For the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation

The Shaykh : As for after: For the best of speech is the speech of Allah, and the best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and the worst of matters are their innovations, and every innovation is a religious innovation, and every religious innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in the Fire. Our previous lesson from the book "Al-Adab al-Mufrad" by the Imam al-Hafiz al-Bukhari reached the ninety-fifth hadith after the two hundred, and its chain of narration is authentic: From al-Nu'aym ibn Sam'an al-Ansari, that he asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) about righteousness and sin? He said: .
In this hadith, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) explains righteousness and sin in response to the one who asked about both, explaining them with an explanation contrary to what is commonly understood and known among people, because righteousness linguistically is doing good in all its types and forms, and sin is the exact opposite of that, it is everything that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden, and its doer deserves sin and punishment on the Day of Resurrection. This and that is the definition of righteousness and sin, but we find the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in his answer to the questioner's question about righteousness and sin coming with each of them with an explanation other than the customary explanation, explaining righteousness as good character, knowing that good character is a part of righteousness, not all of righteousness. Righteousness, which is doing good, includes everything that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has prescribed in Islam, from what falls under the general obligatory acts and what falls under the general recommended acts. All of this is righteousness, this is its broad meaning in language and the Shari'ah. But we found the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) here explaining righteousness as good character, and this is a style known in the Arabic language, that the whole is explained by a part of it. Righteousness, as we mentioned, is all the attributes of goodness and all the attributes of obedience and worship, and the Messenger (peace be upon him) here explains righteousness with good character, and good character is a part of the attributes of goodness which the word righteousness gathers. This is a style of explaining a general term with a more specific term to draw attention to the importance of this part relative to that whole. From the known examples in the language from the words of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and others, for example, the mentioned hadith in which the Messenger (peace be upon him) says: Does Hajj mean standing at 'Arafah? Meaning, if a man stood at 'Arafah only and did not do anything of the tawaf or sa'y, nor the overnight stay in Mina or Muzdalifah, would he have performed Hajj? The answer: No, Hajj has pillars, conditions, and obligatory acts. So what is the meaning of the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him): ? Here appears the explanation of righteousness with good character, due to the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him): Hajj includes standing at 'Arafah. Hajj is tawaf, and it is sa'y between al-Safa and al-Marwah, and it is an overnight stay in Muzdalifah and standing at 'Arafah. When the Messenger (peace be upon him) said: , it means that this is a very important matter. Standing at 'Arafah is a very important matter, as if it were the whole of Hajj. So this is an exaggeration to draw the listener's attention to the importance of standing at 'Arafah, as if standing at 'Arafah is the whole of Hajj, but the truth is that it is known by the Shari'ah that standing at 'Arafah is a pillar of the pillars of Hajj, and it is not the whole of Hajj. But the Arabic expression came this way: to indicate the importance of standing at 'Arafah, not to restrict Hajj to 'Arafah only. Similarly, for example, when the Arab man says: "There is no young man except Ali, and no sword except Dhu al-Fiqar." Is it true that there are no young men other than Ali? There are many young, brave, heroic young men among the Companions, Khalid ibn al-Walid and Usamah ibn Zayd, and so on. So when the one who says: "There is no young man except Ali," he does not mean in truth that there are no young men in the Companions other than Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), but he means that he is the most important, bravest, and most heroic young man, otherwise there are many other young men.
If we know these examples from the language of the old Arabs, it is easy for us to understand here how he (peace be upon him) explained righteousness with good character, even though righteousness is known by the text of the Qur'an: and . So how did the Messenger (peace be upon him) say to the one who asked about righteousness: , meaning that this is one of the most important things that came in Islam, which is good character, and as if good character is the whole of righteousness, but righteousness is a broader meaning than good character, just as Hajj is broader in actions than standing at 'Arafah, but standing at 'Arafah is one of the most important of those actions. So good character is one of the most important attributes and meanings of righteousness known in Islam. So let no one find it difficult how the answer to the question of righteousness came with his saying: , meaning where is the prayer, where is the fasting, where is the Hajj, where is the obedience, and the like? The answer: The Messenger (peace be upon him) explained good character to indicate the importance of good character among all the attributes of righteousness. And it is not far-fetched that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), when he answered this question, may have noticed in the questioner something of bad character and roughness of nature, so he gives every person what suits him of description and treatment. So he did not see him (peace be upon him) as turning away from the obedience of Allah and the obedience of His Messenger, but he perhaps found in him something of bad character and sharpness of nature, so he (peace and blessings be upon him) wanted to make clear to him the importance of good character in Islam, until good character is almost the whole of righteousness, so he said to him: .