Explaining Islam's concern with rectifying outward appearances, as this leads to the rectification of inward states.

The Shaykh : ... But before that, you reminded me of something, and there is no harm in making this an interjection in our previous discussion. When I said that we gather and differ in a circle, the truth is that gathering, even in bodies, has a good effect on the gathering of hearts; the gathering becomes wholehearted. This is because, as some scholars say, the outward is the title of the inward. The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed to this reality when he said in the authentic hadith in al-Bukhari and others, from the hadith of al-Nu'man ibn Bashir (may Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . The point in what follows is . And it is certain that society is composed of individuals. So this society should be as it came in the authentic hadith also: . If the Islamic society is one society composed of a group of individuals, and these individuals concern themselves with rectifying their inward states as they concern themselves with rectifying their outward states, then the result will be a society that is sound outwardly and inwardly. . So, just as it is obligatory to rectify the outward, it is also obligatory to rectify the inward, and each of the two rectifications helps the other. This is like... I don't know, Professor Adnan, perhaps he can remind me. What some scholars used to think of, what is called the "perpetual motion." What is it, Abu Muhammad, the perpetual motion? Did they find it or not?
Adnan: And it is not possible for them to find it, because nature is based on the fact that perpetual motion does not exist.

The Shaykh : I mean, it might be, in my opinion, like gravity; they assumed it to solve theoretical problems. But this is a Shari'ah reality. Allah (Mighty and Majestic), who created man and perfected His creation, revealed to His Prophet (peace be upon him) to inform us of this reality: "If the heart is sound, the body is sound, and if the body is sound, the heart is sound." So there is no interaction between the body and the morsel (the heart) in corruption and rectification. If the matter is so, and it is so without doubt, Islam has taken every care to rectify outward appearances because this rectification leads to the rectification of inward states. Among this, and here is the crux of the matter for this interjection, which is not natural for such a sentence to be this long and become a lecture, but perhaps there is benefit in it. The point of all this speech is one hadith, in addition to the previous good Prophetic hadiths. The hadith of Abu Thalhah al-Khushani, who said: We used to travel with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and stop at a place in the desert, "with huts as some Bedouins say," and we would disperse in the dwellings. One day we traveled and dispersed, and he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) said: إنما تفرقكم في هذه الشعاب والوديان من عمل الشيطان Your dispersal in these valleys and ravines is from the work of Satan.. This was a physical, bodily dispersion. Abu Thalhah said: So after that, when we stopped at a place, we would join together until, if we sat on a carpet, it would be spacious for us. So the outward joining affects the inward joining, and this is a Shari'ah reality. Perhaps some scholars of theology or philosophy in the last of time express it as a Shari'ah philosophy, and it is a Shari'ah reality: the connection of the outward to the inward. And there are many, many examples of this, but the previous length in this interjection is enough. Let us return to what we were discussing.