Thinking Well of Others Relieves the Heart

Thinking Well of Others Soothes the Heart & Soul

Imam Zaid Shakir

Opening Sermon (Khutbah Al-Haajah)

"O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims."

"O mankind, fear your Lord, who created you from one soul and created from it its mate and dispersed from both of them many men and women. And fear Allah, through whom you ask one another, and the wombs. Indeed Allah is ever, over you, an Observer."

"O you who have believed, fear Allah and speak words of appropriate justice. He will correct for you your deeds and forgive you your sins. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly attained a great attainment."

أما بعد، فإن أصدق الحديث كتاب الله وخير الهدي هدي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم وشر الأمور محدثاتها وكل محدثة بدعة وكل بدعة ضلالة وكل ضلالة في النار

الحمد لله الحمد لله الذي هدانا لهذا وما كنا لنهتدي لولا أن هدانا الله. الحمد لله الذي أنزل على عبده الكتاب ولم يجعل له عوجا. الحمد لله رب العالمين

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all the worlds. All praise is due to Allah, who controls the affairs of all the worlds. All praise is due to Allah, whose dominion extends over all the worlds.

The Danger of Having Bad Opinions of Fellow Believers

Brothers and sisters, one of the trends we see prevailing in our times amongst the Muslim people - many of them, not all of them of course, perhaps not most of them, but many - is entertaining a bad opinion of one's fellow believers. That the Muslims are so backwards, and the Muslims are so violent, Muslims are so this, that or the other. And when we start thinking this way, it becomes very easy to overlook the tremendous good that exists in our ummah, the tremendous good that exists in our communities, the tremendous good that exists amongst so many of our folks.

So it behooves us to strive to the utmost of our ability to maintain a good opinion of our fellow believers. Our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) as mentioned by Abu Hurayrah, that entertaining a good opinion of others, a good opinion of Allah, is to have goodness in one's worship, to have goodness in our worship.

Seeing Beauty in the World Reflects Inner Beauty

Just a small reminder that there is good, but the good is up to us in terms of our ability to see it. One of the poets mentioned, a more modern day poet:

O the one who's complaining while in reality he's experiencing no pain, be yourself beautiful and you will see all the creation as beautiful.

Some of you have heard this story, and it's a pedagogical story, not a story that possibly occurred in reality, to be clear. That the man was brought a glass of water and he drank the water and he spit it out - "Oh this tastes terrible!" And then he was brought a glass of milk and he drank the milk and he spit it out - "It's terrible!" And he was brought a glass of juice and he drank the juice and he spit it out. Tea, coffee, everything's terrible. And someone suggested, "Maybe it's not the water, maybe it's not the milk, maybe it's not the juice, maybe it's not the tea, maybe it's not the coffee. Maybe it's your mouth. If you cleaned your mouth, maybe all of these things would taste good to you."

And so, as opposed to looking at others and seeing bad or perceiving bad or seeing something negative or perceiving something negative, maybe the negativity lies within us. And it behooves us to remove that negativity from ourselves, and then we'll see all others in a positive light.

The Prophet's Warning Against Suspicion and Spying

Also related by Abi Hurayrah, he said - so Abu Hurayrah relates - that our messenger, the messenger of Allah, may the blessings and peace of Almighty God, blessings and peace of Allah be upon him, he said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 6064, Sahih Muslim 2563)

"Beware of suspicion, for verily suspicion is the worst of lies."

For verily suspicion is the worst of lies. And it is the worst of lies because it leads us to entertain false notions concerning our brothers or our sisters based on a perception that's incomplete. So we form the complete picture, we entertain a developed opinion or position concerning them based on a perception that exists in our mind. So we're entertaining a lie because that perception is not reality, but we treat it as reality. And by so doing, we're entertaining a lie. And the messenger of Allah said it is the worst of lies.

And then he followed up: "Don't seek out each other's faults or defects, and don't spy on one another." So don't make that phone call, "Oh, did you hear so-and-so about so-and-so?" So you're seeking out that fault that in all likelihood doesn't even exist. It's based on a rumor. It's based on some envious position or attitude, rather - perhaps a better word - that someone entertains about their brother or their sister. And so don't seek it out. And if someone brings it to you, reject it. "I don't want to hear that." "Oh, did you hear so-and-so?" So if you say, "Oh no, I didn't. What was it?" Now you're seeking it out.

When our Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam)he warns us: ولا تحسسوا "Don't seek it out." Reject it. ولا تجسسوا "And don't spy on one another." ولا تحاسدوا "And don't envy one another." It's a terrible, terrible quality.

Envy Versus Seeking Good for Others

Envy is essentially a desire to have bad befall the person. Envy their car and we hope it gets in an accident - it's bad, right? Envy their new house, we pray that an earthquake comes and shatters it and they don't have earthquake insurance - it's bad. So the opposite: seek good for people. Ask that Allah bestows more of His gifts

upon them and ask that He blesses them to be thankful for those gifts. And ask that He gives you patience in accepting whatever He's bestowed upon you. And ask Him to bless you to see the blessings and the grace that's involved in whatever He's bestowed upon you.

Don't Turn Your Backs on Each Other

ولا تدابروا "And don't turn your backs to each other." Don't boycott one another. Don't consciously avoid one another. We have a social religion. Ramadan is coming, Ramadan. And Allah could have ordained a fast so strenuous and so demanding that only strong men could have partaken of it. But He has ordained upon us a fast that all of us can enjoy - the men, the women, the children, the elderly. And so the whole society enjoys it.

Our pilgrimage - the whole society mobilizes for the Hajj. Even those who don't go, they're mobilizing to help outfit and equip and prepare those who are going. And then they mobilize to receive them. We have our Hajj welcome back, the Hajji day at the masjid. The whole community is involved. The whole ummah is involved.

Our congregational prayer - we have a Friday congregational prayer that's mandated. We have five congregational prayers that, depending on the school, are either mandated or highly encouraged or obligatory for some in the community to attend. This is a social religion. And a social religion is predicated on good relations between its members, and its practices encourage good relations between its members. And all of these qualities that the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم - ṣallā Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) warned us against in this hadith, and other qualities that he warns us against elsewhere, they are anti-social practices.

The Great Blessing of Brotherhood and Sisterhood

So he says, and we mentioned elsewhere but we'll repeat it for the sake of reinforcement inshallah and edification, that as we mentioned, don't boycott one another, don't avoid one another, don't break relations with each other. But at a deeper level, Allah Ta'ala is telling us: don't reject the great blessing of brotherhood or sisterhood that Allah Ta'ala has created between you when He brought your hearts together.

So the blessing of brotherhood or sisterhood is a great gift from Allah.

The human being - we are upright. We're the only creature that's permanently, temporarily upright. A bear, if he gets mad, he'll get up and you're in trouble. And the gorilla, he's like this, he's not like that, he's like this. But he might get up and beat his chest. Again, you're in trouble - that gorilla's up and beating. The meerkat, he's like this, but he gets up, he looks around, and sooner or later he goes down. And then they all do it in harmony. It's fascinating. But they're not permanently upright.

But the human being has this distinction of being permanently upright, which means what? All of these creatures, their hearts are pointed towards the ground. The ones that walk on all four, their chest is pointed towards the ground. The apes who are at an angle, their chest are pointed towards the ground. But our hearts, our chest are pointed outward, and our hearts are pointed outward. And so Allah Ta'ala brings those hearts together.

And so He's joined your hearts and sociability. And so when we turn our backs to each other, we turn our hearts away from each other.

وَلَا تَدَابَرُوا "Don't turn your backs to each other."

Another meaning: don't turn your hearts away from each other and break the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood Allah Ta'ala has created between you, which is what we do when we turn our backs to each other. To keep that bond that's not established by myself or yourself, that's established by Allah.

فَأَلَّفَ اللَّهُ بَيْنَ قُلُوبِكُمْ - that's not the Quranic verse, which is inserting, as they say, the fa'il, the subject, doer, the one who's done this: Allah.

And you became by His leave brothers, sisters. These are great blessings, brothers and sisters.

Don't Hate One Another - Love One Another

وَلَا تَبَاغَضُوا "And don't hate one another."

Now you talk about love and hate, people look at you like, "These are not part of Islam. Talking love, that Christian stuff!" This is a part of our religion. We mention many times here, this is a part of our religion. And we've been so inundated with hatred in so many parts of this ummah. This group hates that group, and therefore they may cast fear of them, they anathematize them and push them out of the religion, and then kill them in many instances. And they have their justification, and the root of it is their hatred for them. And that group hates that group, and this one hates that one. And we know it's true.

And as a result, they visit the worst atrocities, dehumanizing atrocities upon each other and then upon the innocent people, rooted in their hatred. When the messenger of Allah says, "Don't hate one another, don't hate one another." And so the opposing implication of that is to love one another, and to love good for one another, and to love well-being for one another, and to love prosperity for one another.

(Sahih Muslim 54)

"You will not enter paradise until you truly believe, and you will not truly believe until you love one another."

(Sahih al-Bukhari 13, Sahih Muslim 45)

"None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself."

This is our religion, brothers and sisters. And we have to have the force generated - not by a few loving individuals here or there, not by a few merciful individuals here or there. We have to generate the force of a loving and merciful community, which is how we've been described.

(Sahih al-Bukhari 6011, Sahih Muslim 2586)

"The parable of the believers in their mutual love and their mutual mercy and their mutual compassion is that of a single body."

So we have to be a nation, a community of love and mercy. And then we have to translate those feelings, those sentiments, into meaningful action at every level. And then we'll see an improvement in our situation. The status quo is untenable. And anyone who can't see that, may Allah have mercy on them. The status quo is untenable.

Having a Good Opinion of Allah is the Foundation

And we have to understand also that our ability and our desire to have a good opinion of one another is a function of our good opinion of Allah, and it starts with a good opinion of Allah. And that again is a foundation of our religion.

حُسْنُ الظَّنِّ بِاللَّهِ

Because as our opinion of Allah is, that's what we will receive from Allah. As Allah Ta'ala mentions in a hadith Qudsi:

(Sahih al-Bukhari 7405, Sahih Muslim 2675)

"I am with my servant as he or she thinks I am."

And if they think good of Me, they will have good. And if they think bad of Me, they will have bad. And the commentators on this say, "I will treat him based on his opinion of Me."

And so we have to have a good opinion of Allah and a good opinion of the believers. And if we have a bad opinion of Allah, that's what we'll find. That will be our reality, just as to go back to the beginning, the reality of the person with the dirty mouth - everything tastes bad, even the sweetest of things.

الظَّنّ - it can convey the meaning of doubt, but it can also convey the meaning of certainty. And so حُسْنُ الظَّنِّ بِاللَّهِ implies being absolutely certain of Allah's power, to have absolute certainty.

"Those who are absolutely certain they will meet Allah."

The Story of Talut and Jalut: Certainty in Allah's Power

قَالُوا - the ones who weren't certain:

"We have no hope today, we have no power vis-à-vis Goliath and his forces, his troops. They're too big, they're too powerful" - as if they're bigger than Allah and they're more powerful than Allah. So what is that? سُوءُ الظَّنِّ بِاللَّهِ - "They're too great, they're too powerful."

And this is how many of us: "These forces are arrayed against us the conservatives and all these movements and the right wing and the alt-right and all of these forces. They're too great! They have money, now they have

the White House, they have power, they have armies, they have this, they control the budget!" Are they greater than Allah?

And so we start thinking that Allah can't help us. Allah can't check them. So those are the people who had a bad opinion of Allah. And as a result, they weren't confident in the power of Allah. But the others:

"But those who were certain that they would meet Allah, they were also certain: How many times has a smaller group vanquished a larger group or a larger power by the command of Allah? And Allah is with those who are patient."

Don't Despair of Allah's Power

So brothers and sisters, don't give up on Allah. Don't give up on the power of Allah. Don't despair. The latter group didn't despair. The former group despaired:

"There is no power, we have nothing we can do with Jalut and these awesome forces."

But the latter group who truly believed, they were confident in Allah and they believed in Allah and they understood the indescribable boundless power of Allah. And they just understood that we have to be patient. We don't know what the outcome is going to be, but those who believe and those who are close to the Quran, they understand that eventually the outcome is going to be favorable for the believers.

And some might say, "That's in the Afterlife." Well, that's part of the outcome because our affair isn't confined to this world.