I ASKED THE children about what they thought of the hadith where the Prophet ﷺ said: ‘O people! Indeed Allah is tayyib and He does not accept but what is tayyib…’ (Muslim)
‘Could it mean that Allah only accepts what is purely for Him?’ my daughter said.
‘Perhaps it means that every step of what we do for the sake of Allah needs to be good and pure. For example, you need to purify yourself with wudhu before you stand for salah. You and the clothes and place where you pray need to be pure for your salah to be accepted,’ my son said.
‘It really is a deep hadith that we all need to appreciate. It tells us that it is not enough to just do a good deed, but we need to be equally concerned about all the facets that surround and lead up to that good deed. So, we need to be mindful of Allah in respect of that good deed and ensure it is done in a way that is pleasing to Him.
Without a doubt, Allah is pure and good in the absolute sense. He is perfect. He is free from any deficiency or defect. So just as He is pure, He demands that what is done for Him and given in His name and for His cause is also good, pure, and free from defects. This includes the intention to seek only His pleasure and not for the purpose of showing off or self-satisfaction.
So, for instance, we may see a situation where people give in charity but that wealth they give has not been attained in a halal manner. Perhaps they expect that they will receive some reward from Allah. Perhaps through logical calculation, they hope to offset the sinful gain through charity.
But this hadith indicates that this charity will not be accepted. The thought may be good, and what they give to be very generous, but the action is built on that which is unsound.
Money of course is not haram in itself. Money is money. How we acquire it and how we dispense it is where halal and haram come in and what we are accountable for. So, wealth that we attain through haram means may give us some benefit in this dunya (and if given in charity to others will give the receiver some benefit) but it will only be a cause of regret and suffering in the akhirah for the giver and give him no reward.
To make us appreciate the gravity of this point the hadith ends on an evocative scene.
‘…And he ﷺ mentioned a man: ‘Who is undertaking a long journey, whose hair is dishevelled, and he is covered with dust. He raises his hands to the heavens and says: “O Lord! O Lord!” Yet his food is from the unlawful, his drink is from the unlawful, his clothing is from the unlawful, and he was nourished by the unlawful. So how can that (dua) be accepted?’”
A man is travelling. He is tired. He is dusty. He is suffering and weak. He raises his hands calling ‘Ya Rabb’, knowing that the traveller’s dua is accepted and that Allah is shy to refuse the one who raises his hands up to Him.
But here we see the barrier to that dua. Everything that he has is unlawful. So how can his dua be accepted?
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