The Shaykh’s remarks on rectifying the outward and the inward.

The Shaykh : It occurred to me, as I sat in your gathering, to remind you of a matter that is considered an important principle in Islam, one that is linked to one of the etiquettes of scholarly gatherings. That principle is that Islam, in its greatness and the breadth of its guidance and education of its believing followers, has commanded these Muslims to care for the rectification of their outward appearance just as it commanded the rectification of their inward selves. There are many hadiths that enumerate major virtues which converge on a single reality: that a Muslim must care for the rectification of his outward appearance just as he cares for the rectification of his inward self, and that he should not say, as some ignorant or deviant people say, that what matters is the inward self and not the outward appearance. The truth is that this statement is partly true and partly false. Islam cares for the rectification of the inward self, but it also commands, to the same extent, the rectification of the outward appearance. This reality, as I hinted at earlier, is scattered throughout many authentic hadiths.