in their wages, then that's OK. But if that extra becomes a point where it's
a burden upon them that's not being compensated, then it can become tatfeef on my part. I could actually be shortchanging that person. Or if I have an employer with an employee, and when the contracts are written, they're ambitious sometimes. There's the job description that everyone forgets, and no one can recall six, seven months later. And maybe I'm not meeting every condition. But I'm not a horrible employee. I'm still a good employee. I do ihsan in some parts, excellence in some parts. I kind of fall short on others. But at the end of the day, it kind of balances out. But if it gets to a point where I'm being paid more than I really deserve, and I'm not living up to that initial contract, and I'm not living up to that payment, then that's tatfeef on my part. That means that I'm shortchanging my employer. Relationships with our spouses. When we get married, everyone thinks that they're going to be perfect. Well, maybe not. But all these promises are made. But at the end of the day, things will become normal. And if I start to fall short on just some of those things, that doesn't make me a bad person. That doesn't mean I'm failing as a husband or a wife. But if it becomes to a point where it's so dramatic that the other person is showing ihsan and getting slapped in return, then it becomes tatfeef. Then it falls into that realm. وَيْلٌ لِّلْمُطَفِّفِينَ Woe to the shortchangers. Woe to those who hold back. The ulema even extended it, subhanAllah, to brotherhood. OK, so parents is kind of obvious. The tatfeef of a child to a parent. The tatfeef of a parent to a child. Think about it this way. The very famous incident that took place with Umar ibn al-Khattab, radiyaAllahu ta'ala anhum, where a man came to Umar to complain about his son. He said, my son is disobedient. He's not doing right by me. So the son responded and said, well,
does the child have rights over the father? Do I get to have my rights too? So he said, yes. He said, you marry a good other half. So choosing a good mother for you, in essence. So you marry the good other half. You teach them the Quran. There's a third thing that I'm missing. A good name. Choose for them a good name. Good job. So choose a good spouse, a good mother. Choose a good name. And teach them the Quran. Teach them divine revelation. So he said, I got none of that. And his name was Ju'ala, which means beetle. Like, my dad gave me a horrible name. My mom is not good to me. She doesn't teach me anything good. And he never taught me a word of the Quran. So Umar looked at the father and dismissed him. He said, you failed in fulfilling his rights before he could even have a chance to fail in fulfilling his rights to you. So you failed in fulfilling your responsibility to him before you even had a chance. You didn't give him a chance. So you did tafif, basically. You held back too much. You didn't do enough to get that. But there is more often than not, tafif from the child to the parent. The parent gives their all. And it's met with ingratitude as a person grows out of dependence on their parents. They start to shortchange their parents. They shortchange them on a phone call sometimes. Shortchange them in a conversation. Just the extra, just the little things, subhanAllah, that would complete things. And the mu'min has this characteristic, as Al-Ghazali rahimahullah said, that the mu'min has this characteristic that he doesn't leave something until it's complete. He's not mediocre with anything. Not in the way that he fulfills the rights of people upon him or her, and not in the way that they complete tasks. They always make sure that things are complete. You think about sloppiness. Sloppiness can be tafif. Like if I'm painting a wall, and I'm a painter, and I don't bother to take a second look and catch those spots, that's tafif
with the person that hired me. So you make sure that you've completed the painting. There's the person that's detail-oriented, sometimes to a point of being obsessed, because they don't want to wrong. They want to make sure they do the job right. They want to make sure that they give that person their own. So tafif, a job, someone hires you to do any job, not just an employer or an employee. You make sure. You demand your full payment. But what usually happens, subhanAllah, I think about tafif in a modern financial context, aren't there times, aren't there some professions where you don't pay in full before the job is done? And why don't you pay in full before the job is done? Because you want to make sure they're going to do the job right, because that's culture. So I'll give you half now, and I'll give you the other half after you do it. And what happens when sometimes you want to be nice, and you say, well, he seems like a nice guy, and you give him full in advance. Then the job is done wrong. It's not done properly. So that's a modern application of tafif beyond just weights. And by the way, till now, anyone who's in the gold market knows that they adjust the scales, right? That they adjust the scales. Literally, the exact application of tafif in the Quran, adjusting the scales in the gold. I was shocked when I first started getting these types of questions from people that work in the gold market. I was like, really? Muslims do that? Muslims do that? Like, really? Like, this is juz'a amma. You didn't have to get to al-Baqara to the first place. You're in juz'a amma. You're in the 30th juz' of the Quran. And you're literally doing the exact same thing that Allah condemned, to cheat with the scales and the percentages? What is tafif in brotherhood? OK? Tafif in brotherhood. These are some beautiful things that we find from the scholars. Muhammad ibn Sirin, rahimahu Allah. He says, dhulmanni akhik. It is injustice to your brother. An tathkur minhu aswa ma ta'lam.
That you mention the worst of what you know about him. Wa taktum khaira. But then you hide the goodness of that person. So you only mention their negative qualities, and you hide their good qualities. That's tafif. And Imam al-Shafi, rahimahu Allah. I'm telling you, I was going to give a khutbah on this, but I just decided not to. All right, he said, wallahi. He said, I swear. Law asabtu tisa'an wa tisa'een marra. He said that if I was to do good 99 times out of 100, wa akhta'atu marra. And I messed up one time, laa'addu alayya thalik alwahida. Then they would count that one against me. Meaning, when someone hates you, and when someone's out to point something out at you, to point out a flaw, I could do 99 things right. They're going to wait till I make that one mistake, and then jump. That's tafif to your brother. Right? Why? Because they were giving you ihsan 99 times, and you didn't mention that. But they gave you that one shortcoming, or what you perceived as a shortcoming, and you took your full of their flesh. Jump them. Right? So that's also tafif to your brother. And they mentioned, particularly, they said, tafif in the ilama, that people particularly would treat the scholars in a certain way. So in some way, one group of people sanctifies the scholars to where they can make no mistake. And all of their transgressions are forgiven. Another group of people, what they will do is they would wait for that person to make one mistake, and then they would do away with all of their khair, all of their good. There's a beautiful saying from Al-Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, rahimahullah ta'ala. He was talking about Shaykh al-Islam bin Saymiya rahimahullah. Some of his teacher, he talked about his teacher. He said that if you look at Ibn Taymiyyah, because he did so much goodness in his life, and people that didn't like him would try to point at a few mistakes and try to jump him.
He said that all of those don't matter. Even when I disagree with him, he said, you know why? He said, because the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam said that a large body of water never becomes impure. OK? So all of the goodness that he's done drowned out those small impurities. And Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam mentioned kullatayn, or 600 liters in some of the madhhabs, or a river or stream, that even if there is an impurity in it, then the river stays pure. The large body of water stays pure. And he said that's how the ulama should be treated. Right? That if they do so much khair, large bodies of khair, large bodies of water, and the few impurities will not corrupt or pollute the entire body of water. OK, so he said that's how a person should treat their ulama. So all of this is to say, again, waylul lil mutaffifin, woe to those who shortchange. Alladheena idha ktaalu ala al-naasi yastawhoon, wa idha kaloohum aw wazanoohum. All right, so you give. And when you give, you give a short version. When you take, you take it in full. Notice here that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la did not say that when you take, you take extra. You just take your full. But when you give, you don't give your full. You don't give the full rights. You don't fulfill what is upon you. And what I'll say here is that in a culture of tatfif, and when I say a culture of tatfif, I'm not talking about the United States. Actually, it's a global culture. OK, we were talking about bribes last week and things of that sort and the things that have become normalized in many societies, and everybody does it. Right? But in a culture of shortchanging, because naturally, especially in the financial sense or in the contractual sense, when do people resort to tatfif more? There's a certain destructive flaw that grows in society for that to happen. Does anyone know what that flaw is, that spiritual flaw is?
Greed. The more greed there is, the more tatfif there is. The more selflessness there is that's promoted, the more narcissism that's promoted, because we live in a time of just do you, right? Worry about yourself. The more of that destructive behavior that's promoted, the more people will translate that into their transactional behavior. OK? The more that will start to translate in the way that they deal with people. So the tatfif will show, because we're taught to adore ourselves, to worship ourselves, your own happiness, your own indulgence. And someone might be saying, because this is really blasphemous to say in some context. I said this at a university a month ago, and there was a professor that wanted to eat me alive. Like, you're telling people to beat themselves up, and you're telling people to harm themselves, and you're telling people that they shouldn't be happy, that they should prefer. I'm like, actually, that's exactly what I'm saying, the last part, not the first two parts. ويؤثرون على أنفسهم ولو كان بهم خصاص. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la said, people prefer others to themselves, even if that means they're going to hurt a little bit. Not physically, but even if that means they're going to struggle a little bit, they're going to have to make sacrifices. They prefer others to themselves. So yes, it is important for us to say, as people, as believers, that we do promote selflessness. That selflessness is a missing quality in our communities. The idea of putting others before yourself, because if you put others before yourself, then your rights become secondary to the rights that others have upon you. But if it's all about yourself, your indulgence takes precedence over the rights that other people have upon you. So there's a culture of worshiping ourselves, and greed, and the growing gap financially.
The growing gap in the quality of life. The people that are richer getting richer, the people that are poor getting poorer. So in that greed, the growth of greed and selfishness, you're going to have people that live to the utter neglect of everything around them and everyone around them. And guess what? You become the insurance company. You predicate all of your relationships on the basis of how much you can take from that person and how much you have to give to that person. And when it becomes that you have to give to that person more than you're taking from that person, more than you're benefiting from that person, then that person no longer matters to you. That's tatfeef. That is exactly tatfeef. You're the HMO. You're the insurance company. Once the equation switches, you disappear. Tatfeef. Because you no longer feel accountable, responsible. Because now you need to move to a situation where yourself is getting more. So it's get more, more, more. Give less, less, less to people. Financially, spiritually, emotionally, in your relationships, in every single capacity. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala protect us from that. And really just think about the way that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala how does, what does he say after these verses? Ala yadhunna olaika annahum maba'uthuun. Don't these people think that they will one day be resurrected? Don't they understand that one day they're going to be resurrected? Don't they know that they're going to have to be standing in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Like don't they realize that? Look, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not, did not respond to their argument with, you know, if you cheat people in dunya, then you're going to be cheated in dunya too. Allah didn't do that. Even though that is something that happens, as we saw from the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam, some of the hadith we've covered. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala just reminds you,
ala yadhunna olaika annahum maba'uthuun. Like don't you think you're going to be resurrected before Allah? Li yawmin azeem, for a mighty day, okay? And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who will judge everyone, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who will compensate, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who will fulfill, and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is the one who will do what needs to be done, to repair what has been destroyed by someone else. And subhanAllah, the only right on the Day of Judgment that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not forfeit is the right that's not His. Think about that. The only right that He won't forfeit. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala can forgive anything that you've done that involves you and your Lord. But when it comes to someone else, that's up to them. Allah will fulfill their rights. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will not forgive on behalf of someone else. Okay? So those who cheat others and do this tatfeef with others, what does tatfeef mean by the way? Because I've said it like a million times. Shortchanging, good. Alright? Those who do that with others would find that it's done. And one more just reflection that I have on these ayahs, because remember the scales of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and the way that we cheat with each other, right? On the Day of Judgment, it's really interesting because the Prophet salallahu alayhi wasalam gives us this vivid description of a scene where a person falls one deed short, one deed short, okay, of the goodness that's required. And they go around soliciting from other people that one good deed, right? If someone will give me that good deed. And on that day, people are nefsi nefsi. It's just me, me, me. Okay? Just like they're nefsi nefsi now, it's even nefsi nefsi even more on the Day of Judgment, okay? But not one person is willing to give that up to them, to give them that extra deed.
Had they in this world, had they in this world done just one more act of kindness, they wouldn't need to be going around soliciting that on the Day of Judgment. So had they done the opposite of what these ayahs are talking about, just given a little bit more to someone and taken a little bit less, they won't find themselves in that situation on the Day of Judgment. So we ask Allah to protect us from doing tatfeef with our Lord, and tatfeef with our family, and tatfeef with our brothers and sisters, and our friends, and our communities, and our environments, tatfeef in our work, with our employers, with our employees, and in any contract that we undertake. Allahumma ameen. Questions? Yes? Can you introduce yourself, by the way?
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