Jiya

Do you hate someone?

Date: 30 Apr 2008, 9:14 pm / Mood: Other/None

Do you hate someone? Do you really hate someone? You haven't spoken to him for a while? You've been blaming him?



You're not the only one; the Muslim Ummah today is diseased with this to the extent that almost every Muslim knows another Muslim who he hates.



The Ummah is like a building with the Muslims as it's bricks, brotherhood is the cement. Without forgiveness you cannot have brotherhood.



OK then, he wronged you. He deceived you. He backbited you. He lied to you. But even in these extreme situations the Qur'an and the Hadith teach us that we have to forgive others (especially those who hurt us the most) if we wish to earn the forgiveness of Allah on the day of judgement. We have all committed many sins, made many mistakes and no doubt we have wronged others, we have deceived others, we have backbited others and no doubt we have lied to others.



So what makes us focus onto brothers' and sisters' errors while we remain unconscious of our own. Not to forgive is like to live in arrogance, and ignorance of our own shortcomings.





Forgiveness is linked with piety and God-consciousness, is there anybody who is not without sin? Is there anybody who can be arrogant enough to say that he does not need to forgive? Do we not know that Allah forgives those who forgive others? Therefore, we should realise the difficulties of others and forgive them. Allah says in the Qur'an:



"Be quick in the forgiveness from your Lord, and pardon (all) men - for Allah loves those who do good."

[Surah ali Imran; 3:133-134]





And we know that Allah Himself is Ar-Rahmaan (the Most Compassionate) and Ar-Raheem (the Most Merciful) and that His Mercy is infinite, and that no matter the sin (except shirk) Allah is always willing to answer the person's call for forgiveness. In fact Allah loves the tear drop that falls from the eye of one who sincerely seeks the forgiveness of his Lord.



And Allah loves us to have hearts that are ready to forgive.



The Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) once asked his companions;

"Do you know what will cause you to have high walled palaces in Paradise (as a symbol of great reward) and will cause you to be raised by God?" When they replied in the negative, he said,

"To be forgiving and to control yourself in the face of provocation, to give justice to the person who was unfair and unjust to you, to give to someone even though he did not give to you when you were in need and to keep connection with someone who may not have reciprocated your concern."



Similarly the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said that the best of people are those who are slow to get angry and quick to forgive. On the other hand the worst of people are those, he said who get angry quickly but are slow to forgive.



The characteristic that makes a person most likely to forgive is the purity of his or her heart. Apologies must be accepted, the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) said that:



"Whoever apologises to his brother and that apology is not accepted, then the person who refuses to accept the apology bears the sin of one who takes the property of another unjustly.



And the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) also said that:



"The doors of the Garden are open on Monday and Thursday. Every Muslim slave who does not associate anything with Allah is forgiven except for the man who has enmity between him and his brother. It is said, 'Leave those two until they have made a reconciliation. Leave those two until they have made a reconciliation.'"



If we look at the example and the character of the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) we can see that he was always forgiving and never showed enmity to anyone except those who waged war against him. There was an old lady who used to throw rubbish in his way every day, on one occasion she did not throw rubbish in the street, so he decided to go and see what was the matter. She was ill in bed, to her amazement, the Messenger of Allah (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) came to see her and find out about her.



She accepted Islam.

This is the example of the man whom we claim to follow. Thumamah, as the chief of his tribe had killed many Muslims. On his travels, he was caught by the Muslim soldiers and was taken to the Prophet's masjid and tied to one of the pillars. The Messenger of Allah (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) commanded his companions to untie him and give him the best food. The Messenger of God (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) was indeed a mercy for the worlds.



We should similarly be merciful with each other. First of all, we ourselves should not do anything to upset our brothers and sisters (because this is in itself a part of mercy) and then we should forgive those who have upset us or made us angry. We will never be a strong ummah if we are not able to forgive.





Some might say that to forgive is a sign of weakness and humiliation, and for them it is better to be strong and preserve their honor. But honor in the eyes of Allah lies in forgiveness.



"But indeed if any shows patience and forgives that would truly be an exercise of courageous will and resolution in the conduct of affairs."

[surah 42:43]



If we are to be really strong then we have to be strong against Shaytaan and forgive our brothers and sisters, and in this way maybe Allah will decide insha-Allah to forgive ourselves for our many mistakes.



" ...honour in the eyes of Allah lies in forgiveness....."


79mypeace (19 May 2008, 8:40 pm):

hatred is not in the image and likeness of God. hatred represents a lessor mentality. i believe that a soul is a mentality with a body, and a body can be exchanged, but the mentality is who we are.  so the mind must be conditioned to be strenghtened against the traps that a jinn has set in order to make mankind like themselves (jinn's). when people try to make me hate them i think to myself "nice try " my soul will not be stolen so easily with hatred for someone in regard to something i have no right to judge in the first place. people must learn to walk away from the things that are not so much a significant battle and allow God to handle what will eat at them to a point of hating. in aspect, hatred is a form of idolatry because it makes a person so focussed on another person or something else. It is a sin to care so much about what another person is doing. I realize the fact that i am being tested with circumstances to react to/ i am in this school of life to prove the strenght of my mentality to God. in order to be tested, evil and wickedness had to be created as testers for me. I feel that this life is just the second stage of God's plan to "weed out" the minds that are less in God's image and likeness. we must learn to ignore the tricks and trades of the unnatural.  It is not so easy to enter into the Heavenly Kingdom because it is forever and final. our test as potential souls that may qualify needs to be tough and thorough. in the end no one will be able to say that there was not enough time or appropriate guidance.  "Allah knows the ones whom he has willed to go astray".  Those whom God has created for the purpose of testing mankind in order to observe then choose the fittest members for the heavenly society. I do not imagine hell as some people may imagine it to be. Hell fire by my theory would be the jinn's being returned to their original state (which is fire) and there mentalities existing in limbo&n


Nazahah (06 May 2008, 2:52 am):

Masha Allah this is true.


guana (30 Apr 2008, 10:24 pm):
True
Thanks for posting