Sadullah Khan – Developing a Qur’anic Personality To be and What not to be. #11
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We continue our dream
for this Ramadan
developing a Quranic personality
to be and what not to be. And
today we ponder on the words of our
beloved prophet Muhammad
are for our reflection.
And for us to introspect and to see
what lessons we can learn by these kinds
of comparisons
that are being made.
Remember that mirrors first of all reflect the
truth.
It shows you things
as they are.
It reminds me of an incident of the
very famous poet, Mirza
mirror and he made a poem about it.
He said,
affecting the dirt on my face. I was
supposed to clean my face. So mirrors reflect
things as they are. If there's a dirt
on it, it will show it. If there's
no dirt, it will show it as it
is. So first things, mirrors reflect the truth,
nothing more, nothing less. Number 2,
mirrors are silent.
They do not advertise what they reflect.
In other words, if you are not in
the view of the mirror, you will not
be able to see what is being shown.
So it does
not advertise what it's showing.
The third thing about a mirror, it does
not keep your image. If you go away,
it does not keep your image for the
next person to see.
And this,
in this way,
it shows that
the mirror
does not show your previous failings,
it does not show your previous blemishes,
and in some way this epitomizes
the saying of forgive and forget.
With each new encounter when you look again
tomorrow, it will show the reflection of tomorrow,
not of yesterday.
Each reflection it shows, each time you view,
it will be a fresh one, updated,
unbiased,
uninfluenced
by previous influences.
So now let's imagine in the words of
Rasulullah,
imagine if we as believers were truly like
mirrors unto each other.
Imagine if we truly like mirrors to each
other because the rasul used that simile.
The hadith suggests that. Be like mirrors. So
1, we would be honest with each other
and tell each other the truth.
We would be honest with each other and
tell each other the truth. 2, we will
not be loud about it.
So we will not be revealing to others
who are not there, you know. Never tweeting,
what's happening, all the negative stuff.
That's a mark of a believer. We have
a tendency, anything good happen, nobody it tweets.
Something small goes up, everybody knows about it.
Halalu, haram, right or wrong doesn't
matter. Somebody gives $10,000,
no rand, nobody advertises.
The guy did something wrong, everybody knows about
it. We have a tendency to negatively
portray unlike a mirror. So in the mirror,
you would never be loud not revealing to
others who are not there
3,
you will not speak about people when they
are gone. Like the mirror, don't show your
image after you got. You will not hold
it for the next Muslim. Look how Saudullah
looks low.
So we would not speak about people when
they are gone nor carry things of the
past in our hearts
for the future. In other words, letting bygones
be bygones.
This is in keeping with the prophetic description
in a longer hadith above this in Sahih
al Bukhari, where Rasulullah
made reference to the same wording,
The believer, like brothers one to another, are
mothers unto each other.
They protect each other and defend one another,
specifically in the absence.
So this
kind
of quality which the hadith explains what the
word is supposed to be, what it's supposed
to be to one another, the believers,
that requires
character. That requires
good character.
Allahumma
When you look in the mirror you say,
Allah, you made my outer, my physical appearance
good. So oh Allah make my inner character
good as well.
And based on that, Sayyidina Ali said,
When he looked, he said, Allahumujaal
Siriati.
O
Allah, let my inner part be better than
my outer part.
And let my outer part be good. So
when you look in the mirror and it
looks good, and you are better on the
inside, imagine how much better you must be
on the inside than on the outside.
Can we say that about ourselves?
Towards ourselves. And can we say this about
ourselves in relation to fellow human beings?
So we ask, O Allah, let us be
good inwardly and outwardly.
Let our reflection, whatever we reflect of ourselves
or others, let our reflection be good. And
let us be of those like a mirror,
reflect others with honesty,
without malice,
or without impropriety.