 Our praise is due to Allah. Our praise is due to Allah's blessed us with Islam. And this great, great blessing of Islam has a characteristic. Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he mentioned an Anas and radiya Allah wa anhu. He said that every religion has a distinguishing characteristic. And the distinction of Islam is shyness. The distinguishing characteristic of Islam is shyness. Our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was a shy person and we'll explain what this means subsequently but we all have a general meaning of shyness. It involves being reserved. It involves not being ostentatious, not being excessively loud in public or loud period in public, not drawing and calling attention to oneself. So these are general meanings of shyness. And shyness performs a serious function for a believer. The Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he mentioned He mentioned So the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he mentioned that faith has 70 Samad branches. The best of them is to proclaim there is no God but Allah. In other words, faith itself is a branch. So that's the best. The best is to proclaim La ilaha illallah. And the lowest branch is to remove the harmful thing from the path. And when we see the harmful thing, so we see a coke bottle in the street or we see a broken branch in the street or we see mattress that fell off a truck and we pulled to the side of the road and removed that. That's a great act and it's a manifestation of faith. But when we do that, we should say La ilaha illallah and by saying La ilaha illallah when we remove the harmful thing from the path we join between the highest, the most virtuous or the highest branch of faith and the lowest branch of faith. We join them together. So we move the thing La ilaha illallah and by so doing we join between the highest branch and the lowest branch of faith. And then he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam So some have asked we can understand call La ilaha illallah being a manifestation of faith because that's the shahada, that's how we declare our faith and we can understand belief being involved with faith and we can understand action being a manifestation of faith but what about shyness which is a characteristic? How is that a branch of faith? And the scholars they say iman iman prevents a person from doing those things which are displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So if a person has faith, if a person has faith they drink alcohol with impunity but a person who has faith knows this haram and knowing this haram, their faith says I'm a believer, I can't drink that I'm a believer, I can't smoke that I'm a believer, I can't touch that I'm a believer, I can't do that their faith prevents them from doing things and even some things they might love to do because that was part of their habit maybe they converted to Islam they were involved in a habit, they really loved that habit but faith empowers them to leave that I can tell you a brief story when I was studying in Syria, every summer I would come back and forth to the states and usually I would stop in England so during one of the stopovers in the United Kingdom in Birmingham there was a Jamaican, a lot of Jamaicans in England and others from various islands and different places were once part of the empire they said the sun never sat on the British empire now the empire is sitting on Britain there's another saying the sun never sat on the British empire because God didn't trust the British in the dark we'll leave that alone so there are a lot of Jamaicans in any case so one brother said I want to be Muslim so he came to a talk I gave I said I want to be Muslim but he said I love to smoke that ganja man I can't give up this marijuana I love to smoke it and I fear if I become Muslim and I still love it then I won't be a good Muslim I said listen, do you believe Islam is true? then you become a Muslim you're looking at your power to give that up from the perspective of someone who doesn't have faith but once you have faith then Allah ta'ala will give you the power to give that up and so he took the Shahada and then I left and when I came back the next year his brother comes running up he's got a kufi on looking like new money and the brother said you know brother you're right man I take the Shahada I know smoke that ganja no more I give it up man I said yeah because now you're a believer and your faith has empowered you your faith has empowered you so we should look to our faith as a source of power as a source of strength as a source of allowing us to do the things we couldn't do when we didn't have faith and we should always remind ourselves I'm a believer because that unlocks that power that power escapes us because we forget we become heedless and in our heedlessness we forget what a believer should be doing so we have to remind ourselves wait a minute I'm getting ready to go for it wait a minute I'm a believer this is not a suitable course of action for a believer and so they mentioned Hayat Shainis which isn't a belief and which isn't a deed so faith is what one says with one's tongue as an expression of what's in one's heart and that's what the tongue is if the tongue is foul that means the heart is foul one of the airports that speech is what's in the heart that speech is what's in the heart in the word but rather one of the airports the tongue is being made as an indication of what's in the heart so if a person says you know their filth is coming out of their mouth, that means filth is in their heart and of a person purity and light is coming out of their mouth that means light is in their heart and we should be mindful of this. We have some Muslims, we're not trying to indicate anyone but people say they're Muslims and they get involved in the music industry and not condemning that but some Muslims get involved and say you know to to get my foot in the door I have to make this kind of music and the music contains profanity, the music contains misogyny, the music contains denigrating other people and then the question is if that's what you do to get your foot in the door what kind of house are you trying to live in? We're trying to clean up the house and if we can't clean up the house we're calling in the demolition crew, we need to tear it down and build a new house that's how we should approach our reality that should be our contribution to the neighborhood we're here to clean up the house and if the house is beyond cleaning it's so dirty we try scraping it we've even brought in a jackhammer to try to chisel it off and it's not we can't move it we're calling in the demolition crew and it's time to build a new house and as Muslims this is how we have to approach our reality we have something with and there are parameters that guide our action and one of those parameters is shyness so the relationship between shyness and faith like faith shyness prevents a person from doing things that are displeasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so I shouldn't be saying so I hold myself back that's shyness restraint shyness is fearing that one will be called to task for manifesting something displeasing to the one who will call one to task so our ultimate shyness is before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because we know at the end of the day people can call us to task and in some instances justifiably our parents our friends relatives neighbors teachers elders can call us to task but at the end of the day we have to answer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala so we should be shy before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is to him and I'm in Allah haqq al Hayat be shy before Allah as you rightfully should as you rightfully should so this is the relationship between shyness and Hayat well Eman and faith that faith prevents us and checks our actions prevents us from doing things that are displeasing to Allah ta'ala and shyness is a check on our action which prevents us from doing those things displeasing to Allah now point here if shyness is refraining from doing those things which will call lead us to be called to task then there are some instances where shyness the manifestation of shyness is to speak out so there's a situation where the truth has to be told so if we refrain that's not shyness oh should I say this should I I don't know that's not shyness shy because refraining from speaking the truth will call us to be caught what calls us to be called to task so shyness would involve our speaking out shyness would involve our manifesting the truth because that's what the situation calls for and to do the opposite of that would make us blame worthy there's a companion his name is Ashadju Ashadju bin al qais Ashadju the son of qais so he said the qalali rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam inna fika qallataini youhibbuhumallahu youhibbuhumallahu azzawajad qutu he said so there are verily he's Ashadju bin qais he said the rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam the messenger of Allah said verily they're in you two characteristics inna fika qallataini that Allah loves and that Allah mighty and majestic love youhibbuhumallahu azzawajad qala iqutu he said qadiman kaana fiyya yarasulallahu and hadithan he said are these things that are part of my nature or are they things qualities that are acquired faqala sallallahu alayhi wa sallam bel qadiman he said rather they are part of your nature qutu he said alhamdulillah alayhi wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam alayhi wa sallam ala qallataini youhibbuhumallahu he said all praises due to Allah who has blessed me with two characteristics that he loves and that's an indication of his love for that person that he blessed them with these characteristics but the hadith conveys an important lesson to us one that are affran the two characteristics i mentioned one and we should be forbearing people for bearing meaning if bearing the abuse of people doesn't violate our right doesn't harm us doesn't violate the right of someone else doesn't harm someone else then we don't even bother with it so someone you use such an idiot mashallah it's not harming us it's not taking any right from us so we just ignore it that's mashallah alhamdulillah last week someone called me an idiot and a jerk so i'm getting better i'm improving thanks you know what are we gonna feel you you calling me an idiot you know who i am you know who i work for you know who i went to school man you should have called me an idiot you know how many insults i memorized you know how i can i can rip you apart you look like one of them things getting chopped up on one of those machines on late night television that you could order for 29 99 i'm gonna no just mashallah mashallah mashallah now if someone's rights being violated that's different but someone a little kid comes and kicks you what are you gonna do punch the kid well you little brat did it hurt you you know but no one kicks me i don't care who he is i don't care that little ron i'm gonna squish him i'm gonna put this size 12 upside his head oh mashallah mashallah it didn't hurt this you know you should really behave better where's your where your parents i need to talk to them that's him just for bearing overlooking and then moving on because we have business a person's islam being good is leaving that which doesn't concern him which doesn't concern her and our concern is jannah so our concern in this life is using this body to do the things to save the soul that it contains so it won't be tormented in the next life that's our business so you know back and forth with little petty insults that's not our business that's not gonna help us to jannah you know retaliating for every little slight even when it doesn't harm us that's not our business our business is the business of doing what we can do with this body Allah has given us to get to jannah that's our business and hayyahu is one of the things that we use to get to jannah shyness and modesty the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he also mentioned if you don't feel any shyness do whatever you want so there's two meanings of that two basic meanings one is if you're not ashamed of what you're doing then do whatever you want because you've lost your moral compass you have no morality your heart is dead so after that whatever you do is not going to benefit you because the foundation for your actions is corrupt the other meaning though is if you feel no shyness do whatever you want so if you're confident this action isn't going to call you cause you to be called to task by Allah Almighty then do it because as a believer you're sensitive to right and you're sensitive to wrong we know when we're right we know when we're wrong no one has to tell us when when the books are dispensed as for one who's given the book in his left hand he says whoa that i were never given my book and i didn't know what my reckoning will be he already knows we know we're not stupid we know that was wrong and that was wrong and that was wrong and that was wrong or and that was wrong oh whoa to me that i weren't given my book and that i did not realize we don't have to read the book yawm al qiyamah we have to read the book to know what was right and what was wrong we need santa claus making his list and checking it twice to find out who's naughty or nice we know what we're doing we know if we're naughty and we know if we're nice right or wrong and so Allah ta'ala captures that reality yeah late and and i didn't realize what my record is we know what our record is so it behooves us to fix it now to fix it now we could be like we're on a fault line earthquake could come right here bam it's all over the building comes down we're gone we don't know it can happen quick look at japan it happened quick one minute they're walking around minding their business the next minute the whole world is upside down hour later big wave comes we don't know it might be an earthquake it might be a car or truck it might be natural causes we don't know but we can go at any minute any moment not any minute any moment that could be it and there's no time to fix the book we can go back and erase things in the book now we can erase things in the book we have an eraser that Allah ta'ala has given us it's called toba it's called repentance erase it right out of the book but we have to repent we have to take advantage of the opportunity that Allah ta'ala gives us and because when we're we're given our book we can't erase anything and we know what's in it we know what's in it now we could go back start erasing things may Allah ta'ala be merciful unto us so abu huraywar radi allahu anhi also relates another hadith from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam that's mentioned in the collection of imam at tirmidhi he says qal an abu huraywar ta'al radi allahu anh qal qala rasulullahi sallallahu anhi wasallam al hayyau min al iman wal imanu fil jannah wal bada'u min al jatha'i wal jatha'u finnaar so he said that shyness is from faith and the people of faith will be in paradise yani ahlu l'iman and the people of faith will be in paradise and ah gruffness or or or a disagreeable nature is from gruffness and the people of gruffness the people of of of crudeness will be in the hellfire and this hadith reminds us that oh the previous hadith i mentioned there was a lesson that lesson is the hadith of ashaj bin al qais that the lesson of that is number number one that shyness can be a characteristic that a person is blessed with and it can be acquired this has him that forbearance comes through forbearing so if we forbear we forbear we forbear that gradually impacts on our nature and the same way with shyness so these characteristics can be inherent and they can be acquired and the job of Islam is to take those people who they're not inherently in them to put them in an environment where it's acquired and that environment is the community so a person who's out in the streets it is hard for them to acquire shyness it's hard to acquire forbearance forbearance because if you forbear forbear people are man that do soft something's wrong with him take his money take his wallet take his lunch money take his car keys so people think i'll be opened up to abuse but a muslim man saliman muslim al muslim on him in lisani he will get it the muslim is one whom the other muslims are the muslims are safe from their tongue or their hand so our community is supposed to create an environment where a person can be shy and not be talked about where a person can be forbearing and not be talked about but can be comfortable there's a one of the kids that went on a shooting spree a few years ago and and and san diego he said one of the reasons he snapped because everyone was picking on him because he just wanted to be peaceful and so everyone's picking on picking and he just snapped and when i read that at the time i said if only that child could have been in a real muslim community where if he was shy if he was soft-spoken he wouldn't have to worry about anyone picking on him and if people in the community understood their religion they'd be cultivating those and encouraging those characteristics not to the thought that the person couldn't stand up and defend themselves in in situations that call for it but as a general characteristic to live by as general character characteristics to govern his relationship with other people this is what islam is about community and we have to cultivate a community of shyness where we can come together in a space like this and the brothers and sisters can be in close proximity but their shyness lords their gaze and their shyness creates adab so not gawking at each other not being openly with someone they don't know approaching but maintaining the shyness this is what islam is encouraging this is beautiful and this impacts on society because people like that boy they don't like having to be who they're not no one likes to be who they're not and if a person is inherently respectful of others they don't like disrespecting others if they're in a situation that forces them to disrespect other if they're inherently shy they don't like to have to put up this front of bodaciousness because that's what the situation the environment calls for islam is about creating an environment where people can be themselves and then refining people to go back to this hadith refining people so they're not people of jeffat they're not people of harshness they're not people by that or by that they're not people of of of coarseness and crudeness this is what this society is trying to make us our young people bombarded with messages that are telling them be coarse be cruel be uncouth at one time we could tell it would be an insult someone say you're uncouth now it's a compliment you're uncouth man i'm glad you noticed i was practicing real hard no we want to make it an insult again you're uncouth man what i gotta do you have to become a muslim and you start to have to learn the adab of islam and so that refines us because this uncouthness this coarseness gruffness leads to hell so people who have these characteristics are being pushed to hell why because the shyness is not there an indication of his love for that person that he blessed them with these characteristics but the hadith conveys an important lesson to us one that uh afran here the two characteristics i mentioned one and he said so there are barely he's a shaj bin qais he said the Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam the messenger of Allah said barely they're in you two characteristics that Allah loves and that Allah might be a majestic love you you love them Allahu azzawajat he said are these things that are part of my nature or are they things qualities that are acquired there's a companion his name is ashadju ashadju bin al qais ashadj the son of qais so he said the qalali rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wasallam he said rather they're part of your nature he said all praise is due to Allah who has blessed me with two characteristics that he loves therefore the restraint to refrain from doing things is not there may Allah bless us to be those people and that was our prophet sallallahu alayhi wasallam that was our prophet sallallahu assalam in the battlefield he was a warrior but in society he was the shyest most gentle person imaginable sallallahu alayhi wasallam and so that's who the muslim wants to be a muslim wants to be a person who cultivates prophetic character and then form communities that push back against communities of corruption and I don't mean the local neighborhood I mean the people who are pulling the strings and calling the shots to introduce into the environment the things that pull people away from their nature that pull people away from their true self that instill in people ideas and concepts that are against the legacy of the prophets this is what I'm talking about pushing back against may Allah bless us in conclusion want to relate two sayings from two of our early predecessors one he said who was a convert from Judaism he said faith is naked iman u or yanun wa libasuhu taqwa its clothing is righteousness wa zinatuhu l-hayyahu and its jewelry is shyness wa manuhu l-itha and its wealth is self-restraint that's that's the muslim that's the person of faith a person who clothes himself for herself with piety a person who adorns himself or herself with shyness and a person who seeks their wealth through self-restraint and then the saying of al-fudaya l-u iyad who was one of our great great early sages he says he says five characteristics are signs of people who are on a path to hell may Allah if they have these characteristics take them off of that path al-qaswatuf al-qalb hardness in the heart a hard heart and again this environment that's being foisted upon people is encouraging and cultivating them hardness of heart the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam had a soft heart he said a muslim is gentle and easy going that's a believer is gentle easy going sallallahu alayhi sallam so al-qaswatuf al-qalb hardness of the heart wajumoodu l-ain and frozen eyes in other words eyes that can't shed tears and again there's a lot of people out there that can't shed tears we should cry for them because it's not therefore they didn't come into this world not able to shed tears but what they were exposed to which they should not have been exposed to in a sane society what they were have learned which they should not have learned that the tools that they need to survive which they should not have to utilize have given their eyes the inability to shed tears but a person of faith can shed tears when the man came to the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said he didn't kiss his children the prophet sallallahu alayhi sallam said then mercy's been taken out of your heart the one who shows no mercy will be shown no mercy so we want to be able to be to be merciful to be able to cry because our hearts are alive and he said the third one a lack of shyness a lack of shyness so again we want to try to cultivate shyness and again not to be pushovers but to be people who have the ability to be restrained because there are higher principles there's a higher system of accountability that we respect and that's our accountability before Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he said warraghbatu fid dunya longing for the world now we should be telling people you might end up being poor but you don't have to be undignified because you're poor because you understand this world is not the end of everything the akhira is that's what's called the akhira what comes at the end this world is not the end so you might be poor but you can be poor with dignity you can be poor knowing that the prophet sallallahu alayhi was poor and he loved the poor and he prayed he was resurrected amongst the poor but his poverty did not rob him of his dignity and if we come together as a community we can make sure everyone has dignity we're not might not be able to make people rich but we can give people dignity and that's what we should aspire for brothers and sisters to to dignify poverty to dignify poverty and if we find some ways to make folks rich that's good too but the nature of our times people losing their jobs left and right the economy being restructured in a way to take people's jobs structural unemployment this is a reality of our time so we're dealing with structures of oppression structures of inequality structures of of economic disenfranchisement and until those structures can be addressed a lot of people are going to be poor and so islam should not seek to be the gospel of the rich to deceive people you come to islam you get rich the prophet didn't say that sallallahu alayhi wasallam a man came to him said oh rasulullah i want to follow you said it a couple times what did the prophet say to him sallallahu alayhi wasallam prepare yourself for poverty this is the gospel of the poor this is the gospel of the poor and people don't want that gospel spread people don't want they want the gospel of of prosperity to be preached why because when the gospel of prosperity is being preached people would be out killing each other to get their little bit killing each other to control the block so they can control the trade on the block killing each other for the jacket or the sweater so they can make believe they have what they don't have that's the that's a consequence of the gospel of prosperity being preached the poor people they didn't want our esteed back in Haiti baby doc could come back that's fine no 25-year dictator tear the country apart line your pocket with the people's money send out the tantan makut killing people death squad fine come back baby doc they didn't want our esteed to come back because our esteed was preaching to the people the gospel of poverty and he said his first interview he said we know we can't make everyone rich but we can make poor people dignified we can make poor people dignified we can make poor people satisfied with who they are because their connection with the law tile is strong he didn't say that i'm saying that because their connection with the law is strong because they know they're following the way of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam because they're content with the little they have and contentment is the key to wealth contentment is the wealth is in contentment i have a bicycle i don't need a lexus the bike keeps me in shape it's free i could park anywhere for free i don't have to worry about getting tickets all day running back and forth to the meter all day i don't contribute to the pollution and the global warming so i like my bike and so that person is wealthy because he has a bike that's all he needs he has his basic diet he doesn't need ice cream it's not good for you anyway he doesn't need to splurge on the pizzas he's got his brown rice he's got his veggies get a piece of fish once in a while free-range halal chicken once in a while that's all he needs he's healthy doesn't overeat doesn't have to count his calories they're already counted he's rich she's rich she has dignified clothes three or four outfits they're clean neat no rips no tear got a good iron works real good steam comes out clothes always neat well pressed that's all she needs she's rich she doesn't need to go to macy's every other every week to buy the latest thing she doesn't need a summer winter spring and fall outfit there's only two seasons in the bay area why you need four outfits why you need a fall outfit there's no fall there's winter there's summer that's it why you need a spring and a fall outfit because someone programmed your head and now you think i'm poor because i can't go spring shopping he said there's no spring in the bay she's rich she's rich that's what we have to teach the people because this madness will destroy us so that was the fourth the fifth tool of amal tool of amal along having long hopes which means procrastinating doing right oh i got tomorrow i'll go to hajj when i'm old i'll wear hijab when i get married i'll you know i'll do this i'll start praying five times a day when i retire because my job it'll be kind of embarrassing i have to do more on the job you know i'll do them when i get home you might not get home you might end up driving off the bay bridge it's happened before it's happened before you might be number two you don't know if you're gonna get home the tragic story of the doctor we were out searching for an oakland and think maybe some disgruntled patient had had killed her the muslim sister it ended up in the fog she drove off the dock in alameda she never came home that night may Allah bless her soul and may Allah elevate her place in jannah and may Allah reward her for all the service she was loved when when the brothers and sisters are out marching down in fruit well people from the community were coming out because they love that sister she give you a free checkup free medicine but the point is she never made it home that night we not can assume i'll do all my prayers when i get home you might not get home there's no guarantee may Allah bless all of us to get home to our real home all of us to get safely home may Allah bless all of us to return to the home of jannah in that the home of the hereafter that's our real home may Allah bless us to be content may Allah bless us with shyness and the real shyness that doesn't prevent us from speaking truth when the situation calls for it from giving true witness when the situation calls for i'll call you call me hatha wa astaghfirullah li walakum wa disa'iril mu'mineen ya qaum astaghfirullah