Explaining Some of the Conditions of La ilaha illa Allah, Including the Performance of Righteous Deeds

The Shaykh : Among the words of some of the Salaf regarding this noble phrase is that La ilaha illa Allah is undoubtedly the key to Paradise. However, if a key has no teeth, it is not fit to open the door. Therefore, we must give this key teeth, and these teeth are the righteous deeds. This is why I began my talk with the previous verse: . We do not stop at the end of the verse: ; because, as we said, and praise be to Allah, we have come to know tawhid (the oneness of Allah) — if Allah wills — and we have come to know shirk (associating partners with Allah) which contradicts and opposes it. But we may be falling short in performing many of the righteous deeds. So we must then urge ourselves to righteous work in all its forms, whether it is positive — meaning: from acts of obedience and worship — or negative — meaning: by abstaining from what is forbidden —; as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the authentic hadith: , meaning: all of it.
And here a brief pause is necessary; included in these prohibitions are the bad morals with which many people are afflicted, even if they are among the righteous, regardless of whether their creed is correct or not. We, Muslims, are often afflicted by encroaching on the honor of people, and speaking about them sometimes with truth, which becomes backbiting, and sometimes with falsehood, which becomes slander and pure fabrication. And as you know, in the authentic hadith, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) forbade backbiting and prohibited it with the strongest prohibition after the Qur'an's prohibition of it. When he (peace be upon him) was asked about backbiting, what it is, he said: . They said: O Messenger of Allah, what do you say if what I said is in him? He said: . Meaning: you have accused him of a great slander. This is a point that many of the righteous overlook, let alone others. Here, the soul that commands evil intervenes, and it justifies and beautifies backbiting for the Muslim under the pretext of advice. But that is not the way of advice at all; because advice is that you go to the man you usually backbite about between you and others in a gathering or gatherings, and you go to him and advise him to his face, not that you backbite him. And this is a sensitive point in reality that we must not overlook, lest we fall into what Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) has forbidden.
As for hastening to transmit news, and these are explicitly false news, a sufficient warning in that is the saying of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): .
So this is what I wished to remind you of, and the summary of it is that we should focus and urge ourselves to righteous work and avoid all the prohibitions, and especially among them, we should beware of falling into backbiting under the name of advice; because this is a door through which Satan enters the hearts of many people. And we have often heard of, and we have many, many examples and models of this; and therefore I remind myself and remind you of this warning; so that we may be — if Allah wills — truly believers in the word of tawhid, fulfilling its rights and obligations — if Allah wills, Blessed and Exalted is He.

Those present : May Allah reward you with good.