Husnul-dhan Assuming the Best
By Omar Suleiman | 2026-01-06T17:50:24.526486+00:00 | Topic: Iman
Husnul-dhan: Assuming the Best
By Imam Omar Suleiman
Opening Prayer
As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu.
I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is His final Messenger.
We begin by praising Allah, by bearing witness that none has the right to be worshipped or unconditionally obeyed except for one God, and that Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم is His final Messenger. We ask Allah to send His peace and blessings upon all of His Prophets and Messengers, upon the family and companions of our Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم, and to join us with him and his family and his companions in Jannatul Firdaus, in the highest level of paradise. Allahumma ameen.
The Prophet's Transformative Influence
Dear brothers and sisters, when we look at the accomplishments of the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم and we look at what makes him a successful individual across all different spheres, not just the sphere of Prophethood, but as Michael Hart said, the only man who was both supremely successful on the religious and secular level, in a way that is admirable even to his foes.
When you look at the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and what he was able to do with the people that were around him, you find that there is this tendency to underestimate his influence on his companions in their daily lives, and to just focus on the glorious moments, the glorious episodes from the seerah of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
Working with Raw Material
What I mean by that, is that each and every single companion that came to the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم came in very raw form. Some with very backwards cultural practices. Some with a harshness that had been conditioned in them for decades, that culminated sometimes even in the killing of their own children. Some that had lived lives of immorality that would be unmatched today. He had people in front of him that came from all sorts of backgrounds, and he was dealing with an entire community of raw converts, that had to be taught not just theology all over again, but that had to restructure and reshape their lives in accordance with this new divine revelation.
And the fact that out of this generation, it didn't take another generation to perfect the message of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, but that this became such a pristine generation, that contained the likes of Abu Bakr, and Umar, and Uthman, and Ali, and the likes of Fatima, and Khadijah, and Aisha, and Umm Salama, and the likes of Umm Sulaim, and the likes of Abdullah ibn Umar.
The fact that he was able to take this generation, and to mold them in this way, that they not only learned the religion, but internalized it, in a way that beautified their character, and made them spiritually and institutionally mature enough to be able to pass it on to their children and to another generation, and to establish a continuity of the message of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, is one of the greatest testaments to the ability of our Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم to mentor, and to teach, and to see people in their raw form, and not discount them due to their obvious manifestations of jahiliya, of ignorance.
Seeing Potential
But instead the potential that he saw in the people that were being brought to him, to be great human beings, great Muslims, great leaders, great believers, great community members, great husbands, great wives, great fathers, great mothers, great sons, great daughters. He saw it in them صلى الله عليه وسلم when they came.
And yes, some people came to him more refined, like Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه. Abu Bakr was already on Islam before Islam. He already had it. He understood growing up that worshiping idols was not logical to him. He understood already that there must be only one God. He understood that drinking alcohol was not good for him. This is all before Islam. He accompanied the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. He had a very similar character to the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم. So he was already refined.
But the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was able to fit and accommodate in the same masjid a person as refined as Abu Bakr, and a man that walks into the masjid and does not understand that it's probably not a good idea for me to start urinating in the corner of a house of worship. And he was able to treat that man with mercy and to accommodate in the same community Abu Bakr and that man. He was able to accommodate people from all different social classes, from all different backgrounds and refine them.
The Example of Jesus and His Disciples
And that is not just a skill that was given to our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, it was a skill given to all the Prophets and Messengers. When Allah speaks to us about Jesus عليه السلام, Isa عليه السلام and his disciples, when he stands up and he says to the hawariyun, he says to the disciples:
"Who will be my helpers in [the cause of] Allah?"
And they say, "We are the helpers of Allah. We believe in Allah, and bear witness that we are amongst those that have submitted ourselves alongside you. We are amongst the Muslims."
Isa عليه السلام was able to impart his tarbiyah, his own spirituality, his own divine refinement on this group of young people that were with him. To the point that they immediately rose to the occasion when he asked them, "Who will be my helpers besides Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala? Who will help me in the cause of Allah?" So the ability to impart it is quite phenomenal.
And it's something that comes from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and something that he blessed few people with in history.
The Legacy of Umar ibn al-Khattab
You know, last week I was at the Islamic school fundraiser for my kids. And I was asked to speak for 10 minutes. And I asked the audience, I said, "If you could give me the top 5 accomplishments of Umar al-Farooq, Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه the second Khalifa of Islam. Tell me what his accomplishments are. Tell me his top 5."
One person raised their hand and said, "Well, Jerusalem." Obviously bringing Palestine into his fold and doing it in a way that was beautiful. Without bloodshed, in a way that he ensured the protection of the communities that were already there with a smooth transition. Some mentioned his precedence in justice. Some mentioned that Umar رضي الله عنه his epic battles against the Persians. But these are the things that typically... Some mentioned the year of the famine, the year of Ramadhan, when Umar رضي الله عنه took the ummah out of its most difficult time.
Abdullah ibn Umar: The Greatest Accomplishment
And I said, "No one here mentioned Abdullah ibn Umar as one of the accomplishments of Umar ibn al-Khattab رضي الله عنه. The fact that from Umar رضي الله عنه he was able to produce a son that was exactly like him. That loved the sunnah as much as him. That walked and talked and had the same sense of justice and moral courage as him. To the point that when he passes away, the people come to Umar and say, 'Look, can you make your son the Khalifa? We'll accept him. Because Abdullah ibn Umar would be a continuation of your legacy, of your greatness. Because he represents what you represent.' He instilled in him those same values.
He rubbed off on him to that extent that he looked just like his father, acted just like him and upheld the same values and love that his father upheld. Who asks for hereditary rule in history? No one does that. But they saw the blessings of his son.
And look what ends up happening. From his grandson you have Umar ibn Abdulaziz رضي الله عنه who continues the same legacy of Umar. You have his daughter Hafsa who has the same love for the Quran that he has. And it's in her house that the Quran was collected. That's legacy as well. The ability of Umar رضي الله عنه to impart that same love for the Quran and the sunnah into his children.
The Legacy of Fatima
It's legacy of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم when Aisha mentions his daughter, because it starts at home. And she says about Fatima رضي الله عنها "I have never seen anyone who looks, walks, talks, acts, or resembles the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in character like his daughter Fatima رضي الله عنها." Fatima was a copy of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. The ability to impart that is powerful. It's profound.
And it has to start with your example being profound enough to be duplicated. That other people would want to be like you starting with your own children and your own small space. That takes a methodology in seeing the goodness in the raw person in front of you, in that canvas in front of you, and helping them find their identity and grow into their best self.
Starting with your own family and your own social circle. It starts there. That is of the greatest accomplishments of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
The Foundation: Seeing Good in People
And where does that come from? The fact that he looked at you صلى الله عليه وسلم and he saw your qualities, he did not see your flaws. He saw your qualities, he did not see your flaws.
A person who is ugly on the inside will only see ugliness in everything around them. Everything around them is flawed, deeply flawed. You look at this person and all you see is the ugliness, and you're so of one. Your evil assumption of them is because you've seen your own experience in evilness. And you assume that anyone that displays the characteristics that you display when you engage in evilness is as evil as you, if not more evil.
That's where su'-zann (evil assumption) comes from. Always seeing that in people. Always seeing that in everything around you. Because that's who you are on the inside too. So you see it in others.
Our Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم teaches us the opposite of that. That if you have someone in front of you that has 25% good, 75% evil, build that 25%. Don't say to them, "Your 25% is suffocated by the 75%." We see that in many different instances with him.
The Example of Abdullah ibn Umar's Dream
Abdullah ibn Umar, who we just mentioned, who said that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم every day after prayer he would sit and he would say, "Who has a good dream to share with us? Who saw something in their dreams last night that they could share with us?" So Abdullah ibn Umar in his
eagerness to engage with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, he said, "I wanted to see a dream so bad just so I could say it the next day. So I can engage with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم." So he makes du'a to see a dream at night.
And what dream does he see? He sees a dream of the angels taking him to hellfire. And just as they're about to take him to the hellfire, finally they say to him that this is not your place. And he says that, "I saw hellfire, I saw the people in it, I saw its grievousness, I've seen the horror of hellfire in that dream. And they said, this is not your place."
And then they took him and he was taken to paradise. But it's not a good dream because Abdullah ibn Umar saw hellfire. So suddenly he's frightened by that dream. And he's too embarrassed to tell the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم about what he saw. So he asked Hafsa, his sister, to talk to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم.
The Prophet's Beautiful Response
When Hafsa tells the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم what Abdullah saw, the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم responds. And he knows that his response will go back to Abdullah with its words and with its tone. And so he says:
(Bukhari hadith 1121)
"What a blessed young man Abdullah is. What a beautiful young man he is. Such a great young man. If only he would pray a little bit at night."
He's such an amazing young man. But if only he would add to his amazingness, to his goodness, to his spectacular character, exemplary young role model for the rest of the youth around the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, in fact even the elders. If only he would add to that some qiyam.
He didn't say: "بِئْسَ الرَّجُلٌ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ مَا يَقُومُ اللَّيْلَ" - "What a bad young man Abdullah is. He doesn't pray at night." He said, "What a good, blessed young man this is. But if only he'd add to that goodness a little bit of qiyam."
So when it gets to Abdullah, it gets to him with hope. It doesn't get to him in a way that would demotivate him and tell him that the reason why you saw this is because you're not praying at night. It gets to him in a way that allows him to strive to be his better self.
The Method of Building People Up
That's the impact the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم has on the people around him. He had this ability صلى الله عليه وسلم that when you came in his presence, you left a better person. You left a better Muslim, you left a better father, a better husband, a better wife, you left a better person. You were inspired to be better by being in his presence because he never beat you down to your lower self, instead
The Problem in Our Communities
You think about the way we deal with each other in our community. Someone exhibits a negative quality and we're willing to throw out everything and focus on that negative quality and the only thing that does is it robs the Muslim community of a potentially great activist or a potentially great student or a potentially great community leader. Because we honed in on something negative about that person, we threw out everything else and we amplified the negative, we amplified the ugliness in our own ugliness as opposed to amplifying the beauty in the people around us through our own beauty. Seeing people through that lens as opposed to the lens of beating them down. And that's our fault sometimes.
The Example of Mu'adh and Long Prayers
When Mu'adh رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ would lead the companions in prayer in a masjid, the Bedouin tribe in prayer, he would lead his people in prayer, pray isha with the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم and then go lead them. And someone complained to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم that he took too long in his salah, that he prayed for too long.
Mu'adh's gut reaction was, "What a hypocrite. You don't like long salahs? You don't like listening to the Quran? What a hypocrite."
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did not tell this man, "Look, the Quran was revealed to me, it is beautiful, it is profound, you should enjoy reading it." And the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم is the same one that would stand up at night reading the Quran until his feet would swell. He never got sick of the Quran. So you talk about just from an experiential perspective, it's hard for the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to relate to a man saying that that's too much Quran for me.
There is a disconnect there. But the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم understands, "I'm not gonna take this man to task for that." Instead he calls Mu'adh and he says:
(Bukhari hadith 705)
"Are you a trial/tribulation, O Mu'adh? Are you running people away from God? Some of you run people away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala."
It's not his fault, it's your fault for not understanding where he was at and bringing him to his better self, to where he would want to recite the Quran the way that you recite the Quran. And where he would find enjoyment the way that you find enjoyment. "Are you running people away from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala?"
A Quranic Warning
Allah warns us of this in the Quran:
"Our Lord, do not make us a trial for those who disbelieve."
That they would either see us, and one of the manifestations of that, the primary is that they would be given victory over the believers and think then that the cause that they fight under is a justified and a moral cause. And there's a sign that the divine power is with them as they persecute believers. That's one.
The second one though, the second manifestation of that ayah is that people see you as a representation of your faith. They see you as a representation of Islam. Whether you like it or not, you are a representative of Islam, especially in this intensified climate of Islamophobia.
People are looking for an excuse to hate you. You don't need to give them much. You represent your faith. They see you acting in a certain way, they will see the entire faith that way. On the other hand, even within the community itself, we can become a fitna for those who believe.
The Psychology of Faith
SubhanAllah, if you look at some of the psychological studies of how people perceive God, and how they are able to come to the knowledge of God and spiritually enjoy a relationship with God. People view God naturally, by instinct. The same way that they view those that are most beloved to them and close to them. Meaning if those that are most beloved to them and close to them, especially in a place of authority, are abusive, they will perceive God in an abusive fashion.
So we could be munafireen, running people away, even our children sometimes, because of the harshness:
"And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from around you."
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was even told that if you're harsh, hard and rough, people will disperse from around you. Instead, take them in, grow them, see the goodness in them and make them better than what they presently are.
Don't beat people down, not in our own community and not outside of our community. See the good and extract it and amplify it as opposed to the opposite.
Seeing Potential Even in Enemies
One of the things that Imam Ghazali رَحِمَهُ اللهُ mentions in this regard which is very profound is that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did not see even his enemies in the same light. He even could see potential in his enemies, those that were persecuting him, actively persecuting him.
We have a tendency as Muslims even, especially in our own 21st century Islamophobia. There was Islamophobia in the time of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم to put everyone who is in opposition to us in one bucket and to define them by the worst of them and to say they all hate us because of this and everyone falls into that bucket.
The Du'a for Umar
The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was able to see amongst those that were actively persecuting him that they were not all the same and he made du'a for some specific ones:
(Tirmidhi hadith 3681) "O Allah, give victory to the religion through the more beloved of these two men to you: Umar ibn al-Khattab or Abu Jahl ibn Hisham."
If you lived in that time and you saw Abu Jahl and Umar ibn al-Khattab رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ you would think they were the same. You wouldn't see that Umar is different from Abu Jahl but the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم saw some qualities in Umar that made him different and he was right. He grew those qualities. Islam didn't change those qualities, Islam bettered them and beautified them in a way that they would be productive.
But the Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم saw that.
The Battle of Badr Example
In the battle of Badr, as the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم sees the army coming towards them. These are people that want to massacre them. He looks at them and he says:
"If there's any good in these people I can see it in the one who's riding the red camel."
And he meant Umayyah ibn Khalaf. He said, "He's not Abu Jahl. He's not Abu Lahab. There's something different about him right now. He looks different." If there's some khayr in these people that would stop them and restrain them, it would be him. He saw it in his eyes. Everyone else is sitting there looking. "Well, they all look like enemies to us. They're all riding horses and carrying swords. I can't see any difference between them. I don't see any good in any of them. They all look evil." The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم saw something different. And he wanted to extract that.
Recognizing Those Who Were Forced
He says that amongst these people there are some people:
"Some of these people came out in the battle of Badr to fight us and they were forced out. They don't have any interest in killing us or fighting us."
So the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم mentioned some names including Al-Abbas رَضِيَ اللهُ عَنْهُ. He said, "When you find them, be gentle with them. They're not out there to kill you. They were moved by the current. But they don't hate you. They're not out there to kill you."
He's telling them to even distinguish amongst their enemies. So what then about your brothers and sisters?
Avoiding Generalizations
In our generalizations and putting people in buckets, bucket after bucket after bucket so that we stop seeing people as people. And we see them as groups. Isn't that what we complain about all the time? We do it to ourselves. And we do it to our enemies. And we do it to people that we perceive to be our enemies.
But Allah says:
"They are not [all] the same."
No two people are the same. Each and every single person has a unique experience. And if they are living their lives in a way that's distant from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, then you have to try to diagnose what that experience was that made that life more convenient for them and help them see themselves out of it.
Each activist has an experience. And if they are passionate about something and they're misguided in their passion, maybe, or you deem that to be a misguidance in their passion, then you have to validate the experience that made them passionate about that cause and redirect it in a way that is Islamically beloved.
Not throw them off and write them off and put them all in one bucket. When you see people in front of you, make them better, don't make them worse. Because that's what we want Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to see in us.
Our Own Self-Perception
We want Allah to see in us the good and we want to say, we believe, when we stand in prayer and when we do what we're supposed to be doing, or we think we're doing what we're supposed to be, we believe that we're still essentially good people despite our flaws. We still believe that. We believe we should be given a chance by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and by the people around us because we only see the best of ourselves, but we only see the worst of others.
Everyone else is defined by their flaws, we're defined despite our flaws in our own eyes. That's a problem. And our Messenger صلى الله عليه وسلم taught us something different.
Practical Application
In conclusion to make this practical, as much as I can, and I apologize if it's not, and if it just seems like a reading of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. I want you to think about the people around you that are experiencing Islam through you. That are experiencing your faith through you in some capacity.
Are you making them better people or are you making them worse? Are you making them love Allah more or are you making them more distant from God? I want you to think about the people in your community that do work. Do you see the good in what they do and try to help them through some of the blind spots and the mistakes or do you only see the mistakes in a way that you negate all of their good?
It goes back to your own perspective of people. And then if the answer to these questions is that you are amongst those that are distancing people from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, it's important for you to reconsider your own connection with Allah and what you want from Allah and how you then project that on the other servants of Allah that are around you.
Closing Du'a
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to build the people around us and to build ourselves. May Allah guide us and guide through us. May Allah rectify our hearts and rectify through us.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala rectify us as individuals and allow us to be amongst those that rectify entire communities and societies. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to see the beauty in others and to only have our beauty seen on the Day of Judgment. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala forgive us for our shortcomings and make us a people who are forgiving of other people's shortcomings.
May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala pardon us and forgive us and show mercy to us and allow us to have the capacity in this world to pardon and show mercy and forgive others. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bring about change in a positive way through us. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala allow us to be agents for all that is good.
Allahumma ameen.
*The khutba concluded with the call to prayer and the congregational Jumma prayer, including recitation from Surah Al-Fatiha and Surah Al-Hujurat.