Lesson 3 of 6 · You are not being told your worth is your face
The measure, stated
The verse names the criterion. The report names what the criterion is not, and it names your face and your money specifically, which is unusually direct. A second wording of the same report names bodies rather than wealth, which is the half that answers a photograph.
And there is a positive half, which is the part that usually gets left off. The honouring of the children of Adam is stated of them as a category. There is no clause in it about what they have achieved, what they earn or how they look. If the belief underneath the flat feeling is that your worth is a score you are losing, then correcting the criterion is only half an answer. The other half is that you were honoured before any measuring started.
Qur’an and Sunnah
In God's eyes, the most honoured of you are the ones most mindful of Him. That is the criterion named, and it is not visible in a photograph.
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ إِنَّا خَلَقۡنَٰكُم مِّن ذَكَرࣲ وَأُنثَىٰ وَجَعَلۡنَٰكُمۡ شُعُوبࣰ ا وَقَبَآئِلَ لِتَعَارَفُوٓاْۚ إِنَّ أَكۡرَمَكُمۡ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ أَتۡقَىٰكُمۡۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلِيمٌ خَبِيرࣱ
People, We created you all from a single man and a single woman, and made you into races and tribes so that you should recognize one another. In God’s eyes, the most honoured of you are the ones most mindful of Him: God is all knowing, all aware
Qur’an 49:13
And the positive half, which usually gets left off. The honouring of the children of Adam is stated of them as a category, with no clause in it about what they have achieved, what they earn or how they look. You were honoured before any measuring started.
۞وَلَقَدۡ كَرَّمۡنَا بَنِيٓ ءَادَمَ وَحَمَلۡنَٰهُمۡ فِي ٱلۡبَرِّ وَٱلۡبَحۡرِ وَرَزَقۡنَٰهُم مِّنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ وَفَضَّلۡنَٰهُمۡ عَلَىٰ كَثِيرࣲ مِّمَّنۡ خَلَقۡنَا تَفۡضِيلࣰ ا
We have honoured the children of Adam and carried them by land and sea; We have provided good sustenance for them and favoured them specially above many of those We have created
Qur’an 17:70
This names what the criterion is not, and names your face and your money specifically, which is unusually direct.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) as saying:Verily Allah does not look to your faces and your wealth but He looks to your heart and to your deeds
Sahih Muslim 2564graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
A second wording of the same report, and it names bodies rather than wealth, which is the half that answers a photograph.
This hadith has been transmitted on the authority of Abu Huraira with some addition (and it is this):" Verily Allah does not look to your bodies nor to your faces but He looks to your hearts," and he pointed towards the heart with his fingers
Sahih Muslim 2564graded sound, sahihaynthe Arabic and its grading
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.