Wara'
ورعDefinition
Scrupulous piety — the quality of avoiding not just what is clearly forbidden but what is doubtful, out of a desire to protect the integrity of one's relationship with Allah. Wara' functions as a margin of safety: a person who stands at the absolute edge of the permissible will inevitably fall into the prohibited, while a person who maintains a buffer of scrupulousness is protected from that slide. The early Muslims were famous for their wara' in matters of wealth, speech, and worship — leaving things that were technically permissible if they sensed in them any shadow of what might displease Allah. Al-Nawawi highlights it throughout the Arba'in as one of the defining marks of authentic taqwa.
As understood in the classical tradition of Imam al-Ghazali and the scholars of his school.
How the scholars use Wara'.
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"He is Malik ibn Malik ibn Asal ibn Amr ibn Abd al-A'lam ibn Amir ibn Da'wara ibn Jusham ibn al-Harith ibn al-Khazraj ibn Amr ibn Malik ibn al-Aws al-Ansari al-Awsi. He was present at al-Aqaba as one of the chiefs, and was present at Badr and what followed. He died in the year twenty, or, it is said, twenty-one; and it is said that he was present at Siffin with Ali. Ibn al-Athir said this is the majority view."
— Ibn Kathir, Umar ibn al-Khattab
Appears in
4 books in the library
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