Are You Sincere? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

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Are You Sincere? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

Are You Sincere? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

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Imam Tom Live

Are You Sincere? | Snapshots with Imam Tom Facchine

Most of us measure our worship by how much we do: more prayer, more Qur’an, and more charity. But Allah doesn't grade us on volume alone.

In this Snapshot, Imam Tom Facchine works through one of the most uncomfortable questions in Islamic practice, one that even the Sahabah asked themselves: how do you actually know if you're sincere?

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This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings.

How do you know if you're sincere? This is something the companions were very concerned about. The companions, even such as Umar ibn al-Khattab, someone who was promised Jannah, asked Hudhayfah on his deathbed if he was one of the

hypocrites. Might not seem to make sense unless you realize that the companions were most concerned about being sincere. And there are several things that you can do to attempt to measure yourself and to check yourself. One of those

things is what you're doing when nobody is watching. One of the most beneficial things that you can do is to have some practice of worship that is secret, that

nobody knows about it except for you. And many of the Salaf would go to great pains to do the opposite of putting their worship on social media. They would actually go to great pains to conceal their worship. Abu Ayyub al-Ansari,

for example, he would recite Qur'an and pray well before Fajr, the last hour of the night. And of course, you know, this is back in the day before electricity. They had candles and oil lamps and things like that. And when it started to

get closer to Fajr, he would blow it out and cover it and he'd lay down and put the blankets over him and allow his family to come and wake him up for Fajr. He was already awake, but he had that practice that was just a secret

between himself and Allah. And I've met other scholars that have done things like fasted and they've stayed out of the house and their wives or their families were not aware that they were fasting or giving money in charity or various things. Whatever it is, it doesn't have to be amazing. It

doesn't have to be grandiose. But you can pick one thing and make sure it's only for Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Nobody else sees it. And insha'Allah, that will have a higher sincerity. The other way or another thing that you should be considerate of is how do you react to praise and criticism. You should not be

happy with praise. You should be afraid when you're praised. You should ask Allah consistently to guard you against arrogance. And Shaykh Abdullah al-Shanqiti

used to tell us specifically, if you go into a room and nobody stands up to give salam to you, nobody gives you any special treatment, you should be happy. You're just like anybody else. The words of Ali ibn Abi Talib, may Allah be pleased with him,

who said when he was actually asked by his son, very fascinating narration, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah asked him, who's the best of the companions after the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him? And Ali said, Abu Bakr. And then

Muhammad asked him, then who? And he said, Umar. And then Muhammad, he almost wanted to preempt the answer of his father and he said, then you? And Ali ibn Abi Talib,

may Allah be pleased with him, he said, "Ma ana illa rajulun min al-muslimin." He said, I am not anything except a man amongst the Muslims. And but then also how you respond to criticism. We've seen this recently with certain conversations

within the Muslim community around zakat and charitable organizations that unfortunately some of us respond so strongly and sensitively to criticism. We forget that nasiha is part of the deen and we forget that being criticized is

actually the sign that someone wants good for you. If we're able to extend that charitable interpretation of their motivations, if we're to jump right away to, oh this person is trying to cut me down, or this person is trying to ruin my

organization, or this person is going to be responsible for this, then we're going to be able to justify being defensive very easily. But if we look at other people and say, wow, this person really got emotional, this person really cares,

this person is really passionate about doing the right thing, that even if the criticism of you is 5% true or 10% true or 15% true or 30% true, you should be more worried about taking the percentage that's true than trying

to refute the percentage that's not. And this becomes even more important when we remember the hadith of the Prophet, peace be upon him, that fellow believers are mirrors to one another. We rely on each other. "Indeed, your allies are only Allah, His Messenger, and those who have believed"

That your only allies and protectors are Allah and His Messenger and the believers. And so when someone approaches you with nasiha, even if they're wrong, we should try to do better in not being sensitive, not taking things defensively, to

have husn al-dhann. Some people, unfortunately, they'll criticize the critic. They'll say, oh, you need to have husn al-dhann. Well, the person who's being criticized has to have husn al-dhann as well. That this person is passionate about something, they've seen something. Maybe even if they're misinformed, insha'Allah,

they mean well. And if the shoe fits, wear it. That's the best I can say. You know, some of the early Muslim scholars, they have said, if someone criticizes me or says something bad about me, then if it's correct, may Allah reward that person

for saving me from error. And if it's not correct, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive that person for being in error. We should be careful to understand that criticism and accountability is an essential part of community life as a

Muslim and we shouldn't necessarily react adversely to it. So we ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to make us sincere. One of the things, the last thing we'll say on this point, when you're moving from year to year, Ramadan or Eid or different things that come and there are opportunities to observe where you've

come. Most of our calculation, unfortunately, is concerned with how much we've done. Am I doing more Qur'an? Am I doing more prayer? Am I doing more of this or more charity? But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not tell us that he's going to hold

us to account according to how much we do. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala said in Surah al-Mulk and elsewhere, that he put us here on earth, "To test you as to which of you are best in deed"

He said that he's going to test us as to who is best indeed, not most indeed. And to be best indeed, we have to be the most sincere.

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