Goodness of Islam — leaving what does not concern one

حسن الإسلام وترك ما لا يعني

Part of the goodness of a person's Islam is leaving what does not concern him in word and deed and confining himself to what does; Ibn Rajab explains that 'concerns him' means what his purposeful attention attaches to, and that the leaving is governed by the ruling of the sharia and Islam rather than by whim or the soul's desire — which is why the Prophet made it a mark of the goodness of one's Islam; when a person's Islam is sound it entails leaving all that does not concern him of the forbidden, the doubtful, the disliked, and the superfluous among the permissible for which he has no need, rising thereby to the station of ihsan, from which, together with watchfulness, is born modesty before God and the abandoning of all that occasions shame; Ibn Rajab calls it a great foundation of the foundations of proper conduct and cites Abu Amr ibn al-Salah reporting from Abu Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd, the Maliki imam of his time, that the conduct of goodness and all its reins branch from four hadiths: 'whoever believes in God and the Last Day, let him speak good or keep silent', this hadith, 'do not become angry', and 'the believer loves for his brother what he loves for himself'.