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In the name of Allah, the most gracious most merciful
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the worlds, and what follows.
May Allah's peace and prayers be upon his prophet and on his companions
A certain feeling passes by us, and its called (shyness: Al-Haya'), which we feel from time to time.
Occasionally we feel it with our parents, our bosses at work, sometimes with people we don't even know.
That happens and nothing is strange up to now
but the most wondrous and astonishing is that sometimes Allah is shy of us! Yes indeed he does.
I actually did not know that except that I heard a Hadith of the prophet (peace be upon him)
saying: "Allah is shy and generous, and He feels shy if a man raised his hands to him (i.e. made Dua'a)
to return them empty (i.e. not rewarding him)"
Glory be to Allah!
If a servant of Allah made Dua'a then Allah would be shy to reject him.
Allah will never reject him, he must give him something in return, because he feels shy to reject him
after he had already raised his hands with Dua'a.
Either that Allah gives him what he asked for, or He gives him something better, or give him what he wants
in this life or in the afterlife. Allah will definitely put something in those hands which were raised to Him in Dua'a,
because Allah (may Glory be to Him) generous, gracious and shy.
Hence, how do you deal with Allah if He was shy of you?
Shyness, is a certain characteristic of Allah, may Glory be to Him, we do not know its nature
but it cannot be compared to shyness of human beings in any way.
Because "There is nothing like him, and He is the All-hearing, the All-seeing”.
Rather, His shyness brings generosity and openhandedness to whoever is shy of Him.
So if Allah was shy of someone, then all good and benifit will come to that person throughout multiple means.
And that is, By Allah, something wonderful and astonishing. Ordinarily the one who asks for something is the one
who feels shy, but having Who is being asked to be shy!! And whoever is asking does not feel anything?!
That is indeed strange.
Yet what is even stranger is what Yahya Ibn Mo'ath when he said: "Glory be to Whom his servant commits a sin
and yet He is the One to be shy."
Each one of us need to deeply think over that Allah feels shy of me? Who am I for Allah to be shy of me?
The body of one of us in comparison with the city in which he lives is like a water drop in a sea.
And the ratio of that city to the planet Earth is also like a water drop in sea!
And if we look to our entire planet, it is, with respect to the rest of the planets,
is like one piece of sand in the middle of a desert.
And all that is under the first sky. And the second sky is larger and greater than the first one.
And the third is larger and greater than the second. And so on until we get to the seventh sky, which is the largest.
And on top of it is the Throne of Allah (العرش - Al-Arsh),
and "The Most Gracious (Allah) rose over (Istawa) the (Mighty) Throne (in a manner that suits His Majesty)".
So who am I for Allah to feel shy of me?! Who?!
How do you deal with Allah if he was shy of you?
First of all, feel shy of Him as He felt shy of you. That's the least we can do.
Oh it's not a lot for Allah that we feel shy of Him, Glory be to Him.
And the prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, always adheres to that, and commends that,
and he, peace be upon him, used to tell a man "I advise you to feel shy of Allah as you feel shy
of the righteous man in your people.
And if we feel shy of the created, then how do we not feel shy of the Creator?!
It is impossible for someone to be feeling shy of Allah while commiting a sin.
Rather no doubt that who feels shy cannot disobey at the same time of having his heart filled with shyness of his Lord.
Verse of a poem:
"If you were alone in doubt and in darkness, and the self is inviting to sin and wrongdoing
Then feel shy of being at the sight of Allah and tell it that He who created darkness sees me"
I'm certain that this person who feels shy of Allah will leave that sin.
And if he left it, he shall become precious to Allah and beloved to Him.
Ibn Al-Qayyam says: "Who does not feel shy of Allah when commiting a sin, Allah will not feel shy of punishing him
in the Day of Judgement".
And whoever feels shy of Allah when about to commit a sin (and his shyness prevented him from commiting it)
then Allah will feel shy of punishing him in the Day of Judgement.
In fact Allah will even love him more than who left the sin in fear of Him.
Indeed, because who leaves a sin due to shyness is closer to Allah than who leaves it in fear of Allah.
Although both are good. Both of them are on the right path.
Because who left the sin in fear, his heart was thinking about the penalty when he left it.
But who left it in shyness of Allah, his heart felt the presence of Allah with him and thus quitted.
And no doubt that who felt the presence of Allah and thus left the sin is better than who thought about the penalty
then quitted.
The second difference is that who is afraid is taking himself into consideration, he is protecting himself,
but who is feeling shy is observing the side of his Lord and His greatness.
And no doubt that who observed the side of his Lord and His greatness is better than who took himself into account
and wanted to protect himself from the penalty.
But as I said, both of them are on the right path and both will receive their reward.
And those who feel shy of Allah are the least. Most people feel love, fear or hope towards their Lord.
But the feeling of shyness of Allah is usually only felt rarely.
And those who feel shy of Allah are several categories: Some of them feel shy due to having many gifts from Allah,
and some feel shy because of their repetitive sins, another type is those who feel shy because they are not doing
enough good deeds, that is they do good deeds but they feel shy because they want to do even more, but they feel
they only did a few and so they feel shy of Allah. For example someone who wants to pray all of Tarawih but only
prayed some of it, wants to go to Umrah but felt lazy and did not go.
The best type of those is who feels shy due to all those reasons.
By Allah, the shyness of ancient righteous people that was conveyed to us, is great shyness of Allah, Glory be to Him.
For instance Al-Fudail Ibn Iyad during the Day of Arafah, which is considered the greatest day of the entire year,
all people are making Dua'a and he is crying and crying, he could not make Dua'a due to the severity of crying.
And when the sun was about to set, that is the Day of Arafah is about to end, he raised his head to the sky
and said "Oh my shyness of You even if you forgived. Oh my shame of You even if you pardoned."
He is saying that even if You forgived me I'm still feeling shy of You!
Abu-Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, and said: "Oh Muslims, feel shy of Allah,
I swear by Whom my soul is in His hand, that I keep covering my face when I relieve nature (i.e. defecate)
due to my shyness of my Lord.
And nevertheless, I am not telling you that shyness of Allah is only a story of the ancient righteous,
but even during our current time. I recall that once on Friday I chose to talk about meeting with Allah
during the Khutba of Juma'a. After the Khutba, a man came with his eyes turned red of excessive crying,
and he is firmly asking me "Will my sins be shown to Allah on the Day of Judgement?", and I told him that
if you repent of that sin (i.e. make Tawbah) it will be converted to good deads (Hasanat).
So he repeated the same question even more firmly,
he said "Will my sins be shown to Allah on the Day of Judgement or not?".
So I told him if you repent and make Tawbah then it will be in your good deeds (Hasanat) and not in your sins (Sayyi'at).
And when he repeated the question for the third time, I asked him what was the matter and why was he asking that.
He said; "I swear by Allah that I feel shy of Allah!". Do you see that feeling?
My Lord, Glory be to Him, loves to see that feeling present in the heart of His servant, and He loves to see it
present continuously until the servant meets Him in the afterlife.
So if you feel shy of Allah then Allah in return will also feel shy of you. Allahu Akbar!
Ibn Al-Qayyim says: "Whoever feels shy of Allah, Allah will feel shy of him".
Now please observe this marvelous dealing with Allah.
Observe how the servant raises his hands to ask his Lord, then Allah feels shy of him. And when he knew that
Allah feels shy of him, he also felt shy of his Lord. Then when he felt shy of Allah, Allah felt shy of him once again.
Some people when all those emotions and feelings are mixed in their hearts cannot control their tears,
and you find them instantly shedding tears, and they are all alone and cry.
Try feeling shy of Allah and feel His presence, because By Allah it is a completely different world of dealing
with Allah, Glory be to Him. And our Mighty, Merciful, Loving and Indulgent Lord Who feels shy of us
deserves to be felt shy of. In fact there is no one in our lives who deserves to be felt shy of more than Allah.
I ask Allah, Glory be to Him, to keep upon us the gift of shyness and to grant us the right of feeling shy of Him,
Glory be to Him, and to gather us all in Paradise. And all praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds!