In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
When people have no shame, they will do whatever they like.
From Ibn Masood who said that the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: Among that which reached the people from the words of the earlier prophethood:
If you feel no shame, then do whatever you wish.[Bukhari]
عن ابن مسعود (ر) قال: قال رسول الله (ص): "إن مما أدرك الناس من كلام النبوة الأولى: إذا لم تستحى , فاسنع ما شئت" رواه البخاري
This is not a command to do whatever you wish but a warning and threat for those who have no shame.
Allah Almighty says,
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ يُلْحِدُونَ فِي آيَاتِنَا لَا يَخْفَوْنَ عَلَيْنَا ۗ أَفَمَن يُلْقَىٰ فِي النَّارِ خَيْرٌ أَم مَّن يَأْتِي آمِنًا يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۚ اعْمَلُوا مَا شِئْتُمْ ۖ إِنَّهُ بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ بَصِيرٌ ﴿٤٠﴾[Qur'an 41:40]
Indeed, those who inject deviation into Our verses are not concealed from Us. So, is he who is cast into the Fire better or he who comes secure on the Day of Resurrection? Do whatever you will; indeed, He is Seeing of what you do. (40)
فَاعْبُدُوا مَا شِئْتُم مِّن دُونِهِ ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ الْخَاسِرِينَ الَّذِينَ خَسِرُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ وَأَهْلِيهِمْ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ ۗ أَلَا ذَٰلِكَ هُوَ الْخُسْرَانُ الْمُبِينُ ﴿١٥﴾ لَهُم مِّن فَوْقِهِمْ ظُلَلٌ مِّنَ النَّارِ وَمِن تَحْتِهِمْ ظُلَلٌ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ يُخَوِّفُ اللَّـهُ بِهِ عِبَادَهُ ۚ يَا عِبَادِ فَاتَّقُونِ ﴿١٦[Qur'an Az-Zumar 39:14-16]
So worship what you will besides Him." Say, "Indeed, the losers are the ones who will lose themselves and their families on the Day of Resurrection. Unquestionably, that is the manifest loss." (15) They will have canopies of fire above them and below them, canopies. By that Allah threatens His servants. O My servants, then fear Me. (16]
Haya', which literally means shame, bashfulness, and refraining from saying or doing anything improper or indecent, to describe one who, out of fear and awe of Allah, seeks to avoid displeasing Him. If these feelings are absent or lost due to familial or environmental influences, it will be difficult to develop them.
Haya' can be divided into two categories: an innate or instinctive feeling of shame, which prevent people from engaging in what is considered shameful and indecent, and haya' originating in belief, which constitutes an important, deep dimension of Islam.
1) That which is innate and of the nature of the person.
Ashajj ibn 'Asar said: Allah's Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to me, "You have two attributes which Allah loves." I said, "And what are they." He, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Maturity and shame." I said, "Have they been with me since long ago or just recently?" He, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Since long ago." I said, "Praise be to Allah who put in my nature two attributes which He loves." [Ahmad]
2) That which is acquired and part of a change one makes in themselves for the sake of Allah.
Al-Jarraah ibn Abdullah Al-Hakamiy said: "I stayed away from sins out of shame for forty years and only after that I acquired some piety."
Combining the instinctive feeling of shame with modesty based on Islam forms the greatest safeguard against shameful or indecent acts. Alone, each one may be diminished or utterly lost. If this innate feeling of shame is not combined with awareness coming from belief and expressed in verses like: Does he not know that Allah sees (all things)? [Al-Alaq 96:14] and consciousness of Allah’s constant oversight: Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer. [An-Nisa' 4:1], it cannot last long, for its endurance depends on belief.
This essential relation between modesty and belief was expressed by Allah’s Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, who told a Companion after hearing his advice on modesty to another man: “Leave him, for modesty comes from belief.” He also said: “Belief has seventy or so divisions. Modesty is a division of belief.”
عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ عَنْ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ الْإِيمَانُ بِضْعٌ وَسَبْعُونَ شُعْبَةً وَالْحَيَاءُ شُعْبَةٌ مِنْ الْإِيمَانِ
From Abu Huraira who said that Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Faith is some seventy odd parts and shame is one of the parts of faith." [Muslim]
One’s natural feeling of shame develops to the extent it is strengthened with the forces and means that produce knowledge of Allah. It then becomes a dimension of one’s spiritual life, an obstacle against the carnal self’s excessive desires. If this feeling is not reinforced and developed with belief and knowledge of Allah or strengthened with consciousness of Allah’s constant oversight, and left to dissipate in sensual or carnal pleasure, one will witness in an individual or a community those indecencies and perversions that make anyone truly human ashamed of being human.
The words haya' (modesty or feeling of shame) and hayat (life) come from the same root. This signifies that modesty is a sign of a lively heart, and that a heart’s liveliness depends on its owner’s belief and knowledge of Allah. If a heart is not fed continuously with belief and knowledge of Allah, it is almost impossible for it to remain lively and give rise to modesty.
One’s degree of modesty determines one’s true humanness. If a traveler cannot order his/her life and discipline his/her acts according to the demands of the eternal life and to live in utmost humility and modesty, then his/her existence is a personal shame and a burden to others, as stated in the following couplet:
By God, there is good neither in life
Nor in the world when modesty disappears
Haya' is a Divine quality and mystery. If people knew to whom it essentially relates, they would act more carefully and sensitively.
From Abdullah ibn Mas'ood who said that Allah's messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
"Have shame before Allah as is befitting." We said: "O Allah's Messenger, we do have shame praise be to Allah." He, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said: "Not that, rather having shame before Allah as is befitting is to guard your head and what it contains, your stomach and what it takes in, to remember death and disintegration and whoever desires the hereafter leaves the ornamentation of this world. Whoever does all that has shame before Allah as is befitting.(At-Tirmidhi said we only know this hadith from this chain. It may be of the words of Ibn Mas'ood and not authenticated all the way to the Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace). [Tirmdhi]
"I swear by Allah that I never committed fornication in the Time of Ignorance nor in Islam. Islam only increased me in modesty." -- 'Uthman ibn 'Affan
May Allah make us of those who have haya'. Ameen.
Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
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