The Prophet's Advice To Mu'aadh Ibn Jabal

In the name of Allaah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.

The Prophet's Advice to Mu`aadh Ibn Jabal
Excerpts from 'Sharh Riyaadh as-Saaliheen' of ibn
Uthaymeen

Chapter: Contemplation [Muraaqaba]



Mu’aadh bin Jabal reported from the Messenger of
Allaah (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) that he said,

"Fear Allaah wheresoever you may be, and follow up and
evil deed with a good one, it will efface it (the evil
deed). And deal with mankind with good manners."
Reported by at-Tirmidhee and he said that it was a
Hasan hadeeth.

[al-Haakim reports it in al-Mustadrak and states that
it meets the conditions of Bukhaaree and Muslim.
Adh-Dhahabee agreed.]

This hadeeth is one of the Forty Ahaadeeth of the
author, may Allaah have mercy upon him, and in it is
that the Prophet (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) gave
three great and important pieces of advice:

THE FIRST: He said, "have taqwaa of Allaah wheresoever
you may be." Taqwaa means to stay away from the
forbidden matters and to enact the obligatory matters
– this is taqwaa! That you enact what Allaah has
commanded you, sincerely for Allaah and in compliance
to the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa
sallam), and that you leave what Allaah has forbidden
due to His prohibiting it and to steer clear of it.

For example that you establish the greatest obligation
that Allaah has imposed upon you after the testimony
of faith – the prayer, and you establish it completely
- fulfilling all of its conditions and pillars and
obligations, fulfilling all of these perfectly. So
whosoever leaves off any of these conditions, pillars
or obligations then he has not feared Allaah (to the
best of his ability), rather he has been deficient in
this to the extent of what he left out.

In Zakaah, the Taqwaa of Allaah lies in your
calculating all of your property on which the zakaah
is due, and your giving the zakaah as a means of
purifying yourself without any miserliness or
tightfistedness, or delay. And whosoever does not do
this than he has not feared Allaah.

In fasting, the Taqwaa of Allaah lies in your
establishing the fast as you have been commanded,
distancing yourself from idle speech, obscene words
and mannerisms, boisterous behaviour, backbiting and
spreading tales and other such things that would make
the fast deficient and remove the spirit of fasting.
The true meaning of fasting is to fast from that which
Allaah, Azza wa Jall, has made forbidden.

The same applies to all of the obligations that are
used to establish obedience to Allaah, and compliance
to His command, sincerely for Him and in following His
Messenger. Likewise all the forbidden actions are to
be left in compliance to His prohibition.

THE SECOND: "and follow up and evil deed with a good
one, it will efface it (the evil deed)." Meaning that
when you perform an evil action then follow it up with
a good action for the good action effaces the evil.
And from the good actions to be performed after the
evil is that you repent to Allaah for this evil
action, for indeed repentance is from the most noble
and excellent of the good actions as Allaah has said,
"indeed Allaah Loves those who repent and those who
purify themselves." (2:222) And He said, "and repent
to Allaah all of you, O believers so that you may be
successful." (24:31)

Similarly righteous actions expiate the evil actions
as the Prophet (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said,
"the five daily prayers and one Jumu’ah to the next
Jumu’ah, and one Ramadaan to the next Ramadaan, is an
expiation for what lies between them as long as one
refrains from the major sins." [Muslim], and he said,
"one Umrah to the next is an expiation for what is
between them." [Bukhaaree].

Therefore the good actions efface the evil.

THE THIRD: "and deal with mankind with good manners."
The first two pieces of advice were those related to
relationship with the Creator, this third relates to
relationship of the creation to the creation. This
being to deal with mankind with the best manners such
that you will be praised and not blamed. This by
having a cheerful complexion, being truthful in
speech, speaking to others nicely and other such good
manners.

There are a large number of texts concerning the
excellence of having good manners to the extent that
the Messenger (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) said,
"the most complete believer with respect to faith is
the one with the best manners." And he informed us
that the most deserving of mankind to him (sallallaahu
’alayhi wa sallam) and the closest to him in ranking
on the Day of Judgement would be those with the best
manners.

So noble manners, along with their being a way to
beautify gatherings and the person who possesses them
being beloved to the people, contain a huge reward
which will bestowed upon the person on the Day of
Judgement.

So preserve these three pieces of advice from the
Prophet (sallallaahu ’alayhi wa sallam) and Allaah is
the Grantor of Success.