Sincerity

We must be sincere in life especially towards the Creator who has created us and who has granted us everything that we need. Otherwise, our dishonesty can lead us very far. And sometimes this can be irreparable. Sincerity towards the Creator demands that we worship Him alone and that we do not allow anything to surpass His commandments. We must love Him more than everyone else. That is, we should not please someone by displeasing Him. Even if the entire Dunya opposes us, still we should continue to remain in His obedience. Many people claim that they are sincere towards their Creator and obviously they must say this itself as no one likes to be called a hypocrite. But there is a big difference between what a person says and what he is in reality. The behaviour of a person in his daily life can give you an exact idea of ​​what the person is.

A youngster who had kept a beard for a considerable amount of time in applying the Sunnah of his Nabi (Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam) will even shave his beard merely due to a girl who is not willing to marry someone who has a beard. This youngster has pleased this girl. There is nothing wrong in trying to adapt to someone with whom you want to marry or in trying to please her. But just like everything, this also has a limit. You have the right to do it as long as it does not make you transgress a command of Deen. This youngster has committed a big blunder and a big mistake by shaving his beard because this is prohibited in Deen. Nevertheless, it is extremely serious but people do not take it as such because it has become a fashion. And this has minimised its importance. It’s like one who is living in a dirty and unclean environment but he does not smell the odour of impurity because he is used to it. He may perhaps not feel well if he does not smell it.

Will you consider a son sincere who disregards his parent despite them being right, just to please his wife? If he is not considered sincere, then how can this youngster regard himself sincere towards his Rabb when he took into consideration the pleasure of the girl in the first place? How can he be sincere when he has disobeyed his Rabb to please a girl?

This is just one example. How many similar things happen to us daily? If we analyse these things, we will get to know how sincere we are towards our Rabb.

There is another type of hypocrisy that we are developing to please the non-Muslims. If the non-Muslims appreciate certain things, we tend to make others believe that it is appreciable in Islam also and yet this can be something very serious. For example, our modern "preachers" tend to prove that soft music or photography of animated things is allowed in Islam. There are also those who have had the audacity to qualify a suit of clothes such as jeans, a blouse and a small scarf on the head as an Islamic outfit for woman. And yet this does not satisfy the conditions of Pardah which a Muslim woman must adopt.

It is true that this amount is encouraging in a time where indecency and immorality have invaded the society but nevertheless it is not sufficient. This is encouraging in the sense that this can improve over the years but at the same time, we must understand that it is not sufficient because it does not satisfy the conditions of Pardah. If a person advocates only this amount for the Pardah which has been advocated in Islam, then he is not propagating Islam, rather he is distorting it.

If we are sincere towards Allah Ta'ala, we will be convinced that everything that Islam has prescribed is true, even if sometimes we cannot understand the wisdom behind it. Moreover, we will never feel an inferiority complex in front of the so-called intellectuals who have the audacity to object to these laws.

We must understand that the law of stoning exists well and good in Islam. The law to amputate the hand of those who steal also exists. Likewise, there is capital punishment for those who renounce Islam after accepting it. Islam is already a beauty in itself and does not require any camouflage or makeup. Therefore, there is no need to conceal something from it with the impression that it can be a bad image for Islam. Allah Ta'ala knows what is good and what is not good. Allah Ta'ala knows the meaning of justice and tyranny. Do we need someone else to teach this to us? If we have Imaan, we will accept it when we know that it is a command from Allah Ta'ala even if we cannot justify it.

Having an inferiority complex in front of the non-Muslims concerning these laws and other laws in Islam indicates a deficiency and a great shortcoming in Imaan and Yaqeen (conviction) of the person. It is completely against sincerity that a person must have to be a good Muslim.

[English version of "Sincèrité" – Al Jamiat – Vol.5 No.5]