Islam’s Care for the Inner and the Outer, and the Connection of Each to the Other

The Shaykh : Islam wants Muslims to preserve their Islam, not only in their hearts, but also in their bodies and their outward appearance; for there is no separation between the two. The majority of Islamic writers, always and forever, sing about a true fact: that Islam does not separate the soul from the body, and that it gave each its right. This is correct speech, but they have almost all neglected that Islam also does not forget that the body must be Muslim just as the heart is, completely, with no distinction between them. A body whose outward appearance is not Muslim cannot have an inner self that is Muslim, and vice versa, completely. Therefore, there are hadiths, a portion of which I have mentioned to you on various occasions, that confirm this fact. It is a fact that has become known today even among disbelievers; that is, the heart is connected to the outward appearance, and the outward appearance is connected to the inner self. Islam preceded all these scholars in revealing this fact because it is from the revelation of the heavens, so there is no wonder in that. Who among you has not heard the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of Nu'man ibn Bashir: to the end of it? He says at its end: .
So, just as it is in medicine, completely; just as the health of the body is by the health of the heart in physical medicine; so, completely, in the Shari'ah guidance, the health of the body in its righteous deeds is by the health of the heart, and vice versa, completely, regarding the heart. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) confirmed this in another hadith, which has also turned against the Muslims by their distance from the Sunnah, and it has even turned against some of the printed books of some scholars of knowledge... which is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . It looks at two things in a person: an external thing, which are the deeds that issue from him, and an internal thing, which is the heart, .
The deviation that has befallen the Muslims regarding this hadith, specifically, is that many of them have discarded the second aspect looked at by Allah (Mighty and Majestic), which is the deed. They narrate the hadith in a shortened form: and that is all. Then this error spread among the people. You hardly advise a young man who is turning away from his religion, from his prayer, from his fasting, but he says to you: "My brother, the thing is not in prayer or fasting, the thing is the heart," and he claims to have a pure heart... and so on. He is lying to himself before he lies to the people; for he does not believe in these truths that Islam brought. This is the Messenger (peace be upon him) saying: the health of the heart is by the health of the body, and the health of the body is by the health of the heart, as you heard just now. And here he is now saying: . He did not say: only, but he also added to it his saying: . As for the grave error that occurred in some books, it is that this hadith appeared in the book "Riyad al-Salihin" by Imam al-Nawawi, which is a very valuable book in its field for several editions... very short: . And it is strange that this book is printed in several editions with this dangerous deviation from its correct, preserved text from the source to which the hadith was attributed in the same book; namely, "Sahih Muslim."
The point of all this speech is that Islam connected the Shari'ah rulings to one another, and through them the Muslims connected to one another. And by their upholding of these rulings, the Muslim society is realized. So when the Muslims turned away from caring for the outward appearance because of that deviation that befell them, as we mentioned, you are in a dilemma: do you greet so-and-so? I do not know him to be a Muslim; for he has not displayed his Islam in his body, in his physique, in his deed, in his body.