Sadullah Khan – Developing a Qur’anic Personality To be and What not be. #24

Developing the Quranic personality

to be and what not to be.

The prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam in a

hadith is reported to have said

A servant

or a believer

or the worship of Allah

cannot reach the reality of faith

until and unless

he loves for humanity

the good things that he wish for himself.

You do not have true faith until you

love for humanity

the good which you wish for yourself.

This hadith lays down a very significant principle

of behavior.

A guideline for interaction with each other as

human beings, what they refer to as the

ethic of reciprocity.

In other words, the golden rule of loving

for others what you love for yourselves.

And this

golden rule lies at the heart of human

empathy, and it is the foundation

of social morality. Without it, it's very hard

to have a standard of social morality in

any society.

So a true Islamic personality is built upon,

on the one hand, Allah consciousness,

on the other hand is coupled with love

and compassion for the larger human family. We

are part of a larger human family.

And every member should care

for the other member of the family and

help one another to the best of the

ability.

Be of benefit to people, then you are

the best of people.

So, Rasulullah salallahu alaihi wasallam,

in an incident that occurred,

a lady came to him and said, you

Rasulullah,

I embrace Islam.

And because of my embracing Islam, when I

visit my family, they treat

me unfairly, they treat me in a nasty

way.

You Rasulullah, they now coming to visit me.

Shall I treat them the way they treat

me? And then Rasulullah wa sallam,

nah hadid documented

Don't be improper.

Don't be inappropriate.

Do not say if other people treat me

well, I'll treat them well. And if they

treat me badly, I will treat them badly.

Rather, accustom yourself, condition yourself to say, and

to believe, and to do good to people

who do good to you

and

do not do wrong to those who do

wrong to you.

So

this philosophy

emanates from numerous ahadid of Rasulullah salallahu alayhi

wasalam.

Another one documented

excising your intelligence,

after accepting iman, after accepting faith

is being affectionate to people, Being good to

people. And doing good to others

irrespective

of whether they are good or not.

You will be good irrespective

of whether they are good or not.

And this essence of the golden rule is

not merely you treat other people well because

it's to your advantage, or because you get

something in return. But rather due to the

universal moral obligation

that Islam teaches us to treat others with

respect, to treat them ethically with empathy because

it is the proper thing to do.

Not because of expediency,

but rather because of who we are as

Muslims

and what we represent

as people of iman.

Sheikh Sheikul Qurah, Shamsuddin Al Jazari. Anybody says

Kira, you must read Al Jazari. Even institutions

here in Cape Town, Al Jazari Institute and

so on. Sheikul Quraysh Ham Sudin Al Jazari,

in his manakib, he documents one of the

sayings of Said Na Ali.

And this flows with the notion of the

golden rule.

Sayidna Ali said,

Don't worry about what people are. He said,

you become the standard between yourself and others.

Don't say, oh, they are nasty, I'll show

them. They are rude, I'll show them. No.

That's not the issue. You'll become the standard.

Maybe they'll become like you. So he said,

you'll be the standard in social interaction between

yourself and others. Love for others what you

love for yourself. And dislike for them what

you dislike for yourself. Do not wrong others

just as you do not like people should

wrong you. And do good to others as

you would wish others do good to you.

So,

let's say in all of this.

Let us be good to all.

Not only to those who are good to

us. What good are you if you're only

good to those who are good to you?

So let us not only be good to

those who are good to us, but be

good.

Because

being good is right.

And the right thing to do is always

the best thing to do.