Aqeel Mahmood – Having Good Thoughts of Others Sign Language
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Whenever the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wasallam
would go on an expedition,
he would always take one of his wives
with him.
And on one of those expeditions, he took
Ayush radiallahu anha with him.
And on the way back, they camped outside
of the city of Madinah because the sunnah
was that he would always enter Madinah during
the day as opposed to the night.
When they camped outside of the city of
Madinah, Ayyas Radiallahu Anha,
she lost her necklace.
And so
she wandered around
away from the camp looking for her necklace.
And while she was away,
the camp prepared to enter the city of
Madina,
forgetting her and leaving her behind.
And when they left her behind, one of
the companions radhiallahu anhu
was
also at the back of the camp,
and he was also delayed. And he saw
Ayes radhiallahu anha on her own, and he
brought her back to the city of Madinah.
And when
Naira
came back,
unassuming
anything
evil
was being said
regarding her and her delay,
she realized after a number of weeks that
rumors had spread about her.
And this incident is known as
the incident of the ifq or the slander
against Aisha radhiallahu anha.
And this is a story which is well
known from the seerah of the messenger of
wazasul alaihi wa sallam.
And
these rumors continue to circulate
amongst
the companions
and amongst the people in Madinah
and they were instigated and started by the
munafiqun,
by the hypocrites.
And some of the companions
fell into the mistake and fell into the
error of also being involved in spreading some
of these rumors.
Eventually, after
much distress upon the Muslims and especially upon
the messenger of Allah salallahu alaihi wa sallam
and Aisha radiallahu anha,
Allah
himself
sent down and revealed ayaat
declaring the innocence of Aisha
And these are the first few ayaat of
Surat An Nur.
And
I want to talk today about one of
the lessons that we can learn
from this story
which is the importance
of having.
The importance of having good thoughts of each
other
and being careful of su'udhan,
having bad thoughts and being suspicious of others.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala when he sent
down these ayats declaring the innocence of A'is
Radiallahu Anha,
He said in one of these ayat,
If only you had heard these slanders and
these accusations,
If only when you had heard these accusations,
when you had heard these things,
the believing men and the believing women
thought good of one another.
And they would say to each other, and
if only they had told each other this
is a big slander,
a clear lie, a clear accusation against the
Aisha radiAllahu anha, umwal mumineen.
One of the greatest
harms
of having
bad thoughts of one another brothers and sisters,
is that it can cause
distress just like it caused Ayesha had
distress
when she had this slander
against her.
It affected her
It affected the messenger of Allah Subhanahu Wa
Salam because it's one of his wives. It
affected his family. It affected the family of
Abu Bakr radiallahu an. And it affected the
whole of the Muslim community.
And Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala,
he mentions in this ayah the importance of
having having
good thoughts of one another.
And
bad thoughts
can end up being one of the major
sins.
If an individual has bad thoughts of Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala himself.
One of the worst sins that a person
can do, one of the greatest sins a
person can do, is having bad thoughts of
Allah
himself. And that's when a person
is experiencing some type of hardship or trial
in his life,
and he starts to show displeasure to Allah,
or starts to question why
Allah causes to happen to me.
And he may even start to question Allah's
power.
Why didn't Allah save me from this?
Why didn't Allah, the most powerful, save this
harm and stop this happening in my life?
Or a person makes dua and his dua
isn't responded to. And so he starts to
question
the power of Allah, the knowledge of Allah
and the abilities of Allah
And when a person thinks
along these lines, you're questioning
the names and attributes of Allah. You're questioning
Allah's power and Allah's knowledge.
You're questioning things which Allah
possesses and what makes him
And when a person starts to question these
things, a person's iman will decline.
And when a person's iman starts to decline,
he'll start to leave off acts of worship.
And then you'll end up distancing yourself from
Allah
So when a person has bad thoughts of
Allah
himself,
it can be something detrimental and harmful to
his iman. Harmful to his faith. Harmful to
his life.
And it's something which is from the greatest
sins.
Imam Malik
Rahimahullah,
during his time,
whenever there will be beggars,
coming to him and his companions and his
people
in the city of Madinah,
his companions
and generally speaking this is sometimes things that
Muslims do. When beggars come and they ask
for money, sometimes we'll say Allah will provide
for you. Allah will take care of you.
When we don't wanna give anything, we'll just
say Allah will take care of you. Allah
will provide for you. But Imam Malik Rahimahullah,
whenever beggars would come to him,
he would always make other excuses.
He would always say other things. He would
go out of his way to make up
other things, to say other things, not to
give money. Without lying and without being untruthful.
But he would never mention Allah's name.
And whenever they asked him, or when they
asked him, why do you do this?
He said, because I don't want to mention
Allah's name
after not giving anything to them, and then
they end up thinking badly of Allah himself.
And this was the extent that the scholars
would have of being careful about having husnudhan
of Allah. To the extent that they wouldn't
even
allow and they wouldn't even want others to
think badly of Allah because of the things
that they may say to them.
When we reflect brothers and sisters
on
suspicion and su'udhan,
and how dangerous it can be, we look
at the narration of the messenger of Allah
sallallahu alaihi wa sallam which was
said by Safiyyah radhiallahu anha, the wife of
the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam.
She said that once I was with the
messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam and
we were walking during the night.
And 2 companions passed by, and when they
saw us,
they started to walk faster.
And so the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam,
he rushed to them.
And he said to them,
Take it easy.
This is Sophia who is with me. There's
nobody else, it's my wife Sophia.
And so the companion says, SubhanAllah,
O Messenger of Allah, we never expected it
to be anybody else. We wouldn't think anything
badly we wouldn't think anything bad of you.
We wouldn't have bad thoughts of who you
would be associated with. And so the messenger
of Allah
he told them,
That verily the shaytan
runs
in the body of the son of Adam
like blood runs through his body.
And I wanted to make sure that you
wouldn't have any evil thoughts coming to you
from shaitan.
Meaning even the messenger of Allah was
aware of the dangers of a person having
suhudhan
or being suspicious
of what he sees or being suspicious of
things that he hears.
And today unfortunately we live in a society
where
sometimes if we see something or if we
hear someone say something, the first thing we
think is something evil. Meaning we become suspicious
straight away of how a person behaves or
what a person does.
Whether it's towards us or whether it's towards
somebody else.
We call somebody on their phone and they
don't respond. And we call them a second
time, they don't respond. We text them, they
still don't answer our text messages. And we
think to ourselves, if you don't if you're
not gonna answer my phone calls, at least
respond to my text messages.
And then we start to think he's got
some kind of problem. He doesn't wanna talk
to me. He doesn't like me. We start
to become suspicious.
And the simple fact maybe that he may
have lost his phone,
or his phone may have been off,
or maybe he had other pressing needs.
A person walks past somebody, and he gives
salaam to him and he doesn't reply.
And he thinks to he thinks to himself,
why didn't he reply to me? Why didn't
he reply when I gave salaam? You're supposed
to reply when you give salaam. Maybe he
doesn't like me. Maybe he wasn't gonna talk
to me anymore.
Maybe there's some issues there.
And the simple fact maybe that something else
was preoccupying his mind so much that he
never even heard you.
And the list goes on. A person may
not be invited to
the walima,
or an invitation,
or a party,
and he starts to think why didn't that
person invite me? And a person starts to
become suspicious. A person starts to think of
all kinds of things
regarding why that person never invited me, why
didn't he do this, why didn't he do
that, why did he say this, what did
he intend when he said this. And we
start to become suspicious of those people.
And this is as the messenger of Allah
has told us, and as I mentioned, it's
something which shaitan
breeds up in our minds.
Because shaitan runs through our veins just like
blood.
And we start to think of all these
different types of thoughts, these different suspicions.
And it's reported also
in the sunnah
that
before the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa
sallam,
pank at Makkah,
he prepared his army and Allah subhanahu wa
ta'ala revealed to him
that
somebody was going to
inform
the people of Makkah that they were on
their way.
Because it was supposed to be a surprise
attack.
And so when they captured this individual, he
was from the companions.
He was a Muslim.
And so the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam
told him
that this letter
was found
and it's signed by you.
Did you intend to send this letter to
the people of Makkah telling them of our
arrival? That we were leaving and on our
way to Makkah. And he said, yes. And
some of the companions, they said, Oh messenger
of Allah,
allow us to kill him and execute him
right here.
He's a munafiq.
He's trying to tell them that we're on
our way, and he would have spilled the
beans.
And so the messenger of Allah sallallahu alaihi
wa sallam asked him, why did you do
this?
And this companion
whose name was Hatib,
he said, the old messenger of Allah,
the only reason why
I wanted to send this letter to Makkah
was because I don't belong to any tribe
in Mecca.
I'm a muhajr, I came from Mecca.
And I don't have any tribe that will
support me and my family. I know my
family are in Mecca, and no one will
support them. No one will take care of
them.
So I was hoping that if I send
this letter to the Quraysh in Makkah,
that because of this letter, they'll be good
to my family members, they'll take care of
my family members because all of you, you
have your tribes. And you have people who
will take care of you and support you.
And I don't have anybody.
And so the messenger of Radha alaihi salatu
wa sallam told the companions,
leave him for verily he is speaking the
truth.
Even though in this situation a person would
think this is
somebody who's
spilling the beans. He's somebody who's betraying the
the the muslims.
He's somebody who's bringing
the safety and the security of the muslims
into jeopardy.
Yet even in this situation,
the messenger of Allah had
husnudhan of his companions.
And he had good thoughts of the companions
of of his own. Another story which shows
the importance of having Khasnur Advan brothers and
sisters
is
of one of the companions
who
went by the name of Abdullah.
And this companion,
he would always fall into the mistake of
drinking alcohol.
And each time he would drink alcohol he
would be brought to the messenger of Allah
salallahu alaihi wa sallam, and he would be
punished.
And one day he was brought to the
messenger of Allah alaihi wasallam to be punished.
And one of the companions he said,
may Allah curse him.
He's always coming to the messenger of Allah
salalahu alaihi wasallam all the time for the
same reason.
And so the messenger of Allah sallam spoke
and he said,
don't curse
him. For verily he loves Allah and his
messenger.
So even when an when a companion or
when companions would commit these sins,
the messenger of Allah will
go out of his way
to think good of them, to have good
thoughts of them.
And this is something which the companions did
after them. And the scholars also brothers and
sisters, they would also have good thoughts of
each other.
There's a story of Imam Shafi'i Rahimahullah
that when he was sick, a man came
to him
and he said to him,
oh Allahu Gafaaq,
may Allah strengthen your weakness. Meaning may Allah
make you better. And so imam Shafi'i, he
said if Allah strengthens my weakness then that's
gonna kill me.
And so he said I only intended good.
I didn't actually mean that.
And so Imam Shafi'i, he said, even if
you had cursed me,
I wouldn't have thought that you intended some
kind of harm.
But instead say, may Allah strengthen your strength
and weakness your weakness.
For even the companions brothers and sisters, they
would have Even the scholars they would have
good thoughts of one another. They would think
good of each other. They wouldn't think badly
of one another.
Another one of the scholars of the past,
he once told his students,
he said, I said alhamdulillah
once,
and because of my statement alhamdulillah,
I made lots of istighfar.
And so they said, How can you make
istighfar for saying
Saying is a good thing?
And he told them that people came to
me from my city, from my town, and
they said there was a fire that took
place in your town destroying everything.
Nothing remained,
except for your shop
with your possessions.
That's the only thing that survived. And so
I said, Alhamdulillah.
And then I remembered and I realized
the misfortune that befell the rest of the
people in that town. And I felt bad
and I felt guilty for thinking of myself
and not thinking of other individuals.
So I started to make istighfar
because of the shortcoming,
because I only thought about myself.
The companions also,
they would, the scholars also they would
go out of their way
to think good of others,
even if a person was doing something
haram.
Once one of the scholars, he was sitting
with his students,
and a group of people came and they
were singing,
and they were dancing.
And so
the scholar,
he made dua,
and he said, oh Allah
give them happiness in the akhirah,
just like they are happy now.
Just like they are happy now, give them
happiness in the akhira.
And the people around him, they said, how
can you make dua for these people when
they're they're dancing and they're singing out on
the street?
And he told them, wouldn't you like Allah
subhanahu wa ta'ala to give them happiness
in the akhira
just like they are happy now?
So we see from these stories, brothers and
sisters, we see from these narrations
that
and good thoughts of one another
is something which is encouraged in Islam.
And it's something which if a person does,
he relieves these bad thoughts from his mind.
And it frees him from possibly doing things
which may be haram.
Allah
He tells us in the Quran and warns
us against suspicion
and thinking badly of one another. And He
tells us in the Quran,
Oh you who believe
Stay away from lots of suspicion.
Stop being suspicious of each other.
Verily some suspicion is sinful.
And don't spy on one another.
And don't backbite one another.
In this ayah, tells
us the dangers of suspicion.
And he warns us to stay away from
suspicion and stay away from su'udhan and bad
thoughts of each other.
And then he tells us to stay away
from spying,
and from gossiping, and backbiting.
Why does Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mention spying
and gossiping
after he talks about having bad thoughts and
being suspicious of each other?
The scholars they say that when a person
starts to become suspicious of someone,
maybe someone is doing something. I heard this
person smokes, I heard he drinks alcohol,
I heard he's going out with this individual.
A person will start to go out of
his way to see if he's right,
And he may end up spying on that
person.
He'll start to follow that person wherever he
goes, just to see whether his suspicions were
true.
And that person, when he's on his own,
and he's being followed, no doubt he's going
to fall into some type of haram.
In fact a person with iman, a person
with faith,
will commit sins in private because he knows
their sins.
He knows it's something which is haram.
And so when someone accompanies somebody and that
person is unknowing
to this hidden company,
and he starts to commit sins,
that person will see him committing those sins,
and then he'll go
after spying on him, which Allah has forbidden
us from in this ayah, and he'll start
to gossip about him to others.
So we see brothers and sisters, the effects
of having su'udhan.
You may end up
seeing someone doing something haram,
as a result of you spying on him,
which Allah has forbidden.
And then you may end up gossiping to
others about what you saw.
And so we see the dangers of how
su'udhan
can end up becoming not just suspicion,
but a reason for a person committing lots
of sins.
A reason for a person committing multiple sins
just for him having this simple suspicion.
One of the ways
that a person can rid himself
of having this suspicion
is
by making sure and ensuring that whenever he
hears something evil about somebody,
whenever he hears something bad about somebody,
instead of contributing,
and
you know,
increasing their suspicion
and talking more about that person in a
negative way,
instead of doing that, making dua for that
person.
Supplicating
for him.
And this is why the messenger of Allah
told us,
that when a person
covers and conceals the faults of a Muslim
in this world,
Allah
will conceal his sins and conceal his faults
on the day of judgment.
And also when a person hears
somebody
having su'udhan of another individual
in his company, in his presence,
he should protect him and say good things
about him. Make excuses for him.
Maybe he said those things
because he was stressed about something else.
Maybe he never gave salaam to you or
never spoke to you because he's preoccupied with
something.
Maybe he never came round because he has
guests coming round his house.
Making excuses for your brothers is something which
actually increases the love that you might have
for each other.
And this is why one of the scholars,
he said that if something reaches you about
your Muslim brother or sister,
then come up with some kind of excuse.
And if you can't come up with some
kind of excuse,
then say maybe he has some excuse. Maybe
he has a reason to do why he
did.
Even if you can't come up with something
specific,
just make something up.
When a person
has
good thoughts of his Muslim brothers and sisters,
it's a way of him relieving the stress,
and the hatred, and the anger from his
heart. Because one of the reasons why a
person will become suspicious of somebody,
is because of preconceived notions,
or
things which happened
previously between you and them.
Maybe something happened, maybe you never got along,
maybe there was a business deal that went
bad, maybe you had an argument,
whatever the case maybe.
Something happened between you and them, and then
later
in your life, further down the line,
you hear something about that person, and because
of those bad experiences
that you had,
you start to make suspicions, and start to
have evil thoughts and bad thoughts of that
person.
Because of the way you feel about that
individual, because of those evil
feelings that you have, because of the conflict
that you had in the past.
And so when a person instead has good
thoughts of a person,
it relieves him and removes that hatred he
may have from his heart.
And also,
when a person has good thoughts brothers and
sisters, a person becomes just,
and you start to see things clearer.
You start to become just with regards to
what a person said, and what a person
did. There's no preconceived notions
about how a person behaved
based on the way he's dealt with you
previously, and what he did.
And so I'd like to remind
myself and every single one of us
of the dangers of having su'udhan,
and having bad thoughts of one another.
And how in fact
having good thoughts of each other will increase
the love and the brotherhood between us.
We're living in
a time where
Muslims need to remain united,
and we need to support one another.
We're living in a time where people are
attacking us from left and right, and from
all over,
regarding any single issue that they can find.
And so it's important for us to
stick together, to support one another. Because if
we don't support our fellow muslim brothers and
sisters, and think good of each other,
then when non Muslims start to accuse Muslims
of something,
straight away we'll agree with them.
We won't even wanna defend our Muslim brothers
and sisters,
because we were already suspicious of them. We
already had of them. We already had bad
thoughts of them.
So when we think good of one another
brothers and sisters,
it strengthens the community.
It makes us better. It makes us stronger.
We ask Allah
that he removes this illness
of su'udhan from our hearts, and that
Allah strengthens our communities
and strengthens us as an Ummah.