Assalaamu’alekum Dear Brothers/Sisters in Islam -

Sorry for the long delay in keeping Islamation.com up to date. Too many things happen in life at the same time and kept me running minute to minute. I hope to keep Islamation.com refreshed with Islamic information as much as I cann, insha’Allah. If anyone is interested to write for Islamation.com please send me an email.

Today I just want to touch base on the topic of "being pure". Being pure, in this context, has nothing to do with external cleanliness but rather with internal cleanliness. Our intentions need to be pure, our income need to be pure, our spending need to be pure, the food we intake need to be pure and pretty much everythin we do in life needs to be pure.

Abu Hurairah, radiyallahu ‘anhu, reported that the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu ‘alayhi wasallam, said:

“Verily Allah the Exalted is pure. He does not accept but that which is pure. Allah commands the believers with what He commanded the Messengers. Allah the Almighty has said: "O you Messengers! Eat of the good things and act righteously" [23:51-53]. And Allah the Almighty also said: "O you who believe! Eat of the good things that We have provided you with" [2:167-172].

Then he (the Prophet) mentioned (the case of) the man who, having journeyed far, is dishevelled and dusty and who stretches out his hands to the sky (saying): "O Lord! O Lord!" (while) his food was unlawful, his drink was unlawful, his clothing was unlawful, and he is nourished with unlawful things, so how can he be answered?”

Here Allah commands his Messengers and the Muhmin’s to eat out of the good things and act righteously. Sometimes we tend to take things easier and not to bother much of whether it’s At-Tayyib or not. That mind set needs to change and we should start weighing things from the Islamic perspective. One good example is the fact that we tend to take small stuffs from our offices like, stickies, pencils, pens and other stationaries. Even though we might use it for the work purpose many of us have this mindset of taking those silly things to our homes as well. This is not permissible as it’s not At-Tayyib. The same goes for using stuffs that you are not supposed to use, like for example, making use of the copy machine at work for personal copies. Even though those might sound silly, it definitely is not allowed in Islam.

The money we earn needs to be pure. The Sadaqah that we give using the money that we earn needs to be pure as well. Never think of getting money in non-halal way and giving a portion or full of it to charity. Some people have the mindset of earning interest from the banks and then thinking that giving that haram money to charity would suffice. That’s wrong according to many scholars whom interpreted the above Hadith. We should abstain from giving stuffs to charities that we think are not earned Halal.

Make sure to eat food that’s pure. Try as much to your knowledge as you can to make sure that you eat food that’s Halal. People who live in the Western countries (many countries these days for that matter) have the advantage of checking the food labels to make sure the right ingredients are there and if you find anything suspicious it would be better to not eat that food unless there is no food for your survival. Be pure in your intentions and Allah will find you a way for you to live a life that he accepts.

The people who are being pure or strive to being pure are called At-Tayyibun.

May Allah give us the Taufiq to learn and follow his commands in our life. May Allah make us one of those At-Tayyibuns.