 إن الحمد لله نحمده ونستعينه ونعوذ بالله من شرور أنفسنا ومن سجئات أعمالنا من يهده الله خلا نضل له ومن يضل الفلاها دي له وأشهد أن لا إله إلا الله وحده لا شريخ له وأشهد أن محملا عبده ورسوله صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وأصحابه يجمعين تسليم الكثير من اليوم الدين وإن الله كتب الإحسان على كل شيء الله سبحانه وتعالى يقول أنه يجمع عدل وإحسان إحسان أو إحسان أو إحسان ومحملا صلى الله عليه وعلى آله يقول أنه يجمع عدل على كل شيء إحسان أو إحسان أو إحسان يجمع عدل على كل شيء ومن سجئة الله صلى الله عليه وسلم وإحسان يقول أنه يجمع عدل على كل شيء الله كما ترى وإن لا ترى فإن لم تكون ترى فإنه يرى إذا لم ترى الله سبحانه وتعالى يعرف أنه يجمعك ونعرف أنه يرى لك ماذا هو هذا المسؤول؟ انه يوجد مستوى في القرآن أنه يوجد عندما جبريل عليه السلام يأتي إلى المسجر الله صلى الله عليه وسلم ونعلمه حديث ويسمى حديث جبريل ويجد أن يسأل للمسجر صلى الله عليه وسلم اطلق أثناء ويسأل لهم عن إسلام ويقول لهم ما إسلام is ويقول لهم أنك لسهادة وماذا هو إيمان؟ وماذا هو إحسان؟ وماذا هو إحسان؟ وقال من جبريل الله وإذا ترى يرىه وإذا لا ترىه أن يلتق You وقال أنه يسأل لهم عن سائحة حتى when the Sahaba احسانت the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم ويرا ذلك هل تعرفون من ذلك؟ يقول أنها ليس أقل يقول هذا هو جبريل ومن يأتي لك أدريك حوالي احسانة ومالهoloura عن جبريد. لذا جبريد عليه الصلاة يسأل أن إحسان ، يسأل عن إحسان والفتاة صلى الله عليه وسلم يسأل أن هذا هو one of the pillars of our Deen. هذا هو one of the foundations of our faith and our practice of our faith. لذا يجب أن نعرف ماذا هو إحسان؟ وكيف نفعل إحسان؟ وكيف يجب أن نفهم ماذا إحسان هو وماذا إحسان ليست؟ هذا is why when we read the eyes of the Quran or the verses of the Hadith of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم we should pay special attention to what is being discussed there, what is mentioned before and what is mentioned after the context of this Hadith or the ayah. لذا when an ayah الله سبحانه وتعالى says وابتري فيما تأكى الله دارة الآخرة use those things that Allah has given you, those blessings that Allah has given you use those and spin them and seek out the next life ولا تنسى نفسي بك من الدنيا second point and don't forget your portion of the دنيا وأحسن كما أحسن الله إليك وماذا إحسان؟ لديك إحسان أفضل شيء فقط as Allah has had excellence with you when we think of all of the blessings that Allah has given us that alone should be a motivating factor to say well if Allah has given me so much then let me give out in a perfect way to others around me so Allah first said use those blessings to seek the afterlife don't forget your portion of the دنيا and do إحسان to others just as Allah has done إحسان to you and then He says and don't oppress don't seek out transgression in the world in the land because Allah does not love those who transgress or those who are transgressors if we back up to the other ayah as well when Allah سبحانه وتعالى says in this ayah you hear a lot of at the end of a lot of خقبز they end this and this was actually implemented by عمر ابن عبد العزيز why because at the end of the or in the ayah it says that Allah orders you to have عدل and إحسان and to give to your family members to be good to your family members He found that at his time a lot of people were treating the family of the Prophet ﷺ in an ill fashion jealousy hatred even hurting them and killing them we're in the month of محرم we know what happened on the 10th of محرم to the grandson of the Prophet ﷺ and how the people murdered him and massacred his family and what they did so عمر ابن عبد العزيز implemented this as a method in the خقبة to remind people if Allah is telling you take care of your families then what does that mean about the family of the Prophet ﷺ this إحسان this goodness that you're showing but in this ayah this that Allah is ordering and joining إحسان and عدل He says Allah enjoin it enjoins justice and excellence and all things و ينهى عن الفحشائي والمونكري والبذي and he forbids you prohibits you from evil things foul things and transgression بذي so the opposite we understand that the opposite of إحسان is transgression if we are not showing إحسان then we become transgressors we become people of بذي and بذي as a quick device to remember what it means sounds like bully a little bit just change the lab to a vein بولي بذي same thing think of the bully think of what the bully does and we might have all been in that situation where either we were bullied or maybe we were the bullies maybe we were in an employer maybe we were a spouse a father a mother child friend classmate co-worker colleague appear and now these blessings that Allah has given us how are we going to use it in this interaction with this other person are we going to have إحسان just as Allah has given إحسان to us or are we going to transgress think of one of the ultimate bullies in the Quran فرعون and all that Allah had given him in terms of wealth and power and prestige amongst his people and how did he treat بني إسرائيل how did he treat the children of إسرائيل how does that bully when Allah gives him strength or gives her strength or gives them the ability to speak very well sometimes a bully is just a sharp tongueed person that knows how to insult somebody really deeply and inflict that wound so this power that Allah has given us this ability to speak maybe this ability for humor maybe this ability for sarcasm this blessing that Allah has given us as an employer and now I'm over these employees am I going to treat them well treat my friends well or am I going to use those blessings and hurt them so that's how we know whether it's إحسان or ببي it's either these blessings that we are given where we were given to by Allah we either use them in إحسان in excellence and perfection of our faith or we're using them in transgression this position of authority that Allah gives us as a father to children as a teacher to students as an employer to employees the position of having something that you could outdo somebody else with are we going to treat others well and be people of إحسان or are we going to hurt them and be people of ببي so that's the first thing to remember that إحسان has signs if we're treating other people fairly and justly and perfectly that's إحسان once we start losing that we slip into the realm of ببي but even before that إحسان is linked to faith we cannot have إحسان unless we have faith the Prophet ﷺ in discussing with جبري began by answering questions about faith what does it mean to be a Muslim how can we be a Muslim we believe in Allah and his messengers and the angels and the books and so forth then comes إحسان why is this important it's important because when we look at the دنيا and we look at what people have been given and the excellence that people strive for in the دنيا and the perfection that people have of the دنيا sometimes they consider that's إحسان that's what it means when Allah says be people of إحسان that's what it means when the messenger of Allah ﷺ says that Allah has ordained إن الله كتب على كل شيء الإحسان Allah has ordained or said that you have do إحسان in all things so these countries are major producers they have factories and look at what they're producing and their technology and so forth and look at the Muslim there's people who are analyzing the Muslim community and saying that a lack of our faith of the Islamic faith is because our countries are not producers like their countries they'll actually say this and believe this they believe that the sign of إحسان of perfection in this life is that you're producing material things you're producing دنيا oh you made a great product you have a great invention that must mean that you're a person of إحسان but if we look at the ayahs in the Quran الله سبحانه وتعالى is telling us وعبد الله worship Allah believe in Allah and then have إحسان towards your parents or so forth as in the ayah where الله سبحانه وتعالى says وعبد الله worship Allah which means that you believe in Allah first to be able to worship Him ولا تشركوا به شيء and do not associate partners with Allah وبي الوالي دنيا إحسان and do have إحسان be good perfect your relationship with your parents وبي ذي القربة and with your your your your family your relatives واليتامة and the orphans والمساقين and the the poor people والجاري and the neighbors the close neighbors and the far neighbors so this is how الله is teaching us how to have إحسان it's we have to have faith and worship and then begins the process of إحسان otherwise if we think that إحسان is somehow related to just the dunya we go back to the ayah where الله سبحانه وتعالى is telling us use those blessings that Allah has given you to seek out the next life and don't forget your portion of the dunya وَنَا تَنْسَنَا أَفْلِبَكَمْنَا دُنْيَا don't forget about the dunya one time when I was studying there was a friend of mine and he came and when he one of the first questions that he had on his mind as he was sitting with the shiouf he said I know in the community that I came from there's this push to have their children to have the youth excel in their the studies college high school and so on and so forth and then to get then to get the best job even if it means sacrificing the dean at times or not giving as much importance towards our faith and our practice of the faith and the proof that these people are saying is that when they see their children trying to go towards the faith and more practice of the faith they'll say that's good that's fine you can practice Islam but don't forget your portion of the dunya and they use this idea وَنَا تَنْسَنَا أَفْلِبَكَمْنَا دُنْيَا literally that's what it means don't forget your portion of the dunya so they're using this idea to say it's okay you can have a little bit of Islam and a little bit of practice but don't forget the major portion your portion of the dunya you have to get some portion of the dunya which is true we believe this we know the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم told us that we have to go out and seek the خلال livelihood and support our families and support ourselves we know that the Muslims a Muslim with a proper understanding of Islam has a strong work ethic there's no doubt about that but what does it really mean when Allah is telling us don't forget your portion of the dunya it's one of two things because once we leave this dunya what do we leave with do we leave with our inventions our patents our 401k plans our houses our real estate our holdings our assets our stocks do we leave with those or do we leave those to our inheritors to fight over that's the reality once we leave this dunya that's for the people to fight over after us the only thing that we take out of this world is our good actions and our burial shrouds that's the only thing we take out for any of us who's bent into a a burial and if you haven't there's a very close cemetery here's Livermore and there's a lot of entered a lot of reward to going to a burial and seeing the final rights that's given to a Muslim to honor that Muslim but also to remind ourselves of our own mortality but when that person is placed in the grave and the dirt is placed over them what's the only thing that they that's theirs but nobody else then the inheritors can't come and say I want that burial shroud it's the shroud that they're buried with that's the only thing that we take out of this dunya everything else that we amass all of the things that we get that's for other people and so Allah is reminding us what I've been saying I'll see you back in the dunya don't forget what you're really taking out of this world so when we have that perspective when we think about what we're really taking then when we approach the dunya it's a different outlook yes we can get the dunya and yes we can strive for excellence in the dunya but we know that the only thing we're taking out is our good actions so make sure that this good action that we're doing this action that we're doing is in line with the dean brothers and sisters we have to do that we have to make sure that everything that we do is in line with the dean and that we're doing it really في سبيل الله it was once somebody told me something and it was very disturbing they walked into a organizational meeting of a nonprofit and somebody and they were planning out their strategy do this do that and somebody looked at the strategy and looked at one of the points and said well isn't if we did that wouldn't that be Haram and the person he immediately just responded saying I don't care if it's Haram this is what we're going to do when I heard that I said that sounds like those cutthroat corporate managers that when something is placed before them they say well you're going to ruin the ecosystem of this country you're going to cause them I don't care that's what we're going to do so did they perfect the dunya and their achievements in the dunya and they're procuring that getting their dunya did they do a good job of getting the dunya yes but did they have إحسان did they have this excellence that's a form of worship that's one of the pillars of our faith no because if we have إحسان then everything we do is getting us to Allah سبحانه وتعالى we don't believe that the ends justifies the means that just because we're trying to get to the أفهر that we can somehow make take shortcuts and go around the dean and say as long as I'm trying to get to that أفهر as long as I'm trying to do good it's okay if I've heard a few people in the pathway no that's not what we believe we have to make sure that the blessings that الله سبحانه وتعالى the blessings that he has given us are used properly so when we have this blessing and we have this authority over someone else we have this ability to do something to make sure we say am I doing this with إحسان and a beautiful example and this is why it's important to look at the context is that when our messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم when he said when he told us إن الله كتب الإحسان على كل شيء الله has اعدين and has ordered that we be perfect and we excel and we have excellence in all things let's look at the example that he gave us this is a man who's رحمة للعالمين he's a mercy to all of creation علمين doesn't mean people الحمد لله رب العالمين doesn't mean praise to الله the Lord of all people it means the all all of creation so the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم after telling this صحابه and by extension telling us he's speaking to us as well we have to remember that yes he's speaking to the صحابه directly before them but he also told the صحابه بلغ العمي بلا آية convey this message so when we hear the blessed words of the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم we have to remember he's speaking to me he's not just speaking to them this is not merely a tradition or a historical analysis that we're doing we're looking at something he's speaking to every single one of us so what is he's trying to tell us الله has أودي that we have إحسان in all things فإذا قاتلتم فأحسين القتل وإذا دراحتم فأحسين الضب that when you kill kill properly if you're hunting don't torture this animal have he's telling us about the ethics of hunting and if you slaughter if it's a slaughter that you're doing then make sure that it's that it's proper and sharpen your knife and let the animal have a merciful death he's telling us exactly what we should be doing and look at this look at the context when a person slaughters an animal and many of us we just got through last month celebrating ايه that uh by slaughtering an animal when you're in that position you have this blessing الله has given you this power and control over another creature how are we going to do that and that creature can't do anything to stop you it can try but pretty much we are in control now we have this blessing that Allah has given us are we going to do this properly and treat this animal properly and any of you who have watched the ritual of slaughtering and the muslims look at the way people actually slaughter the animal do they cover the eyes for example of a sheep it will calm the sheep down and then it happens quickly or do they mistreat the animal do they miss handle the animal and that's a good way a good red flag so to speak that we can say is a person really having اكسان in their life because if they're having اكسان in their life then it's going to show up so let's see how you slaughter an animal let's see how you treat children let's see when you come to a parking lot do you double park or park in a red zone or park in front of the fire hydrants I know it's a constant thing that we talk about but here we go again here's this blessing you have a car yes you have to get to the messjid are you going to sacrifice some اكسان so that you're trying to get to the next world and you're going to block people in and that happens all of the time and so it's a question that we should be asking why am I lacking in this اكسان I'm not doing اكسان to others as Allah has done اكسان to me I'm only caring about myself that's the problem when we only care about ourselves we're not having اكسان we're not perfecting we could come in and have a great prayer that's not اكسان when we hurt other people in the process to get to our perfect or so called perfect prayer that's not اكسان اكسان has to be the whole way all the way to the actual form of worship and this is why in the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم call those people who worship Allah and do a very good job of it but they harm other people he call them the bankrupt people because they have all of these good deeds that they've amassed but they're gonna have to give them out to the other people around them so we look around the meat production of the Muslim world and how people are treating them some people who came back from Hajj they told me just recently they said I can't believe the way Muslims are treating animals during the during the Hajj of the sacrifice just because it's an act of worship and just because it's the sun of إبراهيم عليه السلام now we're going to take this blessings that Allah has given us over this animal and mistreat it that's not إحسان brother's insistence and we can apply this to any aspect of our life the messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم reminded us to have be good have faith with the women of our community are we doing that the husbands the fathers are we really being good to the women in our community and honoring and by extension are the women honoring the men and having إحسان towards the people around us and these are the question that we can be asking ourselves to see are we really having إحسان one time I was this was when I was in West Africa and it's a it's a pastoral society where they have they they have animals camels sheep so forth and some of the people coming from outside of the country from the west would try to get into the culture and buy animals and it seems simple and so one time this person bought some goats and then one having a bad day collecting the goats and then he slapped one of the goats and I remember if there was a Moritanian who was raised in this type of family where they would take care of animals he just looked up with me with with the with the space and I'll never forget the way he looked at me and he said he said this is not proper this is not proper and I thought to myself deeply about that for a number of things one every single prophet had at a certain point at his life he was a shepherd he was taking care of animals and it's a training they said the reason why it's a training of how to deal with people because that's the ultimate situation where you have complete control over this you can do you can kill it you can hurt it you can treat it nicely and if you can perfect that way of dealing with a creature that you have complete control over then when we go into our society when we are in our schools as teachers as students in our workplaces in our families then we say am I going to use this power these blessings whatever I have been given am I going to treat other people well or am I going to harm them that's why one of the reasons why doctors will actually look for mistreatment of animal in children if they're mistreating animals this is a sign there needs to be some work with that child and having pets is actually a good thing because it'll treat it teach to give the child the chance to learn how to treat others so as we're working towards إحسان and we're working towards justice we remember the verse of الله in the الله يأم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم أم but once we do that we should know that the رحمة الله سبحانه وتعالى he tells us those people of إحسان the محسينين the رحمة الله is close and how can it be close there's many different ways of how it can be close one of the things they mentioned is that it lets society function when we the more إحسان that we have in society the more functioning of a society that we have the example that I give is the courtesy that you have as a driver imagine if we didn't as drivers we only say this is my right this is my حق and we're not courtesy to other drivers imagine what the freeways would look like if we weren't courteous but courtesy comes out of إحسان that's all right I'm going to slow down and let you merge onto this very traffic during this very high traffic time but if we force them to say no this is my right this is my حق and we don't show إحسان imagine what our society would look so it lets society function at a higher level and there are some people who say that if you want to to look at a إحسان don't look at their إحسان of the إحسان that's what I mentioned earlier before don't look at their إحسان of إحسان look at the courtesy that they extend to other people so we might go to a so called developing nation or a third world country and they don't have all of the إحسان that we might have we see here in America but look at the way they treat people look at that that إحسان that's what إحسان is about it's not about building the best buildings because فرعون had that but he didn't have إحسان towards the people so all of that was was meaningless الله will be with you when you have إحسان when you're trying to be conscious on your day to day interactions with other people and we try to show this perfection in this excellence of our faith in your إحسان الله will be close to you and answer your دعاز الله سبحان تعاله will love us and when when he puts love of us when he puts love of us in the hearts of other people huge changes will occur and protection will ensue one of the things they mentioned is that in the society you will be protected just look at the best example is the message of الله صلى الله عليه وسلم how was he known to the people of قريش did they call him محمد or did they call him الأمين the trustworthy because he was showing this إحسان to them all of the time so even when the oppression started because of his message that other believers weren't given he was given a lot more protection because of his position and other people the same that أثمان الله and who because of his إحسان towards other people he was given a position in society and protection from the society another benefit to us as individuals your heart will be at ease we know what it feels like everyone of us knows what it feels like when you do something good to another person when you do something good to another animal or to an animal we know that feeling and we know the feeling that comes when we do something bad to another person we know that feeling so imagine what our hearts will feel like if we pile up bad interactions buzzy interactions bully interactions inappropriate interactions with other people and imagine what our hearts will feel like and our bodies will be less free of stress if we have إحسان to other people another thing is that it will remove diseases of the heart so physically you will be it will reduce the stress but even spiritually it can remove diseases of the heart recently somebody asked me he said I have a I have enmity between me and another person what can I do I said show that person إحسان this is something the scholars mentioned that if you do good to that person even something somebody that's between you and him enmity as mentioned in the Qur'an you will find that person becomes a close friend because we are by our nature Allah has made us that we love the people who are good to us we love we show إحسان we go when we go against our nature then we mess up that in balance there's a story الله أعلم if it's true but there was a man who was really good to a king a cook or something he was something and he had some job in the castle and then one day he made the king angry and the king said I'm going to execute you and he said okay but just give me 10 days in the prison and he said the way I'm going to execute you is that I'm going to throw you in the prison and have my dogs eat you attack and kill you and so he said okay but just give me 10 days with the dogs in prison before you unleash them on me he said okay so during that 10 days this person who was going to be executed showed Iqsan to the animals he started feeding them petting them caring for them and by the end of the day they became his close friends when the king came and he said now I'm going to throw you to these animals he said okay and he saw what happened when he threw them to the animals and then the this man who was very wise man told the king he said I did Iqsan to you for years look at how you treated me one mistake and you wanted to execute me these dogs which are lower than humans I treated them nicely for 10 days and look at how well they're close to me and how protective they are of me and so the king of course he he realized his mistake but this is some of the the benefits that we can get when we show Iqsan to other people even those people that might be enemies or those creatures we can draw them closer and then finally the the levels of Iqsan are clearly mentioned in the Quran where Allah سبحانه وتعالى says وَعْبُدُ الله وَرَا دُّوْ سُلِكُ بِهِ شَيْعًا worship Allah and do not associate partners with Allah وَذِنْ وَالِدَيْنِ يَعْبْسَانَا and show Iqsan to our parents so when we're beginning our levels to say okay now this Iqsan this pillar of my faith where do I begin where do I start let's start with our interaction with my parents am I being good to them am I taking care of them let me increase let me always excel let me perfect and if any point we get to a point where we think that we've achieved perfection if we're sincere and we look at that we can always excel we can do something even better so let's start with our parents and analyze and see if our relationship with our parents is good and if we're doing it as best we can وَذِنْ قُرْبَا and with our family وَالْيَتَامًا and the poor and the orphans are we really having Iqsan with them are we creating a society where they feel honored and they feel that there's a place to go to do they feel that a person can come and come to me as a محسن as a person of Iqsan sometimes we're bothered when people come and ask us for favors but the wise people say actually look at that as a benefit they're praising you because Allah has put the question with somebody else it's not you that's coming to ask for money or advice or help that's somebody else coming to you and they see you as a person of Iqsan they see you as a person of goodness and this is what the Prophet ﷺ described it or taught us to be that we should be amongst the people we should stand out we should be able to stand out and this does not doesn't mean that we have a specific dress that we wear to stand out but what this means is that people can tell that we are people of Iqsan and when they see that we're people of Iqsan then they'll come to us we ask Allah ﷻ to make us from the people of Iqsan to make us from the مصنين to make us of those who excel and perfect in our faith and in our worship and we make us ask Allah ﷻ to give us Iqsan and to give us the pillar of Iqsan in all of our interactions with other people and in worshiping him