By: Om Mohammed

 It is a common human trait that we view things of little value individually as rather unimportant, or as just as their face value expresses-possessing little value. However, when they occur or are somehow collected in greater numbers, their little value adds up to a greater sum value.

THE LITTLE THINGS DO ADD UP

By: Om Mohammed

 It is a common human trait that we view things of little value individually as rather unimportant, or as just as their face value expresses-possessing little value. However, when they occur or are somehow collected in greater numbers, their little value adds up to a greater sum value.

Take, for instance, the current internet “app store” of Apple for the iPhone and iPod. There is, at this online store, a wide collection of applications of various levels and attractions for the iPhone and iPod, most at a very seemingly minimal cost of $0.99-$3.99. Some are even free, while others may be slightly more than the high end of what has been mentioned. But in the long run, they are most reasonably priced, enticing the shopper into buying and downloading more, by the very virtue of their inexpensive nature, while offering the customer something seemingly worth it for the price.

Now, this message is not meant as a sales-pitch to promote Apple products or services, nor is it meant as a pitch against any other possible applications services on the internet. My point is that, we humans have this rather negligent tendency to overlook the overall sum price, while concentrating on the lesser amount for the single thing. When you may find so many of the applications offered through the iTunes app store online rather cheap individually, they can eventually add up to a rather great sum in the long run when you non-chalantly download application after application. The same thing can be said about the various discount stores around, which offer their merchandise for 5 or 10 riyals a piece. The more you buy, the more you end up paying. The low price of the merchandise itself is a sales-pitch to entice customers into the store in the first place.

The same idea can be applied to our sins. So many of us take for granted that the smaller sins (those that are not of the major level) are of no great importance, and so we carelessly indulge in them daily, ignoring the fact that they do indeed add up to a great sum, perhaps greater than what we will ever reach in committing any of the great sins, simply because of our care in avoiding those major sins. Because of the great value of the greater major sins, we take great care in avoiding them, or in searching for the proper method of expiation concerning them, yet we carelessly neglect the fact that the smaller sins do indeed add up to a great sum, much as buying small particles or services for pennies eventually adds up to a dollar, the numerous one dollar items eventually running a bill of tens of dollars, and so on and so forth.

Perhaps more often than not, we do not even realize when we do indulge in committing these more minor sins, in fact, not even realizing that they are sins at all. They come into what is called the “grey area”. In Sahih Al-Bukhari, in the Book of Knowledge, we find a valuable hadith in which the Prophet (pbuh) is quoted in telling us about this very “grey area”.

Narrated An-Nu'man bin Bashir: I heard Allah's Apostle saying, “Both legal and illegal things are evident but in between them there are doubtful (suspicious) things and most of the people have no knowledge about them. So whoever saves himself from these suspicious things saves his religion and his honor. And whoever indulges in these suspicious things is like a shepherd who grazes (his animals) near the Hima (private pasture) of someone else and at any moment he is liable to get in it. (O people!) Beware! Every king has a Hima and the Hima of Allah on the earth is His illegal (forbidden) things. Beware! There is a piece of flesh in the body if it becomes good (reformed) the whole body becomes good but if it gets spoilt the whole body gets spoilt and that is the heart. “ (Sahih Al-Bukhari, The Book of Knowledge, hadith #49) **(the Arabic word “Hima” means “refuge” or “sanctuary”).

Hence, from this hadith we gather that there is an area of things in this life in which it is not perfectly clear if these things are permissible or not. It is because of this suspicion or lack of knowledge of the permissibility of these things, that it is best to avoid them, in order to be on the safe side.

There is yet another area in addition to this questionable or grey area, and that is the area of things that we do not realize even that they are wrong or even forbidden - things of which we have no real knowledge or awareness.

In that case, you may be thinking, how can we prepare ourselves to avoid such things? Or, even, how can it be that we can be held accountable for such things, if we have no true knowledge of them?

To begin with, we ourselves need to raise our own awareness by simply learning the basic guidelines of the religion and what is expected of us. Secondly, we need to become aware in general of all things, and what it is that entails rendering a sin or doing wrong against Allah and His rights.

First of all, we need to be aware that Allah has a right upon us, and we also have a right upon Allah. Interesting? Allah’s right upon us (mankind) is that we worship Him alone, associating no partners whatsoever with him in any manner at all. All else (of obedience to Allah and His commands) falls in line after that. And our right upon Him is that He not punish us if we comply with His right. (taken from Sahih Al-Bukhari, The Book of Oneness (Tawheed), hadith #470).

Now, revolving around this basic essence of first realizing that Allah is One and then validating that realization by worshipping Him as One, we then come to the point of being aware of what consists of correct and wrong behavior concerning Him and His Majestic essence. Here is where it is necessary to become aware of what is permissible and what is not.

One of the most common and easiest ways in which any of us enter into sin is the slip of the tongue. The most commonly understood meaning of this aspect is either sinful talk, such as unnecessary swearing and taking the Lord’s name in vain, or indulging in vulgar language, gossip, or other such sinful manners of speech. However, there is yet another way in which many of us enter into sin with our tongues, and what makes it even more dangerous is that this type of sin by the slip of the tongue is something which so many of us enter into unaware and unintentionally.

One example of this is how, many years ago, as I recall hearing a religious verdict publicized in Saudi Arabia from the Permanent Sitting Council for Religious Verdicts, was the warning and reminder to the people to not say in one sentence “Allah and so-and-so”, for this is in fact a means of associating a partner with Allah. The correct way to say the same thing, yet avoid the sin of associating partners with Allah is to say: “Allah and then so-and-so”. It is the way that it is said that changes the meaning entirely, and something which so many people overlook to begin with, and many others, when hearing this reasoning, sadly respond in negative manner ridiculing those who have come to this understanding.

Another example is something more recent and perhaps more relevant to today’s cyber society. Throughout the history of the world, even non-Muslims have many times come to the realization of the validity and importance of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) in this world. Encyclopedia Britannica has been quoted as saying that Muhammad was the most successful of all Prophets and religious personalities.

As I said, a recent development in this cyber society is an online survey asking people to select the personality that they think deserving of winning the title of most popular historical personality. As I recall, there was several years ago a result of a similar survey posted in Time Magazine, and Mohammed (PBUH) rated rather high in the ranking, and the reasoning given was that he was more influential even than Jesus because of his all-encompassing personality: he was a leader (political, religious and spiritual), family man, teacher, guide, and much more, whereas others did not meet those high standards encompassing so many facets of human kind. More recently is an online poll surveying people to respond with their input as to whom they think should rate highest in this poll seeking to find the most influential historical personality. Emails have been sent out to unwitting recipients, encouraging them to cast their vote for Muhammad, playing on their heart strings to vote for their favorite man, reminding them that it is their duty as a Muslim to love him enough to vote for him in this race.

The reason I bring this up is because this survey has somehow come to the attention of some of our respected scholars here in Saudi Arabia, and it has recently been brought to my attention that it has come to the point where an official religious verdict has been issued and publicized warning Muslim to NOT participate in such surveys which involve voting for Muhammad. Their reasoning is that there is no comparison of any human being to Muhammad. We are told very clearly and without any doubt or question in the Quran, directly from Allah, that Muhammad is the best of mankind. So, how can there ever be any comparison, before his existence on this earth or after his death, with any other human being? Surely, there is no comparison of anyone to him, and he is the best hands down to all others, so there is not only no reason to vote, but a very good reason NOT to vote. In fact, casting your vote in such a survey may even shed a light of doubt on your own faith in essence, because of the feeling of the need to vote to somehow “prove” to the non-believers of the high stance that we hold our own Prophet.

It is a well-established essence of human nature that any adherent to any religion will of course hold their own prophet in higher respect than the prophets of other religions. So, what is this contest, then, but a mere contest to see how many Muslims will enter and cast votes vs. how many Christians vs. how many Jews vs. how many Buddhists and so-on and so-forth??

The whole point of this message is that we need to raise our own consciousness of what we do and say, evaluate things before we actually take any action or make speech, to determine whether or not this thing we intend to do or the words we intend to say are truly worthwhile and do not involve any possible transgression against Allah or the message of Islam in any way, shape or form.

It has been recorded that the Prophet (PBUH) said: "A slave (of Allah) may utter a word which pleases Allah without giving it much importance, and because of that Allah will raise him to degrees (of reward): a slave (of Allah) may utter a word (carelessly) which displeases Allah without thinking of its gravity and because of that he will be thrown into the Hell-Fire."  (Sahih Al-Bukhari, The Book of Ar-Riqaq, hadith #485).

We need to weigh our words carefully before uttering anything, and seek Allah’s forgiveness much, for so many times we may fall carelessly or even unintentionally into sin without even realizing it. I pray that we may be enlightened enough to learn what is most beloved unto Allah, and to be so strong as to put that knowledge into daily practice. May Allah guide us all to that which is best, and forgive us our sins, those that are in the open and those that are concealed, and those that we know about and those that were are ignorant of.