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), who 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 of narration 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 that 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 the means, but it means something that people today have neglected due to the dominance of aggressive 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 occurs to him that these means may not benefit him at all, and even more so, it does not occur to him 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 Sharia perspective, is—regrettably—something that is almost...