Accountability
1 Holding yourself accountable: Allah says, “Believers! Fear Allah, and let
every soul look to what it lays up for the future. Fear Allah: Allah is aware
of what you do."
(TMQ, 59:18).
Rasulullah ﷺ also says;
“The witty person is the one who holds himself
accountable and works for what comes after his death and the incapacitated is
the one who follows his whims and thinks that his wishes will be granted by
Allah.”
Imam Ahmad narrated that Sayidina
Omar Ibnu-Khattab RA said, “Hold yourself accountable before you are held
accountable and weigh your deeds before they are weighed for you on Judgment
Day.”
Al-Hassan Al-Basri RA says,
“A believer is fine as long as he
keeps preaching himself and as long as he exerts an effort in holding himself
accountable.
” Maymun Ibn Mahran also says;
“A believer is not God-fearing until he holds
himself accountable more than the partner does to his partner.”
Al-Hassan says;
“A believer is the keeper of himself
and he holds it accountable. The punishment of Judgment Day will be made much
lighter for those who hold them accountable in this life and it will be made
much heavier for those who never hold themselves accountable.”
Sayidina Omar Ibnul-Khattab RA wrote
to one of his workers;
“Hold yourself accountable in
prosperity before austerity. Those who hold themselves accountable in
prosperity before austerity will regress to gratitude and felicity whereas
those who are distracted by their lives and whims will regress to lament and loss.”
Al-Ahnaf Ibn-Qays used to hold the
lamp and put his finger in the fire saying;
“Feel it! Feel it and think about what
you’ve done that day when you sinned.”
Imam Ahmad tells us that Wahb said;
“It is written among the wisdoms of Dawood: A shrewd
person
must never miss four hours; an hour in which he supplicates
silently to Allah, an hour in which he hold himself
accountable, an hour in which he sits with his brothers who
tell him about his flaws honestly, and an hour with himself to
sort things out and this hour will help him a lot with the
previous three hours.”
