The hadith of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) - he said: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah

The Shaykh : And from Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) - he said: A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: O Messenger of Allah, give me advice. He said: . This hadith contains many wisdoms. In its tracing, it is stated: Al-Hakim and Al-Bayhaqi narrated it in *Al-Zuhd*, and Al-Hakim said - and the wording is his -: The chain is authentic.
... A man came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) seeking his advice, asking for a piece of advice that would remain in his mind for the rest of his life. In some narrations, he said to him: "And be brief with me in the advice." This was a wise, intelligent man, so he (peace be upon him) was brief with him in the advice, and said to him: ; meaning it is obligatory for the Muslim to have a permanent attachment to Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), and to desire the good that is with Him, and to cut off his hope from people that they will benefit him or enrich him; for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is alone the Rich, the Praiseworthy.
This, of course, does not mean that a person should not take means, but it means something that people today have neglected due to the dominance of invasive European materialism among Muslims in their own lands; which is that they care about the means more than they care about their reliance on the Lord of Lords (Glorified and Exalted is He). So the person today - except for those whom Allah wills, and they are few - cares about the means as if he is the whole of everything, and it never crosses his mind that these means may not benefit him at all, and even more so, it never crosses his mind that when he takes the means, he takes them because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded them, and not just because they are a means. And we must distinguish between the two matters.
There is a clear difference between one who takes the means that usually leads to the result because it is a means, and one who takes the means as a means because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded him to take that means. It is a very big difference. The first matter is the custom of materialist disbelievers or their like among the misguided and deviant Muslims. The other matter is the nature of the Muslim: he takes the means if Allah (Mighty and Majestic) commanded it, or at least permitted it; not just because it is a means. And what is the result of this distinction? That is because the means, in their being means for results, are divided by the Shari'ah into two categories: prescribed means and non-prescribed means. So when the Muslim finds a means for some provision but knows that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden it; he does not take it as a means, even if it is in reality a cosmic means, but it is not a Shari'ah means.
This distinction, although it is a clear matter from the scientific and Shari'ah perspective, is - unfortunately - almost abandoned in the Islamic world, let alone the world of disbelief; due to what is indicated by Muslims' immersion in acquiring, collecting, and hoarding money from any path, whether these paths are Shari'ah paths or non-Shari'ah paths. Therefore, when a person remembers on such an occasion, and hears the saying of the Messenger (peace be upon him) that the Muslim should cut off reliance on what is in the hands of people; does this mean that he should not, for example, look for work? That he should not ask about a means of provision? The answer is: No, but do not place your hope in the human being, rather place your hope in the Creator of the human being first. Then, when you look for the means: first, do not make it your main support; second, think: did Allah legislate this means for you or not?
If you know that it is not prescribed, you avoid it. Otherwise, if you engage in it, you have not attached your hope to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and have not cut off reliance on what is in the hands of people. And all people - except for a few, unfortunately - do not act upon this hadith at all. We often meet with pious, righteous people, but we quickly discover from them that they commit Shari'ah violations in their sales and purchases. This one, for example, deals in usury, and I do not mean the open usury of the Jews, but it is enough that he deals with banks and puts his money in the bank. Some of them take the usury that they call by another name, interest. And some of them claim to be scrupulous, so they leave the interest or usury, more correctly, saying: "I do not eat usury." He imagines that he is a God-fearing man. When we are confronted with this painful reality and reminded that this - my brother - is forbidden, and if you do not eat the usury, you are feeding it to others, and your Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: .
So it is not enough for you to be scrupulous about eating usury, but it is also obligatory for you to be scrupulous about feeding usury to others. We are surprised by what contradicts this noble Prophetic guidance. He says to you: "My brother, what should we do? If we only deal with the capital we have, things do not work. If we put our money in the house, the thieves might attack us, they might kill us at night." You find him producing in his imagination one of the most horrific imaginations that actually control the minds of disbelievers. As for the Muslim, he is reassured; he has this hadith, and before that, he has a verse that treats these psychological problems that have settled in the hearts of many Muslims today in their core. So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) says: , as if the Muslims disbelieved in this verse when you advise them not to deal in usury, not to eat what is forbidden, not to sell intoxicants, not to sell tobacco; there is nothing hidden; he does not sell intoxicants or sell tobacco directly, he attaches himself to the means, he does not cut off reliance on what is in the hands of people and rely on the Lord of Lords, he attaches himself to the means which are not prescribed. Where are you and this noble verse: to the end of the verse?
So you are one of two things: either you do not believe in this verse at all, and this is disbelief itself, or you believe in it with your heart but you do not believe in it practically, so you have not made it a methodology for your life and in your approach in your dealings with people; and therefore, from this practical aspect, you are like the disbelievers. They attach themselves to the means; therefore, they organized their life based on this attachment, and it is one of the most precise organizations that history on the face of the earth has perhaps known. But all of that is not worth a mosquito's wing to Allah. Why? Because it is based on the contradiction of the Shari'ah of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). And therefore He said (the Exalted) when He commanded the disbelievers who are the enemies of Islam and fight Islam in every time and place, even if they belong to some form of religiosity because they are from the People of the Book; He described them with characteristics that we almost forgot. Why? For two reasons: the first is our distance from studying the Book and the Sunnah, and the other reason - which is very dangerous - is our mixing with these people and those who connected with them and were characterized by their traits, even if he belongs to our Islam and our religion. Allah said about those: .

Another questioner : ... .

The Shaykh : Yes?
Who are they? .
The point in His saying (the Exalted): is that this is a characteristic of the disbelievers, not a characteristic of the Muslims. But when the Muslim does not ask: "Is it forbidden or lawful?" he says to you: "My brother, we need to live," and "There is a relief for the Day of Allah," and phrases like these that indicate the utmost indifference and concern for what Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has forbidden. And yet, we complain about the hardship of living, the rise in prices, and injustice from all sides, then we do not turn to ourselves. "The friend is in him and with him."
Therefore, it is obligatory for us to take a lesson from this first part of this eloquent will of our Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), which is that we should not attach ourselves to the causes absolutely, but rather attach ourselves to their Creator. However, we must take the causes, provided they are prescribed, solely as an act of obedience to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). This is because Allah (Mighty and Majestic) informed us through His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in His saying: , . Be moderate and follow the beautiful, prescribed path in seeking sustenance. For Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has not prescribed for His Muslim servants to obtain His sustenance through what is forbidden. This is especially so given that He is the One who said: . In reality, were it not for the Shari'ah, I would be a Sufi, meaning one who relies entirely on Allah, not taking hold of the causes. For these causes are mere appearances, and the matter is in the hand of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). But since Allah commanded us to take the causes, our obedience to our Lord’s command to take these causes is part of our servitude to Allah (Mighty and Majestic). So, when I take the prescribed cause, I worship Allah, and when I turn away from the non-prescribed cause, I worship Allah. As for taking the causes without any distinction between what is lawful and what is forbidden, and what is permissible and what is not permissible; this is a departure from realizing pure servitude to Allah (Mighty and Majestic).
I ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to make us among His righteous, sincere servants who hold fast to His Book and follow the guidance of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him).

Eid Abbasi : There are a group of questions from before, so we will mention some of them. Some of these questions now; we had read a question and the answer to it remained.