1285 – Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘Allah loves the servant who is devout, self-sufficient, and inconspicuous.’” Muslim recorded it (1).
Vocabulary of the ḥadith
• al-taqī (devout, God-fearing): People say, “ittaqā Allāha ittiqāʾan,” meaning he took precautions against Allah’s displeasure and feared Him. The original form is awtaqā; the wāw was changed into a tāʾ and assimilated. The noun is taqwā (piety). Hence a taqī is the one who carries out Allah’s commands and avoids His prohibitions.
• al-ghanī (self-sufficient): They say, “ghaniya fulānun ghinan wa ghināʾan,” meaning a person’s wealth increased, so he became rich. From this comes “richness of the soul,” and that is what is meant here.
• al-khafī (inconspicuous): “khafiya al-amru yakhfā khafāʾan” means the matter remained hidden; thus it is khāfī or khafī. Here it refers to one who withdraws to worship Allah in private, far removed from the snares of ostentation and the desire for reputation.
Lessons derived from the ḥadith
- The devout person is the one who fulfills what Allah has made obligatory and shuns what He has forbidden, seeking His pleasure and fearing His punishment.
- The self-sufficient person is the one whose soul is content, who abstains from what lies in other people’s hands, relying on the provision Allah has allotted him and earns with his own labor.
- The inconspicuous person is the one who prefers obscurity to fame, devoting himself to the worship and remembrance of Allah and to matters that concern his own soul.
- Whoever combines these three traits, Allah loves him, because he has been mindful of Allah, and Allah—