A word on rectifying the outward and rectifying the inward.

The Shaykh : There is a connection between the outward and the inward, and if the outward is rectified, the inward is rectified, and if the inward is rectified, the outward is rectified. So there is a strange understanding between them—excuse me, not understanding, but a very strange connection. Therefore, rectifying the outward is part of rectifying the inward. That is why you find that the guidance of the polytheists, as mentioned in some hadiths, differs from the guidance of the believers in their starting points in life, in their gatherings, in their entering, in their exiting, in their meeting one another. An example of this is their greeting one another by bowing and raising the hat, and similar affectations upon which the lives of the non-Arabs were built before. This word "non-Arabs" (A'ajam), when used, refers to non-Muslims. Similarly, among the non-Arabs of the Muslims, there is a contrary usage: when they use the word "Arabs," they mean Muslims, unlike the Arabs who claim to be so, because they call for Arab nationalism. Allah is the Greatest, what strange contradictions! When the non-Arabs say so-and-so is an Arab, they mean a Muslim Arab. But when an Arab says so-and-so is an Arab, it does not matter if he is a Christian, a Jew, or a non-believer; he is an Arab, and that is the end of it. The non-Arabs used to apply this term to anyone who was not a Muslim. Therefore, he (peace and blessings be upon him) said in the hadith in which he (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) prayed the midday prayer with his companions one day while sitting, and his companions stood up behind him, so he gestured to them to sit, and they sat when he finished the prayer: In this hadith, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) showed concern for the Muslims in that it is obligatory for them to maintain their Muslim identity and to be distinguished from the non-Arabs, i.e., the disbelievers, even in prayer, even if that leads them to leave a pillar whose original ruling is that it is a pillar of prayer, in order to abolish this polytheistic phenomenon that the non-Arabs had, where they stand on the heads of their kings. He said to them: Even though we all know there is no difference between a scholar and a non-scholar, or a cultured person and an uncultured one. The essential difference between the phenomenon of the non-Arabs who stand on the heads of their kings and the phenomenon of the companions of the Messenger standing behind the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) in prayer is that they stood for Allah, standing in devotion, intending by their standing the Lord of the worlds. And because the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) did not sit in arrogance or haughtiness over those standing behind him, but rather sat out of necessity. With these two great differences between the outward appearance of the Muslims behind the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and the phenomenon of the non-Arabs behind their kings, he still said to them: Do not imitate [them] in prayer. Do not stand behind me. Sit. And if he prays sitting, then you all pray sitting. The reality is that our lives and our gatherings all need improvement. For example, these chairs were made for them, and we imitated them, where one of them sits like an emperor, meaning he sees himself as arrogant.

The questioner : We are more skilled than them in these sitting positions!

The Shaykh : I mean, what do they say? "We taught them the testimony, we preceded them at the doors." Like that. Allah is the Helper.