Where is your shame my sister?

Abu Mas'ud (May Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allah (sala allahu alayhi wa sallam) said, One of the things people have learnt from the words of the earliest prophecy is, "If you have no shame(hayaa), then do what you like." [Sahih Sunan Abi Dawud]

Yes, if you have no shame from Allah then do as you wish. If you have no shame for yourself and do not respect yourself, then yes, do as you wish. If you fail to realize who it is that you are disobeying then go ahead, do as you wish.

Hayaa is an element of faith. What exactly is alhayaa'? It is modesty, bashfulness, having shame, and overall to be shy. Hayaa is from the characteristics of the believer. The prophet (Sala allahu alayhi wa sallam) said in the hadeeth narrated by Imam al Bukhari in his Sahih, "Emaan (faith, belief) consists of more than sixty branches and hayaa is a part of faith." 

In another narration,the prophet(sala allahu alayhi wa sallam) passed by two men and one of them was admonishing the other for being too shy so the Messenger of Allah said to him "Leave him for hayaa is a part of faith."[Sahih al Bukhari]

Nowadays, we live in a time where sins and promotion of sinning has increased and the concept of hayaa has decreased. Rarely do you find people who have some shame from committing wrong. Ironically, instead we have many who have no problem showing the whole their involvement in a sin and seem to have no hayaa in exposing themselves when Allah covered their sins.  What happened to us? Where did our fear of Allah go?

The prophet (sala allahu alayhi wa sallam) also taught us that another virtue of hayaa is that it brings nothing but good. This is contrary to what western society preaches. "If you are shy, you are a failure. You will not get anywhere. Being shy prevents you from expressing yourself." Do not fall for these false concepts my dear sister. Believe the Messenger of Allah (sala allahu alayhi wa sallam) when he said, "Hayaa does not bring anything but good." [Al Bukhari]

and when he said, "Every religion has its characteristic and the characteristic of Islaam is AlHayaa(shyness, modesty)." [Sunan Abu Dawud]

Hayaa only increases the beauty of something or someone if it is used the right way. There is hayaa that is praiseworthy and hayaa that is wrong. We will first start with the greatest kind of hayaa that every individual should have.  And that is:

 Having Hayaa from Allah

One should first and foremost have shyness from Allah swt. This is by feeling ashamed to commit a sin and disobey Allah knowing that He (azza wa jall) is watching you. How is it that we can post pictures of ourselves without hijaab or  pics of us at someplace haraam and find some peace in our heart?? It makes no sense at all. Where did the fear of the Almighty go?

My dear sister, did you forget that there is a Lord who is Al-Samee' (All-Hearer), Al Baseer (All-See-er), Al Khabeer (Aware of all that is being done), Ar-Raqeeb (Ever-Watchful)? When, my sister, are you going to fear Allah, your Creator and Provider? When are you going to turn to Him?
Don't you realize death can strike you at any minute my dear sister? You don't know when you will meet Him. Do you wish to meet Him in this state you are in and if so, do you think He will be pleased with you?

Shyness(AlHayaa) left our hearts when the fear of Allah left us. Our fear of Allah decreased and so that opened up the doors to taking many sins lightly, as if there is no problem at all. Actually there is a BIG problem. Whether it be listening to music, smoking, drinking, zina, displaying our adornments (tabarruj), not praying and so on, the main cause for falling into these sins is partly due to lack of fear of Allah azza wa jall. Our hearts got harder and darker with sin when we failed to fear Allah and when we failed to realize who it is that we are disobeying.

When the sahabah were told to fear Allah, their hairs stood on end. They trembled at the weight of such words. Nowadays, a muslim tells his fellow muslim brother and sister to fear Allah and the reply is, "Stop judging me. You're not my judge. Allah is my judge...You don't know whats in my heart."

In the days when the Muslims had a state (khilaafah), the scholars would go to the rulers and admonish them , telling them to fear Allah and warning them of the punishment of Allah and reminding of their great responsibility. This would only increase the ruler in fear of Allah and being cautious to not fall into oppression. So when someone tells you to fear Allah my sister, KNOW that it is not an insult, it is an advice. And Islam is sincere advice (Naseeha) as our prophet(sala allahu alayhi wa sallam) taught us.

My sister, you should feel shy to disobey Allah and to sin. If you wish to sin then please go somewhere where you know Allah will not be able to see you. (impossible right?)

 Always think of who is that you are disobeying and now how big the sin is. You would feel shy and ashamed if your teacher caught you cheating during a test/exam. So how can we not feel ashamed when sinning especially when knowing that Allah (ta'ala) knows and sees everything?

The following hadeeth is a great reminder for us all, showing us the powerful connection between emaan (faith) and hayaa' and how when one goes, the other goes behind.

Abdullah ibn Umar narrated from the prophet (sws) that he said, "Indeed, alhayaa (modesty) and al-emaan (faith) are companions. When one of them is lifted, the other leaves as well (follows behind)." [Sunan al Bayhaqi]

Therefore, when you see that your hayaa is not as strong then realize this is a sign of weakness of faith. This is because emaan as Muslims believe, increases and decreases. It increases with obedience and good deeds and it decreases with disobedience. Therefore, the less hayaa one has, the weaker their faith is and the more hayaa one has the stronger their faith is. A person of strong faith will always have hayaa, meaning, he will avoid major sins and even the minor sins as much as he/she can.

to be cont'd...

Allah knows best.