Wisdom of Luqman #31

Bismillah Rahim al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil aalameen or salat wa salam ala filmbay will mousseline Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam just leaving the theater on casilla from avato. My brothers and sisters

in our

lesson on the wisdom of lawanna, Lisa, what Allah subhana wa Jalla Jalla, who told us and explained to us

the lessons that we learn from

the advice that Luke Monterrey Salaam gave to his son.

And this advice is so beautiful,

and it is so

easy to apply 111

and the results of it, inshallah will be amazing. Because

the purpose of all of the lessons, what were some of the teaching of the Koran, everything is, in order that we become successful in this world. And the next

we, last session, we talked about the importance of Ammar will maruf, and

the importance of

enjoying good and forbidding evil. And as I mentioned to you,

the biggest, most powerful logic of that is that if you are swimming in a pond, if you are swimming in a lake, and you want to remain clean, then you have no alternative. But to ensure that the water of the lake is clean,

you cannot say that I don't care how the water is, I will remain clean, it's not possible, not doable, because you are in that water.

And if you don't do anything to clean the water, then the water will get muddy and dirty, and you will become dirty.

Hello Games is a beautiful example. And he said that if there are people traveling on a boat,

and his board has two decks and upper deck and a lower deck.

And if the people in the lower deck, they say that we need water

for our use.

And let us make a hole in the side of the boat and get the water from the side of the boat.

If the people on the upper deck, don't stop them, then the whole boat will sink.

And that is the nature of society today.

As we see it.

One of the major reasons why there is so much confusion, so much strife, so much stress, so much conflict, so much corruption

in society, in practically every country in the world.

I wish I could

point out to a

country and say that what I'm saying applies to the whole world except that country. I don't know if there is any such country where this doesn't apply.

Every country in the world has corruption has violence has hatred, different degrees, some are more, some have less, but nobody's free of that.

And the reason why that is so is because it seems that by and large people have stopped raising their voice against something which is evil.

Now we see

examples of that where people are some people may Allah bless them, they break out of the norm. And they do what

what others don't do.

That they do enjoy and good and forbid evil. But they're few and far between.

And the result is that corruption spreads in the land.

Now we talked about that a lot. And we ask Allah subhanaw taala to make us among those who will always stand up for justice, without

fear of anyone or anything except Allah subhanho wa Taala that we stand up for justice with sincerity, with a class with intention of pleasing only and only Allah subhanahu wa tada

My brother and sisters.

Today we will talk about the next of the lessons, which is the lesson of manners.

It's characteristic of the Koran to give its message in the most efficient way possible by cutting to the chase, going down to the fundamentals, which drive all action, which is attitudes.

The advice about manners is not about etiquette, but about the attitude which must and does precede all etiquette. And that is how you define yourself.

Allah subhanaw taala said

and this is lomandra serralves advice to his son wala to Sahaja Kali nasci wala thumb she filled out the marhaba in Allah ha la you have boku mo stylin for horde? Allah subhanaw taala said and do not turn your face away from people with pride and do not walk in insolence through the earth. Verily, Allah does not like arrogant boosters, Allah does not like each arrogant booster. And this is levar Lisa lamb, advising his son about how to behave.

And he says to him, don't turn your face away from people and don't walk in insolence with arrogance. Verily, Allah subhanaw taala does not like arrogant people.

And then he said worker said Fie. mochica work in Celtic in Kerala, Swati la Sol, Amir, he said and be moderate. And do not show insolence in your working and speak softly Lower your voice. Verily, the most harsh voice the harshest of all voices is the voice the brain of the s.

Good manners are the result of a person considering others more important than himself.

Humility lies at the foundation of all good manners.

This is not a matter of polite talk, one must genuinely consider others to be better than oneself. And very truly humble. That is the basis of good manners. Humility is a quality of the MBA who were in fact the best and most honorable of people. Yet they were the most humble. Let me give you a real life example from somebody who was not even Muslim. Voila, Harlem.

And that is President Nelson Mandela.

The beautiful story of Nelson Mandela.

The head of Hewlett Packard in South Africa

was as as the as Hewlett Packard as hp. The company was working with him and Elsa Mandela foundation in doing some work in charity and so on and so forth. And as a consequence of that, the head of Hewlett Packard he requested

to meet President Mandela, just a courtesy call.

And he was invited to the presidential palace for breakfast.

So this man, he drove there, um, South Africa. When you are in that level, you don't drive your own cars. You have drivers so he had a black African South African driver. And the head of Europe Packer was white man.

So he was sitting in the back the drivers driving the drive up to the presidential palace of Nelson Mandela.

And what do they see? They see the President himself Nelson Mandela himself, standing at the foot of the stairs leading up to the

the stairs leading up to the main door.

As the car drives up, comes up the driveway, they see the President himself waiting at the foot of the stairs to welcome his guest.

So the enemy will get back out gets out of the car. He meets the president and they both go up. The driver takes the car and parks it.

The President of South Africa, President Mandela and the president of Hewlett Packard

as they move into the dining room for breakfast, President Mandela sits in there and he says give me a minute. I'll be back just now.

He goes out and he goes into the parking lot.

He says to the driver of the,

of the affiliate package president, he says your

boss wants you to join us for breakfast.

And this driver is absolutely delighted because this is he's having breakfast with the president of his country.

So anyway, he comes, they have breakfast.

And after it's all finished, now they're going back. So as they're going back home, the driver says to his boss, he says, sir, I'm extremely grateful to you. Thank you very much. You, thanks to you, my dream came true.

The man says what? What?

He says, You know, I

wanted to meet President Mandela. But you have a poor man. I mean, I don't have access to him. I didn't know how would I ever meet him. But thanks to you today, because you invited me

to have breakfast with him. I got to meet him and I got to have breakfast with

the president of Hewlett Packard is absolutely astonished. Because he knew that he didn't invite the driver.

He did not invite the driver.

So he says to the driver, how did you know that I invited you.

The driver says President Mandela came and told me, your boss wants you to come and have breakfast with us.

Think about this here is a man who's a politician.

If he can, if he invites the driver.

That's good for him one more vote. He probably would have got the vote anyway. But I'm just saying.

Second thing is he doesn't even need to go and invite him himself. Because he's the president of the country. He's got enough people out there. He's got his ADCs and he's got the security he's got whoever he would adjuster told him, call the guy Tell him to go and join us.

He didn't have to meet the president of Hewlett Packard at the foot of the stairs. And it's not because he was intimidated by white people. I mean, he kicked them out. That's how they got him to independence.

Just good manners. Just hospitality. Just the thing that

this man is my guest.

Mr. President, yes.

But this man is my guest.

My brothers sisters, I remember myself we knew that humility is the quality of Gambia

who are in fact, the best of people, the most honorable of people.

Yet they were humbled.

And Allah subhanaw taala advise them to do that.

A lot of Allah sent musala salam around

and told him speak to him softly.

Now, way,

here is the most arrogant of arrogant people.

Because it's not about them.

It's about me.

arrogance, is the quality of shaitan. And his cohorts, who are in fact, the worst of people.

These ayat, they describe two aspects of arrogance, the body language,

and the voice,

body language that communicates arrogance, and looking down on others, looking over the heads of people, as you talk to them, as if you are wearing a stiff collar like this.

You know,

I'm sure you can think of, in today's day and age,

if there was one leader I could point out to, I would, but there are many such

if you look at their you know, watch the news or whatever you look at their videos, see how they stand to the top

arrogance drips from those pictures.

So

speaking to people in that way, which is body language looking up, and also shouting and speaking to people

not speaking them politely and nicely, hello.

You know, that kind of stuff very loudly and arrogantly

and working in a way that appears as if you own the US.

Walking in a way or you stomp your feet and you walk in a way very good way as if you own the earth. And that's what I'm gonna say both of these are

disliked

and despised.

By Allah subhanho wa Taala

Rosaura sallam,

when he walked us to walk fast, and he used to lean forward a little bit when he walked, they said that he would, if you saw him walking, it was as if he was coming down descending a hill.

But if somebody were spoke to him, he would completely turn and face the person and talk to the person face to face eyes twice.

He never spoke to people over the shoulder,

never spoke to people over the show, he would completely turn around. And he would then speak to the person he won't speak to the person over the shoulder. And the interesting thing was, he did that even if you were sitting down, which you can imagine is much more difficult because if you are standing at least to turn around is easy. But if you're sitting down to completely turn around, is much more difficult. But he did that.

Because he gave his full attention to people that he spoke to.

all heard the famous hubby's about consideration.

Love for your brother

on the authority of Abu Hamza, and has been Malik Delano,

who was a servant of Rasulullah sallallahu Sallam who said that Rosaura Sallam said, none of you truly believes until he loves for his brother, that which he loves for himself,

Bukhari and Muslim

none of you truly believes until he loves for your for his brother, that which he loves for himself.

Right.

You know this in this is such a beautiful thing. This is known as the golden rule and is there in, in, in all religions in Christianity. It's called the Golden Rule. They ascribe it to Sally Salaam, who said whose report to have said Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So treat people like you want to be treated. Treat people like you want to be treated.

In Judaism. famous story there were two

famous great rabbis. One was called Hamas and the other one was called Hillel

now Hillel and Gemma's they lived out over 2000 years ago.

Seamus was a builder,

build carpenter.

And he was a great rabbi. He was a he was a great scholar of Judaism of the Torah. But he was also known to be a man with a short fuse. short tempered. Hillel, on the other hand was known to be an extremely sincere and a very humble person. Both of them were were contemporaries. And they were both

very famous, very famous rabbis and very famous scholars.

So a man came to shammas. And he said to him, I want to become a Jew, I want to convert to Judaism. But I've got a condition. So Shama said, What's the condition? He said, You must teach me the whole Bible, the whole Torah, while I stand on one leg,

right? I mean, obviously, you can't stand on one leg for too long. So his whole point was that I'm going to stand on one leg, and that short period, you must teach me the whole Torah. And if you do that, then I will become a Jew, I will convert to Judaism.

shamas got irritated with this. He said, This is nonsense. I mean, is this bad is playing the fool. So he pushed him he said, Get out.

The man went away.

He came to Hillel.

And he said to him the same thing.

He said, I will convert to Judaism. If you teach me the whole Bible, the whole Torah while I stand on one leg.

Hillel said to him, Do not do to others. What you don't want to happen to you. Do not do to others what you don't want them to do to you. The rest of the Torah is an explanation of this. He said go and study.

That's it one lie.

Do not do to others. What you don't want them to do to you. He says the rest of it is an explanation of this.

Go and study.

The point I'm making is that if you take all of these things, Rosaura Sam says none of you is a believer, imagine that this is such a serious thing. We are not running tequila on anybody. But the point here is, we are saying that this was so serious, then I wish I could have put this any other way. But he says, No, this is the essence of belief, met. So when we say none of none of you is a believer, it doesn't mean that we are saying that people, you know, have left Islam. No, we are saying here, that this is such an important thing. That this is the absolute essence of belief, that

wanting for yourself, the same thing that you want for your brother is the fundamental essence of belief.

And if that is not the case, if I want the best for myself, and I want to give some trash to my brother, and I say to myself, why does he need more than that? That is enough for him.

We hear this, we hear this statement all the time, right?

I want the best of this and the best of that to the best of that. And you say, Well, what about your brother is okay, he's got something, that's enough. Why does he Why does he need more? Why do you need more.

And I'm saying is that if this is your case, then you need to examine your own belief because you're not a believer until you want the same thing for your brother that you want for yourself.

And this isn't Bukhari and Muslim.

wanting the best for yourself is human nature is this is not

is not something which is, you know, unusual. And it's not restricted to material possessions. It encompasses everything that we want in every aspect of our lives. And that's the reason why we do that. Because we want Jenna for all of mankind.

Please understand this thou art is an expression of love. Thou art is an expression of universal brotherhood, and its finest example. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. And this is the famous Golden Rule.

As I mentioned, do, and that's why I'm saying that, perhaps that's why it is rare. It's one of the dichotomies of the Western culture, that it speaks about his role, but it promotes it promotes a society that is based on individual consumption, and ruthless competition, which is the opposite of what

of this stated principle. And that is why Islam condemns hypocrisy in everywhere.

Sadly, Islam condemns it. But Muslims, embrace it with both arms. wanting the best for the other, is not about altruism. It's not even charity. It's not even compassion. It is self interest in its best form. It's only when you practice this rule, that you get the best yourself. happiness lies in the smile of the other, not in possession of your own

possessions, add costs, not value, character, adds value, and cost nothing.

wanting the best, wanting the best for your fellow human beings, is the meaning of being civilized.

It's one of the qualities that enables us and makes us human. in the best sense of the term. It is a secret of all that is good and Western society, care for the commons concern for the other.

being human is not a biological statement as

just as Be a man is not a gender statement.

Both are statements that allude to the special qualities of nobility, chivalry, compassion, concern for others, and the willingness to help me help another one at your own cost. This is what makes us uniquely human.

And this is what Islam encourages, and promotes Islam is against materialism, individualism and the rat race, in a dog eat dog world. Please notice the symbolism, that the very promoters of this society in very promoters of the whole philosophy of materialism they use, doggy Dog Rat Race.

This is what they say about themselves and about the society that they have created. What is it then that prevents us from recognizing

why then do we plunge headlong into a race, which even if you win, you still are at

In a world where even if you when you become top dog

you're still a dog.

what's what's so good about that? Why would you want that

Rosaura Salim said in the famous Hadees in Muslim Obama,

he said I have only been sent to perfect good moral character.

Well and here's the Nabi sallallahu sallam, who has been sent for all of mankind,

who is

has been given a task that is the most important, the most, you know, amazing, the most

incredible art all tasks. And yet,

he says, My task is only to improve the moral character of people. What does it tell us?

It tells us that

moral character is such a fundamental need, that without it, nothing else is possible. We can talk about civilization we can talk about, about, you know, happiness and this and that and the other

forever. None of that will happen. When we have a society which is corrupt, which is immoral, which is arrogant, which is unkind or oppressive, you know, cruel.

So,

improving and perfecting of good moral character is a very fundamental and basic need is another have is in Bahari, in other words,

and it's to say this Rosaura Saracen observed I have only been sent to perfect good manners.

So in the other Hardee's, it was hot, he said I have only been sent to perfect good moral character. In the audition Buhari said I have only been sent to perfect good manners. So it shows that manners are the expression of character, character is inside. How do we see character in the manners of people how people conduct themselves shows their character shows their upbringing shows their breeding

after having Salam alano, the famous Jewish Rabbi of the year.

He says that when the source or Salam came to Medina, the people rushed towards him excitedly calling out Rasul Allah has come Rasulullah has come.

Abdullah bin Salam says I came along with the people to see him.

And when I looked at the face of sola sallam, he said, I realized that his face was not the face of a liar.

His face was not the face of a liar.

A Think about that.

Right? Think about it.

He's talking about doubt. Some people say that, you know, the, in those days they used to have gone Shafi was famous for this. And of course,

people used to read faces, they had this knowledge of judging a person's character by reading a face. But even if you didn't have all of that, just by looking at somebody, I'm sure many of you I certainly know people like this Why just look at an animal that here's a good person. hamdulillah May Allah bless you with such people and such companies as people. Now, of course is you know, we're not comparing him to anybody. I'm just saying that here is a villa in salado Delano. And this is he said this before he became Muslim. He said when I looked at I just had to look at it, I looked at him and I knew that this man does not tell lies. This is a truthful person.

And then he said the first thing he said sallallahu Sallam was, yeah, even as of show, Sarah will utter mo Tom Watson no milele one nurse who the third, the whole Janata bisola. He said, Oh people, spread Salam.

Spread Greetings, spread peace.

And then feed the hungry.

feed the hungry, and he said pray at night, when people are sleeping, and you will enter agenda in peace. And this is a Hadees and it is in Sudan in the

So three things that I wish I was telling us, which is the fundamental of,

of character of good manners. And what are those three things first, greet people?

After Salah, spread, salam, Salam Alikum walaikum salam, Aleikum, greeting people and also behaving in a way where you promote peace and harmony among people. Second one is feed people. feed the hungry whoever it is, if you can't feed 100 people feed one.

If you can't give a full meal, give him what you can give him.

Give even a date if you can give somebody

but feed people. Then he said stand in the night and pray. The Huddle. He said pray when people are sleeping.

And don't feel arrogant about that. Don't say Oh, watch our last one. I am praying people are saying no. with humility, thank Allah subhanaw taala 100 Allah This is your greatest nehama on me that you enabled me to pray where I would also have been sleeping.

The people who are sleeping are not committing a sin because we are not talking about sleeping through some other words, if you're talking about that, you're

the one who prays it Alhamdulillah all power to him and you pray. But the one who doesn't pray it is not committing a sin. He's letting his letting go of some fantastic good deeds, but he's not punishable for that. So don't feel arrogant about it.

This is about humility. This is about asking Allah subhanaw taala Thank you Allah subhanaw taala gave us this orientation and gave us this this focus.

So he said pray at night when people are sleeping and you will enter Jannah easily you will enter Jannah and peace

Hello Janet abishola will enter Jana in peace.

how simple it is think about that how simple it is. Just be nice to people.

Help people and stand in the right before Allah subhanaw taala

my sisters, Abdullah Abdullah vilanova he rewarded a man as soon as a Salam which Islam is best.

And as soon as the resident said to Tama watarrka, Osama, Allah, mon arasta wa malum tarrif.

He said to feed the hungry, and to greet with salam, those you know, and those who do not know.

And this is in Bukhari, so series, two to feed the hungry as to which is which is the best Islam, when he said, which is the best Islamic sub did not say, you know, praying and fasting and so on.

He's talking about behavior. He's talking about demeanor. He's talking about manners.

He said to feed the hungry and to greet with salam to say salam Arico to greet the greeting of peace and safety and harmony. Those you know,

and those who do not know,

not only people know, the meaning of spreading peace, and salam to those who do not know is to spread peace in the world in general.

Everyone, Muslim, non Muslim,

nor unknown.

Whoever comes into contact with a Muslim must only receive goods,

without exception,

irrespective of what that person says or does irrespective of what that person's attitude is.

This is the beauty of Islam.

If you are only reacting if you say that I will be good to those who are good to me, and if somebody is not good to me, that is their problem and I can't be bothered with that, then there is no difference between you and anybody else. Then you are only reactionary.

The credit of being good is not on you because you are good because somebody was good to before that

should be good to those who are good to you, and be good to those who are not good.

He said give to those who give and give to those who do not withhold from you.

We stand out in Islam on the basis of doing that which people don't do we are not reactionary.

We standard or we stand out on this basis that we are not reactionary.

So the meaning of spreading peace to those who do not know is to spread peace in the world in general. Now all these are

Many more ad is speak of character and the manners and concern for the other. The other being simply another human being, irrespective of race, or color, or nationality, or gender, or economic status, because that's another big divider, the rich or the poor. A Muslim is one who treats everyone, no matter who they are, with respect with kindness, with goodness,

a Muslim is not somebody who talks down to people who are poor.

We have this in our in our languages in our countries the whole time.

In fear Allah subhanho wa Taala.

You, including in some cases, I've seen children, you speak disrespectfully to older people who are poor, your servants, your drivers, your, you know, security guards employees.

I have seen and I have not seen in silence, I've put a stop to the website, I've seen young children

12 year old 10 year olds, 14 year old, calling a driver calling a servant. And in our languages we have, you know, the degree of depth of deference and the degree of respect is seen in the language itself.

So calling them or ordering them in a way which is highly disrespectful.

This is very dangerous, believe me, that man has dignity. That man is old enough to be your father.

And the only reason he keeps quiet and he takes this garbage behavior from you is because he's poor. He needs that job. He needs a salary that you're paying him. So he keeps quiet.

But that does not mean that he is quiet with Allah. It does not mean that is Rob geladeira who is not seeing that.

And Allah knows. The only reason you speak to him like this is because Allah gave you more.

The one who gave you a more can bring out a day for you, where you will go and stand in front of that same man with a begging bowl in your hand.

May Allah have mercy on you and even and everybody else.

Do not be arrogant to anybody.

Don't curse people don't shout at people don't rave and rant.

behave like a human being. Don't behave like a donkey as we said. So look man

you had heard before. Do not behave like a donkey don't breathe like a donkey.

Right?

A Muslim is one who is good to everybody. Islamic law does not differentiate between people for the implementation of justice on the authority of a wherever they are and who narrated that rasulillah salam said, He will not enter Jannah whose neighbor is not secure from his evil. And this is in say Muslim navasana Sallam said, so and so is anyone he said will not enter Jannah

if his neighbor is not secure from his evil

ahora report also and said that as soon as RSM said that the believer in Allah, and the Day of Judgment, either speak good, or remain silent, let the believer in Allah and the Day of Judgment, honor his neighbor, honor his neighbor, that the believer in Allah and the Day of Judgment, honor his guest and this is in Muslim and Bukhari.

inshallah, we'll talk about these in more detail in the next class. But for now, it is enough for us to think about this and say that what is it that I can do, which will help me to

live Islam?

The whole point of this is not just for us to

talk about Islam, but for us to practice Islam in such a way that

we become living, walking, talking models of the beauty of Islam,

in our lives.

ask Allah subhanaw taala Jalla Jalla Allah who we pleased with you, and never to be displeased. ask Allah subhanaw taala to help you in ways that you cannot imagine. ask Allah subhanaw taala to give you from sources that you cannot imagine. ask Allah subhanaw taala to enable you to be beacons of guidance and beautiful

attractors of people to the goodness of Islam, or Salalah. Alana will Karim Allah Allah He was hiveage main Veronica marami Salam aleikum wa rahmatullah wa barakato.