Truly Muttaqui

Real Taqwa is found in abstaining from sins when a person is alone and no one is seeing him. Otherwise, everyone tends to be good, to speak well and to pretend to be good in front of people. Which girl will behave badly in front of a boy who came to see her in order to marry her? Similarly, a boy will show everything that is good and conceal everything that is bad when he will go to see a prospective spouse. It is after marriage that everything is exposed. This behaviour is rather dishonesty. This very kind of dishonesty is in effect at all levels everywhere. People pretend to be good without being good. This is because their public life and private life are different. They pretend to be good in front of people and they become demons when no one is looking at them. A true Muttaqui is a person whose interior, exterior, public life and private life, all are according to the Shariah. His interior does not betray his exterior nor does his private life contradict his public life. Otherwise, it is hypocrisy.

It is Allah who knows what one should cover and what should be left uncovered. It is not us who decide nor let a person decide it for us, otherwise, we will walk like poor people or Tarzan on the beach.

[English version of "Vraiment mouttaqui" – Al Jamiat – Vol. 8 No. 6]