Abu Hurairah (radi Allahu anhu) narrated that the Messenger of Allah (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said: “Indeed among the excellence of a person’s Islam is that he leaves alone that which does not concern him.” [Chapters on Zuhd: Jami At-Tirmidhi]
Nafsee can be roughly translated (I use the term roughly translated due to Arabic being so vast , this word definitely means way more than what’s mentioned here) as myself.
We live in an era where the slightest statement uttered goes viral on social media in merely minutes. That being said it’s not as easy as it used to be to be unaware of other people’s affairs. Sometimes you may not even want to know about different occurrences going on and it may be forced upon you to know as soon as you open your newsfeed.
However this post is not about social media. Rather this is about striving to be more concerned with our own affairs. One of the tricks of the shaytaan is to make us more involved with other people’s situations than that which is obligatory upon us . We become so immersed into what some other lady is or is NOT doing , what may be going on in someone else’s marriage, how someone’s actions are , what we heard about an individual was it true or false etc etc. So much so that this can distract us from what we are supposed to be doing.
What someone else is or is not doing should not be our concern. We are not the police. Or detectives. Nor do we have to answer for what another person is doing in the sight of Allaah unless we are held responsible for them (for example our children). Those affairs that SHOULD concern us about others never get much thought. Like when another muslim is sick, or needs food, or needs some islaamic support, etc. These are affairs from others that we should give our energies toward. Not who said what and who wore what.
And this doesn’t mean that if you see an evil that we aren’t supposed to speak against it. This is not the topic of discussion. Minding our own affairs is bring focused on what we have responsibility over. From some of those things are our:
Salaah Fasting Knowledge Emaan Husband Children Household Duties Parents Health
There is even more than what is listed above. It is not even possible to list all that we have responsibility over. Just imagine that the same energy you give to worrying and speaking about other people’s affairs, if we were to redirect those energies into all that we have to do. We would accomplish a lot more in a day and we wouldn’t be stressed.
Take the comparison of two neighbors. They both have beautiful big backyards. The one neighbor she spends her days working on her crops in her yard, cleaning the yard, organizing the yard etc. She’s so busy with her own yard she never even notices anyone else’s yard.
Then you have her neighbor. She’s always peering into her neighbor’s yard. Watching what her neighbor does. Criticizing what her neighbor is or is not doing in her yard. Calling her other friends to tell them the info on her neighbor’s backyard.
In the end, the neighbor that’s always peering into her neighbor’s yard never had time to organize and cultivate her yard. So when you visit her yard, it’s always messy .
Whereas the first neighbor who was always working hard in her yard had the best yard in the neighborhood. As a matter of fact, she never even realized her neighbor was even looking into her yard.
Likewise as for we ladies, we must keep our eyes on the prize. Stay focused on those responsibilities and affairs that Allaah has given us. Cultivate and nurture them so that the end result can hopefully be Jannah. Don’t make time for the foolery. Be concerned about others when there is a need for such and it can be of benefit to the person and yourself.
Take the example from an excerpt of this narration:
The sun will come close until their anguish and distress becomes unbearable, and some will say to others, “Do you not see how much you are suffering Why do you not find someone to intercede for you with your Lord” And some of the people will say to others, “How about Adam” So they will go to Adam and say, “O Adam, you are the father of mankind, Allah created you with His Hand and breathed into you of His spirit, and commanded the angels to prostrate to you. Intercede for us with your Lord, do you not see the state we are in, how bad it is” Adam will say, “My Lord is angry today in a way that He has never been angry before and He will never be this angry again. He forbade me to approach the Tree and I disobeyed Him. Myself, myself, myself ﴿i.e., I am only concerned about myself﴾. Go to someone else. Go to Nuh.’’ (The full hadeeth can be read here )
As we can see even the most pious and righteous of people (the prophets) will be more concerned with themselves on the day of judgement. So how much more so for us? The things we concern ourselves with so much now, we will not care about on the day of judgment. We will not even care about our loved ones. And yet those affairs that we will be questioned about that are a big concern, some people will regret not having had taken care of those affairs on the day of Judgement. May Allaah protect us from the evils of our own selves and increase us in obedience to Him Aameen.
Be concerned with yourself……….
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