samlak
The Prophet [peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him], mentioned about Abu Bakr as-Sidiq [RA] where he said that If you put the
iman of all the Muslim ummah on one scale and the iman of Abu Bakr as-Sidiq on the other scale, the iman of Abu Bakr as-Sidiq would outweigh the iman of the whole ummah. The Prophet [peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him] also said that there is something in the heart of Abu Bakr as-Sidiq that distinguished it from others, and as it is known he was called as-Sidiq. The Prophet [peace and. blessings of Allaah be upon him] once said about Abu Bakr:
"When I call someone to Islam, he will have some hesitation ...except Abu Bakr as-Sidiq. The minute I talked to him about Islam, straight away he believed in me, he believed in Allaah and that Iam the Messenger of Allaah."
So it has to do with the heart that distinguished Abu Bakr as-Sidiq to be al-Khalifatul- Awal,and to be the first Sahabi (Companion).
From this, it can be said that every Muslim should care about his/her heart, purify it and activate iman in the heart, and practice the great principles of Tawhid, such as to love Allaah, to fear Him, to rely on Him, to have hope in Him, to seek help from Him and to seek refuge in Him so that the heart is alive, activated and full of iman. And at the same time we have to make sure that there should be no diseases or anything bad within our hearts, e.g. greediness, envy, arrogance, etc. Only then will the heart be sound.
In another related hadith the Prophet [peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him] mentioned that:
"The heart will be exposed to fitan (trials) again and again. The heart which is influenced by fitnah will have a black spot placed on it.
And if the heart avoids the fitnah,
there will be a white spot on it. "
The heart then is either a pure one, or a heart that has been sealed after being affected by fitan
or prohibited or doubtful matters again and again. Even though the heart pumps out blood and the person is alive, the heart in reality is not alive, because the iman is weak, making the heart unsound. Hence avoiding and getting away from the fitan is important in order to have a pure heart, especially in these contemporary times where it is full of evil that attracts the heart.
If you read any hadith of the Prophet [peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him] it talks about a matter, whether it is something good that we should do, or something bad that we should not do. And then in the hadith the Prophet [peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him] will mention a principle.
Usually, the principle, which is the main point of the hadith is the last words or sentence. The hadith
above mentions about the lawful and unlawful being evident, and then there is the doubtful matter. And then there is the last sentence of the hadith. This is the bottom-line of the hadith, the main thing, the main issue. If we want to get away from the muharramat
(unlawful), and also from the doubtful matters, we have to care about our heart. We have to purify our heart and make sure it is sound and alive, and it is not lost from us It was mentioned earlier that Imam al-Bukhari recorded this
hadith in Kitab ul-Buyu' (Trading). When it comes to trading there are many matters that are doubtful, matters which existed then and even now, e.g. where cheating is done professionally.Therefore we have to be careful if the matter related to trading is clear and evident, permissible or not permissible, or if it is doubtful, in which case we have to avoid it.
Related to the above issue is the issue of al-ma'kulat (food) where there are many doubtful matters about what we eat. If we check the ingredients that are used in many manufactured food today, e.g. biscuits, canned food and preserved food, there are ingredients that might raise the question of doubt about what we eat. We should be very careful when we read the ingredients of foodstuff if we want to ensure that what we eat is halal. It is mentioned in a hadith that if what we eat is haram, even our du'a supplication is not accepted by Allaah. We should take care of our health. A lot of what we eat today or what is in the market is not fresh. There are so many preservatives, colouring and chemicals which, if used excessively, might affect our health. We have to be careful in the sense that although it is in general permissible, if it is used excessively it will affect our health - then we are not doing good for our health as a Muslim.
