One day, a rich man came to Rabi'a al-'Adawiyyah and said, "For many years I've lived a very spoiled, arrogant and sinful life. If I repent now will God forgive me?"
Rabi'a replied, "No, but if God forgives you, you will repent."
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One will realise, in a moment of guilt, that God has done half the work. By giving me the opportunity to make amends, the door has actually been opened.
Humbled by God's Mercy, there is nothing else to do but to move my own legs to cross through the door.
MAS
Salam,
Dearest Hoopoe,
I am...
humbled.
Thank you sooo much for sharing...
Wassalam.
Salam,
TheHoopoe, what about Muslims who transgressed against Allah's laws and repent? What should our attittude be towards them? What would your personal opinions be? What should be the level of our forgiveness?
I can wait if you have to write this into an entry :)
Thank you.
Jazakallah for sharing.
Salam Anonymous,
There is no way to respond completely via this mode of communication. But, if you were to ask my personal opinion and summarise them:
I am not God and will try not to be judgemental - for after all, have we not been given ahadeeth to similar effect that goes beyond our human logic. For eg: the prostitute who was forgiven and went to heaven and the man who killed 100 men and was forgiven and also went to heaven.
On the other hand, comfort in outward manifestations of conformity or piety may not also necessarily prove faith, compliance or eventually, a place in blessed Paradise.
We have been given the hadith of 3 men: one a philanthropist, a Qari and a martyr. Despite all that they had done on earth, none of them was received in Paradise.
That leaves us with one predicament: the uncertainty of our end.
And indeed, this is a great blessing because we will be guided to live in "hope and fear" - to be inspired to strive in the hope that Allah will accept our service to Him, yet fear of things which we are not aware of (for eg, kibr, hasad etc) which would eliminate our chances of smelling that blessed Paradise.
This leads us to be constantly conscious of Him in our every breath and is the formula towards achieveing real piety.
One of the blessed "weapon" of a Muslim, is the power of supplication. This coupled with the hadith that one Muslim is a brother to the other and must feel the pain or anxiety of another fellow Muslim. Hence, a combination of these principles leaves us Muslims with only one option: if we know that a fellow brother has transgressed, we raise our hands and in our prayers supplicate for Allah, The Almighty to change his heart to go towards Him. In the meantime, we retain him in the warmth of our friendship, because the "planting of seeds" in his heart to change will insya-Allah bear a better fruit.
That supplication is our responsibility as His Servant. When, where and how that friend will change is Allah's task, and we submit to His Wisdom when He will effect that change in our friend.
Finally, in the hadith which empowers us with "changing" our transgressing friend with our actions, words and if not, detest his actions in our hearts: wisdom have to be exercised in carrying out which level of action that is available to us to yield maximum effect.
Compare this than to "ex-communicating" him or casting him away socially or religiously. This surely will not make him Return to the right path. In effect, we have also assumed the role of God on earth, na'uzubillah.
This brings to mind a conversation I had with a friend recently: We should not ask why we have been burdened with problems in our lives. Our task in living is to alleviate the burdens in our lives and in others. That is His Khalifah.
"Is not Allah the Wisest of Judges?" [at-Tin 95:8]
Wallahu a'alam
Thank you for answering so quickly. You set my heart at ease, alhamdulillah...
I feel a bit at peace...
Jazakallah Khair...
- "3rd Anonymous, the questioner"
A very thought provoking post. Just passed by 2 of my office staff who were talking about "orang kafir" "this" and "orang kafir" "that".
My humble view is that too often as Muslims we tend to disassociate ourselves from the non-believers with a "holier than thou" attitude without realising that a so called "kafir" could well end up in paradise and vice versa.
Too often, particularly for born Muslims, we do not appreciate enough the fact that we are Muslims nor question why we deserved to be born as Muslims.
I do agree with you castillo. Muslims have been dragged into these arguments and debates that tore us apart from days gone past till now. And still we dwell on things that are not really within the ambit of our qualifications nor capabilities.
There is an excellent book by Imam Ghazali on this topic entitled: "Faysal al Tafriqa" (essentially about labelling others as kafirs).
Late last year, an American scholar by the name of Dr Sherman (Abdal Hakim) Jackson came to Singapore to give a talk on this topic based on his illuminating translation of the book which detailed the explanation on this book entitled: "On the Boundaries of Theological Tolerance in Islam."
In it, Imam Ghazali developed a definition of Unbelief (kufr) to serve as the basis for determining who, in theological terms, should be considered a Muslim and who should not. Dr Jackson's annotated translation is preceded by an
introduction that reconstructs the historical and theoretical context of the Faysal and discusses its relevance for contemporary thought and practice.
Dr. Jackson explains the importance of the book: "al-Ghazali's mission is to define the boundaries within which competing theologies can co-exist in mutual recognition of each other, i.e., as 'orthodox,' in the sense of passing theological muster. Al-Ghazali's aim, in other words, is not to establish who among the theological schools is 'right', but rather to demonstrate the folly and unfairness of the practice of condemning a doctrine as heresy simply because it goes against one's own theology. Furthermore, he insists, even where a doctrine can be justifiably deemed 'wrong' or heretical, this does not necessarily constitute Unbelief."
Go ahead and read it. You will be illuminated, insya-Allah!
Salam, Ustaz...
Can you point the way for me to find the hadith/ahadith on the philanthropist, a Qari and a martyr?
Jazakallah.
Dear Anonymous,
The hadith can be found as follows:
"It has been narrated on the authority of Sulaiman ibn Yasar who said: People dispersed from around Abu Huraira, and Natil, who was from the Syrians. said to him:
O Shaikh, relate (to us) a
tradition you have heard from the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him).
He said: Yes. I heard the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) say: The first of men (whose case) will be decided on the Day of Judgment will be a man who died as a martyr. He shall be brought (before the Judgment Seat). Allah will make him recount His blessings (i. e. the blessings which He had bestowed upon him) and he will recount them (and admit having enjoyed them in his life). (Then) will Allah say: What did you do (to requite these blessings)? He will say: I fought for Thee until I died as a martyr. Allah will say: You have told a lie. You fought that you might be called a" brave warrior". And you were called so. (Then) orders will be passed against him and he will be dragged with his face downward and cast into Hell.
Then will be brought forward a man who acquired knowledge and imparted it (to others) and recited the Qur'an. He will be brought And Allah will make him recount His blessings and he will recount them (and admit having enjoyed them in his lifetime). Then will Allah ask: What did you do (to requite these blessings)? He will say: I acquired knowledge and disseminated it and recited the Qur'an seeking Thy pleasure. Allah will say: You have told a lie. You acquired knowledge so that you might be called" a scholar," and you recited the Qur'an so that it might be said:" He is a Qari" and such has been said. Then orders will be passed against him and he shall be dragged with his face downward and cast into the Fire.
Then will be brought a man whom Allah had made abundantly rich and had granted every kind of wealth. He will be brought and Allah will make him recount His blessings and he will recount them and (admit having enjoyed them in his lifetime). Allah will (then) ask: What have you done (to requite these blessings)? He will say: I spent money in every cause in which Thou wished that it should be spent. Allah will say: You are lying. You did (so) that it might be said about (You):" He is a generous fellow" and so it was said. Then will Allah pass orders and he will be dragged with his face downward and thrown into Hell." [Muslim, Book 20 No:4688]
Alhamdulillah. Only four lines in this post but it has a tremendous humbling effect.
i dont really understand this particular story, what does it mean?
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