Sheikh Uthman Farooq: The Charity Mistake Every Muslim Needs To Avoid

Today people compete in what kind of car you have, what kind of watch you have, what kind of phone you have, kind of a house you have. But today we have left the competition for the Akhirah. Imagine if you come to me and you say, I want to donate $10,000 for the dawah. And I tell you, okay, how much do you have in your bank? You're going to be like, what? Whether this is something that you just want to do between you and Allah, or whether this is a cause you want to support and encourage others with,

how much money do you make? As Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu. Welcome to a new episode. Shaykh is drinking his chai. It's 3am here in Medina. Don't worry, we're fasting. Have Husnut done? That being said, in this episode, I'll speak to you and the Sheikh will speak to you about speaking about your charity. Is it halal? Is it allowed to share what you're giving in charity? What's the difference between sharing a charity to inspire others and. And riya, which is showing off and what falls under, you know, something that's bad. What's the difference? Is it even okay to share your charity? We'll speak about this today because a lot of business owners, a lot of people want to make money and make money, but they're afraid of doing good deeds. If people see them, they're afraid of making money and giving it. They're like, these guys would give me evil eye or my good deeds would be wiped off. Can we speak about it? Sheikh, is it okay to share about your good deeds?

First thing, the intention is always in the heart and that's what you have to worry about. Even if you give secretly at times, your intention is to make yourself just feel good. You know, some people give charity don't even believe in God. So why? So there's a dopamine that they're chasing. And that means their intention is wrong even in secret. And some people give very openly, but their intention is pure in their heart and their reward is with Allah. Subhanahu wa ta'.

Ala. That's the thing that matters.

So in the end, it's all about your intention that's in your heart. That's. That's what you have to worry about. Now. Can you give charity openly? Yes. From the Quran, from Sahih ahadith, we see the evidence of those who give charity openly and secretly, both getting the ajar from Allah. Subhanahu wa ta' Ala. And I'll give you an incident that's mentioned in multiple. Multiple ahadith. This is the battle of Tabuk. When the battle of Tabuk was going on, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam, encouraged the Sahaba to give their charity openly in public. In public.

Not to gatekeep it.

Not to gatekeep it, not to keep it secret. Why? Because it encouraged others. Really? Why is that?

Not showing off?

It's not because their intent was for the sake of Allah. Their niyah was not to show off. Their niyya was for sake of Allah. And when they were giving, it encouraged each other.

Okay, so it was good.

It was good. Even though it was done openly and this established from the Sahih Sunnah, authentic ahadith, the beautiful hadith that we always hear about when the Prophet encouraged the sahaba to give. And Umar said that today I want to do more than Abu Bakr, not to show people, but because he was striving for the sake of Allah to do more and more for the Akhirah. And this is a competition. That's good.

Yeah, a healthy competition.

Healthy. Today, people compete in what kind of car you have, people compete in what kind of watch you have, what kind of phone you have, what kind of a house you have, what kind of flex you're gonna.

How much money do you make?

People sit there and drop all this stuff. You know, I dropped this much. I made this much. You know, look at my new s class. Let me get my new. This right. But today we have left the competition for the Akhirah, okay? Like earlier, Allah mubarak, you were, you know, competing with brothers, okay? I want to promote that many Qurans. How many do you want to do for dawah right now? This is a good competition, and you doing it openly will encourage others. Now, in the battle of Tabuk, when the Prophet was telling the sahaba to bring their charity openly in the masjid in front of everybody, Amr Radian brought more in volume than Abu Bakr. And he thought, today I have outdone. Look at that. They love to work for the Akhirah,

the competition before the Akhirah. Amazing.

Now look at the question of the Prophet. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam. He didn't tell Umar, how much are you going to bring? He told him, what did you leave at home? Like, imagine that mindset. Imagine if you come to me and you say, I want to donate $10,000 for the dawah. And I tell you, okay, how Much do you have in your bank? You're gonna be like, what? Yeah, I guess not your business.

I already gave already.

Yeah. Like, why are you trying to. You know, like, you see, our mindset is not right. Our mindset is I'm gonna take care of all my needs, and then I'm gonna have. Have an extra layer of protection, and then I'm gonna have a safety fund, and then I'm gonna. And then whatever is left on top, I'll give for charity. But the sahaba mindset was different. So Ammar said, o Messr of Allah, half of everything I have. This is not the only time he's gonna give charity. But imagine he gave half of everything he has, right? Openly. He said it now, there's not something wrong. He was not showing off this encouragement. And then when it came to Abu Bakr, whose pile was physically smaller, but when Rasulullah asked Abu Bakr, what did you leave at home? I left nothing. But Allah and his messenger, every single thing he had, he gave it. And I don't just mean wealth like dirham and dinar. Everything really, really. Camels, horses, whatever he had, he gave away.

How about his family? What happened to them?

See, Allah brought the risk to them that he was not just that he was replenished, but he was a Khalifa subhanallah.

Even though he gave him honor, Allah

gave him that honor. Allah subhanahu wa ta' ala at that time loved the charity given openly. It encouraged others, right? When Umar Radian saw this, he said, nobody can computer ther other sahaba. When they saw. And now this is something beautiful. When they saw this charity being given openly, it encouraged them. It. So there is a sahabi named Abu Aqeel Al Ansari from the Ansar Abu Aqeel Radiallahu Anhu. This is in Bukhari and Muslim. He saw this charity being given and it encouraged him. But he didn't have wealth. He was poor. So what did he do? He went and he worked at night because he was encouraged by others, by others. And he said, I want to give too, right? So now he worked. He got two saa, two small measures of dates. When he brought this, he gave one to his family to eat and the other one. That's all he has. Now he brings it to the masjid. He's taking a handful of dates to the masjid, right?

Half of what he had, half of,

literally his family was eating the other half. And that's all he had was this. Now when he was coming, the Munafiqoon the hypocrites, they mocked him. Allah doesn't need your handful of dates. Look, people are bringing. Uthman Radian was equipping a third of the army. You had people bringing hundreds of camels, bringing huge Amr radiant. You got a handful of dates. This is the hypocrite mindset. They always want to mock, they always want to criticize, they always want to ridicule, they always want to put you down, they want to discourage you. Right? When he went to the masjid, the prophet saw him with just his little one sa of dates and told him, take those dates and put them on top of every pile. The little bit of dates, put them on top. Why? Because this is where the baraka is. And Allah subhanahu wa ta' ala revealed ayat in surat tawbah saying about the munafiqoon and they're mocking that. When the muslims, the believers, give generously, they mock. If you have a little, they mock. Allah revealed ayat to defend Abu Aqeel and he gave this openly. Abu Aqeel radiallahu anhu. So there is a time now, there are times where you should give secretly.

Okay? So that's the thing. Now people see this and they understand, okay, Allah, I can give openly if I can encourage others. Now when do I know should I give everything publicly Now?

So now look at the situation. Whether this is something that you just want to do between you and Allah or whether this is a cause you want to support and encourage others with, okay?

How can you draw the line so people can.

I'll give an example, right? Let's say you're walking and you see a hungry Muslim. Yeah, right. Somebody who's just sitting there or even a non Muslim just sitting there, they're hungry and needy person. You shouldn't be like, hey guys, everybody, I'm about to give this food to him.

Look me, that's showing off.

That's showing off, right? Instead, what you do, buy some food, whatever. Even if you give it in such a way that your left hand doesn't know what your right hand gave, right? Even your family may not know, even your friends may not know. You just give it. If there is a needy person in another country that somehow you know about and you know that this person as an individual is a good person in need, you just take care of them, right? Nobody knows, you know, Sheikh Abdulayz IBN Baz Rahmatulla, the head mufti of Saudiya in his time, the great scholar. There were so many families that he was sending money to and he was taking care of, that his own wife didn't know about, that his own children didn't know about. Only when he passed away and that money stopped going to them, did they find out that from his monthly check, money was being distributed to these needy Muslims around the world and his own family didn't even know about it.

So there's both actions you can have in private and some that you should share to encourage others.

So this is an example of something you should keep private.

Makes sense, right?

Let's say you even Amal wise, like, let's say you want to pray Qam ul lil, pray it privately. Let's say you want to read Quran, do it privately. Let's say you see that there is a neighbor that's in need, but you know, has izzah, doesn't want to ask anybody, which is great. That's the way you should be, you know, maybe take some money, put a note, say, you know, this is just for you, so they don't think it's lost, you know, and just put it in their mailbox or something, walk away private.

So the key, the line is your intention.

Intention, but also whether this Amal is something should encourage others.

So if your intention is to benefit others and share it and encourage others, then it's fine to share it publicly because that's your intention.

Yes.

Now if your intention is for an action that's more private, just to get the reward between you and Allah, then it's better to keep it private.

That's it. And the ajar will be there in both situation. In fact, at times doing it publicly will get you more ajar because you encourage others. And what they do, being encouraged by you, you get the reward for.

And at times it would also be better for you to do it privately. What would be a time it would be better to do it privately then.

So for example, like I said, if your neighbor is needy and you think that one amount you have can take care of their need and, and you don't need anybody else to chip in or anything. Khalas, leave this between you and Allah. Don't even tell the neighbor, just tell him. Or like I said, keep it anonymous. Allah knows your ajar, Allah will write it. But I'll give you another example. Let's say the same neighbor, his roof leaks and you don't have enough to fix it. But you want to encourage people. So now you go to the neighborhood, say, hey look guys, he's our jar, he's our neighbor, he has a Haq on us. Let's help him. I can't do it on my own, but I'll put $1,000 towards it. Tell your neighbor, other neighbor, hey, match my thousand, right? Another match my. You collect 10 people, you get 10,000, you fix his roof here. It's better to do it openly because you could give him a thousand, but that's not going to fix the roof. Exactly right. So let's say there is a village of needy people and you can't cover the whole village, right? You can take care of 10 families. You say, look, we'll do a fundraising. I will cover 10 families. Like, I'm not just talking, I'm putting my money where my mouth is. Who's ready to join me for 10 more families? Or double it, 20 families? Or, you know, go to people you know and say, look, I know Allah has blessed you. Allahuma Barak, you have wealth. Look, I'm gonna take 10. How many can you take? Right? Now this is better to do openly than. Because now you can encourage others and cover that whole situation.

It's a beautiful, to the point, short and sweet. We got the conclusion. It's great to share your Sadaqah publicly. If it's to encourage others and your Niyya is correct, it's not to show off, it's not to get status. Rather it's to get the reward from Allah and also to encourage others and you share the reward. Now, if your intention or the help you're going to give is more private, is for you to just get the reward and there's no benefit in sharing it, then keep it private between you and Allah. In both situations, there's khair. And with your Niyyah, you'll judge which choice is best. Barakallahu fikshir. That's amazing Haikallah.