Sadullah Khan – Developing a Qur’anic Personality To be and What not be. #18

Developing the Quranic personality,

how to be and what not to be.

We ask ourselves in our relationship with the

world,

what is the dominant attitude that we display?

When we are passionate about something,

what emotion

most comes to the fore?

Is it love?

Is it hate?

Is it anger?

Revenge?

Compassion?

Confrontation?

There are people when they come to you

already have an idea

you want to be with them or not

because they display a particular attitude.

I'm not asking about that. I'm asking what

attitude do I display?

Ask ourselves.

You see character wise

and in attitude

we get what we give and we receive

what we portray.

And since our attitude

are a reflection of ourselves in the mirror

of life,

The question is what do we reflect?

Is kindness perhaps

a dominant characteristic

in our social interaction with other people?

If someone were to say in one word

describe

yourself, would the first word be kind or

compassionate?

Will they say argumentative,

angry,

hostile,

hateful, loving? What would they say?

Not what you think of yourself, what do

you think other people perceive of you? What

do you portray?

An incident

documented in authentic books of hadith, in fact

in Sahih Muslim in this case, a non

Muslim person

once insulted the Prophet,

in his presence of course, directly.

And in the presence of Sayyidha Aisha radiAllahu

ta'ala Anha, the wife wife of the prophet.

And she in turn of course insulted the

person back exactly what he told towards the

prophet. She answered

back. And Rasulullahu

alaihi wasalam turned to her

and he said,

Take it easy Aisha.

It's obligatory upon you. It's necessary for you

to be kind. Don't be harsh.

Because kindness when you add it to anything,

it beautifies it. When you remove it from

anything, it spoils it. Don't forget that Rasul

was responding to a non Muslim person person

was insulting him. And of course the wife

defended the prophet, but she insulted back. And

Rasul instead of being upset with the person,

he told her, You be easy, take it

easy. You show kindness. Even in the face

of a person who insulted the prophet. I'm

trying to explain to you the prophetic

mentality. You see, we must constantly remind ourselves

as Muslims, it is our duty to care

for others. Allah describes us in the Quran,

Quran, We are the best of communities.

Evolve for the benefit of humanity.

So Muslims must care,

have to be kind because that is a

major part of our mission on earth. In

fact Mawlana al Taq Husayn Ali in his

poetry Musaddas, he

care of one another that Allah made you.

O human beings,

if it's merely for prostration

to make sujood,

Allah put millions of angels only doing

that. So in the midst of the global

pandemic we find ourselves in other crises

like pollution,

authoritarian

rule, corporate greed, wars and famine.

In a world like that,

kind consideration

is among the greatest of needs to address

these kind of issues

in all these important areas towards the environment,

towards creation,

towards the needs of people, so many who

are suffering

towards one another, as brothers, or as neighbors,

or as friends.

As human beings,

we have the responsibility

to stretch out our hearts and expand our

kindness

so that it touches not merely those to

whom it is easy to give and to

reach,

but also those who need it most. A

wise person once said, I expect to pass

through this world but once.

Any good therefore that I can do, or

any kindness that I can show to any

fellow human being or fellow creature, let me

do it now. Let me not defer,

delay, or neglect

for I shall not pass this way again.

So live with kindness.

And you live with the power

to make a difference in every life that

you

touch. There's nothing more comforting,

nothing more gratifying

than for a conscientious

person, for a conscientious soul with iman on

top of that. That knowing that through your

kind word,

through your helpful act, through your cheerful smile,

through your nudge of encouragement, you made someone's

burden a little lighter, someone's day a little

brighter, and some situation a bit more pleasant.

You see this kind kindness which we're talking

about is reflected in the saying of the

'arifin,

of the people who are righteous and knowledgeable

and people of gnosis, people of ma'arifah. They

say,

My people treat me tomorrow the way I

treated them today.

My people treat me tomorrow the way I

treated them today.

Kindness is indeed

a most noble quality.

In fact kindness is a quality and a

characteristic of Allah himself as Rasool said in

Al Hadid documented in Saheel Bukhari.

Surely Allah is