From the explanation of the book "Al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib," the hadith of Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, advise me?

The Shaykh: Indeed, all praise is due to Allah; we praise Him, seek His help, and seek His forgiveness. We seek refuge in Allah from the evil of our own souls and the badness of our deeds. Whoever Allah guides, no one can mislead, and whoever He misleads, no one can guide. And I bear witness that there is no god but Allah alone, with no partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His slave and His Messenger.
, , , As for what follows:
The author (may Allah have mercy on him) says in the eighteenth hadith:
And from Mu'adh, he said: I said: O Messenger of Allah, advise me? He said: . Al-Tabarani narrated it with a good chain, except that there is a break in the chain between Abu Salama and Mu'adh.
This hadith does not contradict our grading of it as good, despite the break in its chain mentioned by the author (may Allah have mercy on him); because we mean that it is good due to other supporting evidence, like the previous hadith in the last lesson from the hadith of Ibn 'Umar.
Here, Mu'adh (may Allah be pleased with him) asks his Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) to advise him, so his advice to him was his saying (peace be upon him): . This is the highest rank that a servant can attain in remembering Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and fearing Him, remembering Allah and fearing Him to the extent that he constantly observes that he is seeing Him; because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) does not overlook any hidden thing on earth or in the heavens.
This hadith, or this part of this hadith, is famous with a more authentic chain than this one in the established hadith in "The Two Sahihs" from the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, and in "Sahih Muslim" alone from the hadith of Ibn 'Umar. That is the well-known hadith of Jibril (peace be upon him) when he came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the form of a man whom none of the Companions recognized, even though he did not have the signs of travel; for he was wearing white clothes and was not disheveled or dusty, but they said: none of us recognizes him either. So he combined strange, contradictory descriptions; because if he were a stranger, the signs of travel such as dust, dirt, and dishevelment would have appeared on him, and if he were a resident, the Companions would have recognized him; so he was a strange man.
The point is that in the hadith—and it is a long hadith that we have mentioned more than once—when he (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked about ihsan (excellence in worship), he said: . This is the highest rank of the ranks of the Muslim's worship of his Lord (Mighty and Majestic). So in that hadith, the first question was that he was a stranger, and he was Jibril as we mentioned based on the end of the hadith. He asked the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) about Islam, and Islam is practicing Islam outwardly, but this Islam does not benefit its owner unless it is accompanied by faith. And when I and others say: it does not benefit its owner unless accompanied by faith, we mean the benefit in the Hereafter; that is, that he is saved by his Islam which was accompanied by faith; so he does not benefit from Islam unless it is accompanied by faith. But if it is not accompanied by faith, does his Islam benefit him in any way?
The answer: In this world, it may benefit him, and this type is considered a hypocrite in the language of the Shari'ah; because he displays Islam but conceals disbelief; because his faith was not accompanied by his Islam. So what does he benefit? That he is saved in his person and his wealth, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic, mass-transmitted hadith: ; so this is what they benefited from, if faith was not accompanied by their Islam, . Perhaps they said it with their tongues and faith did not enter their hearts, or perhaps they said it believing in it in their hearts? Their reckoning in that is with Allah, but as long as they have spoken the word of tawhid (the oneness of Allah), the ruling mentioned in the hadith applies to them by his saying: .
So the first rank in the religion is Islam, and it may benefit its owner in this world and not benefit him in the Hereafter, while the one who benefits from his Islam in the Hereafter is if it is accompanied by the second rank mentioned in the hadith of Jibril when he said to him: and so on. Then came the third rank, and there is no rank after it; it is the rank of ihsan (excellence in worship): .
It is not possible—based on the texts of the Sunnah—for a person to see his Lord in this fleeting world; for it is established from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the long hadith of the Dajjal that when he described him to his Ummah, and that was part of his (peace and blessings be upon him) advice to his Ummah, part of his description of him was that he said: , then he (peace be upon him) said: . So he mentioned descriptions of the Dajjal so that the Muslim can be certain, if he is tested by his emergence in his time, that this is the Dajjal and not the God who is worshipped in truth; for Allah is perfect in all attributes, and this one is one-eyed, so this is a sign. And another sign is that you see him, ; therefore he (peace be upon him) said in explaining the rank of ihsan: ; because you will not see Him in this world, and we all know that Musa (peace be upon him), the one who spoke to the Most Merciful, when he asked his Lord (Mighty and Majestic) to see Him, said: , and it is not established even for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he saw his Lord with his eyes, and this is a matter that is disputed among the scholars of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and the scholars of kalam (theology); for the majority of them mentioned that the creed is not established except by a text that is definitive in its establishment and definitive in its meaning, and we do not find a speculative text, whether in its establishment or its meaning, that establishes that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) saw his Lord on the night of the Isra (night journey) or on any other night; therefore, it is not possible for a person to see his Lord until he dies, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said.
And in this hadith: the scholars discussed a principle in usul al-fiqh (the principles of jurisprudence), which is: does the speaker include himself in the address he directs to his Ummah or to others? So he (peace and blessings be upon him) says: ? Do you think he is included in this address or not?
There is a disagreement among the scholars of usul (principles) in this matter, and we are certain that he (peace and blessings be upon him) is, at least, included in this specific address; because he was asked, as in "Sahih Muslim" from the hadith of Abu Dharr: Did you see your Lord? He said: ; that is, there is a veil. And as came in the hadith of Abu Musa in "Sahih Muslim": , so he (peace and blessings be upon him) indicates in the previous hadith of Abu Dharr, in answer to the questioner's question: Did you see your Lord? He said: . There is a light that veils our Lord from being seen by any of us; so includes the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) as well, not by the indication of this hadith itself from the previously mentioned disagreement, but by the indication of the hadith of Abu Dharr and others.
If the matter is such that none of us sees his Lord in this world, then he must worship Him while being mindful and certain that his Lord sees him. So if you do not see Him, this does not lead you, as long as you are a believer that Allah sees everything and knows everything, to disobey Him and to contradict Him in His commands and prohibitions; for if you do not see Him, He (Blessed and Exalted is He) certainly sees you.
This rank is the rank of ihsan, and it is—as you heard—the highest of the ranks of Islam and faith.