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): .