Whatever you want in life, make sure that you always want God more.
Why?
Just why?
Do we not share same faith?
A faith that teaches us to only think good of our brothers and sisters, that we should give 70 excuses to them if we see them doing something wrong or inappropriate before we could even think of judging them.
My brother, why do you quickly judge me just because I do not have the same length as your beard or that I don’t have one?
My sister, why do you quickly judge me just because I do not wear the hijab properly like how you do?
WHY WOULD YOU NOT TRY TO ENCOURAGE ME? WHY DO YOU NEED TO DISCOURAGE ME BY JUDGING ME SO QUICKLY?
Astagfirullah.
What happened to us? Shouldn’t we be the ones to encourage them? Shouldn’t we be the ones to come first to give them a helping hand? But nowadays, rather than helping someone drowning infront of us, we first take out our phones and take a picture of it!
And yet we PROUDLY post on our social media account that we are Muslims!
Is this how we should be? Is this how a Muslim should be? We want to give dawah when we forget that we need to do dawah to ourselves before anyone else! PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH!
Let me tell you a story of an Ansaari man whom the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam regarded as a man of Paradise, then ponder hard from how far we are from this man with all these quick/instant judgements we give to others!
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Anas Ibn Malik Radiyallahu Anhu once narrated, “One day, we were sitting with the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam and he said: “Now there will come before you a man of Paradise.”
Soon one of the Ansaar entered, shoes in hand, water from ablution dripping from his beard. The next day, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam said the same thing. Then we saw the same person we had seen the previous day, in the same condition. On the third day, the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam said the same thing. We again saw the same Ansaari enter, carrying shoes in his hand, water dripping from his beard.
“When the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam left, ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al’As Radiyallahu Anhu followed the Ansaari and said to him, ‘I’ve quarreled with my father and swore I would not go to him for three days. Will you please let me stay with you for three days?”
“The Ansaari replied, ‘Alright, you may.”
”’Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al’As Radiyallahu Anhu related that he spent three nights with the person: ‘I discovered that he did not get up at any time in the night for prayers. Yes, Is aw that whenever he woke up and turned on his side in his bed, he would remember Allah and say the Takbeer. Then he would rise up for the dawn (Fajr) prayer. I also noted that he would only utter good words.
’When three nights had passed and I was almost sure he did nothing deserving of special praise, I said to him, “O slave of Allah, I have no quarrel with my father but I heard the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam say: ‘Now there will come before you a man of Paradise’, and each time it was you who came up before us. So I thought I should stay with you to see what act of yours I should emulate and gain reward. What is that act which made the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam mention you in this manner?”’
The Ansaari replied, “I do no more than what you have seen.”
’Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al’As Radiyallahu Anhu said that when he had risen up and left him, the Ansaari called him back and said, “I do just what you’ve seen. I do no more. But I do not hold anything against any Muslim and I do not envy anyone good Allah has given him.”
”Then ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al’As Radiyallahu Anhu remarked: ‘That’s what has elevated you (to that position) and that’s what we are incapable of.’”
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O you who reads this, ponder hard! Ponder hard at the things you have done, at the things you have said wrongly about your fellow Muslims!
Astagfirullah. Astagfirullah. Astagfirullah.
Look at the determination of ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al’As on knowing what made the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wassalaam regard the Ansaari man as a man of Paradise. He wanted to know as he wanted to emulate it and gain reward from it.
Look at the hospitality and kindness of this Ansaari man, letting this man to stay with him for three nights, if this happened these days, no one would be that willing to keep a man in his home without thinking twice and setting up a blade on his hands (meaning staying alert thinking the man will do something wrong unto him).
They will think bad before the good. Astagfirullah.
This beautiful character of the Ansaari man would put anyone into shame, how beautiful is his soul of not thinking bad and not being envious towards anything good that Allah bestows upon others, wallah, this man is a perfect example of a contented and satisfied slave of Allah!
The last line of ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Amr Ibn Al’As totally sums up the situation of most of us nowadays, “That’s what has elevated you (to that position - being a man of Paradise ) and that’s what we are incapable of.”
Astagfirullah.
O slave of Allah, it is time to start a change in our lives. Look at how ‘Abdullah RA said “he did nothing deserving special praise” when he was saying about the Ansaari man who was praying constantly and doing dhikr, yet nowadays, we put so much pride in our hearts when we pray 5 times a day when during the Khair ul Qurun, it was not something that makes them special rather it just makes them Muslims.
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O Allah, save us from drowning under our own pride, ego and desires. Save us, O Allah.
Allahumma Amin.
Zohayma
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Story was taken from Musnad Ahmad (According to Haafiz Iraqi, Ahmad’s narration meets the conditions laid down by Al Bukahri and Muslim, Takhreej-ul-Ihya 3/187
