Indeed, all praises and thanks are due to Allāh. We praise Him, we seek His Help and and we seek His Forgiveness. And we take refuge in Allāh from the evils of ourselves and from the bad of our actions. Whomever Allāh guides, none can misguide. And whomever Allāh misguides, none can guide. And I testify that there is no god except Allāh. And I testify that Muḥammad is His slave and messenger, may blessings and peace be upon him and upon his family and companions.
To proceed:
Anas ibn Mālik (radiya -Llāhu ʿanhu) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: "None of you truly believe until he loves for his brother that which he loves for himself." (Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim)
This ḥadīth is the basis of how we should interact with our fellow Muslims. We should want good for others the same way we want good for ourselves. We treat them the way we want them to treat us. We talk to them the way we would like them to talk to us.We honour and respect them the way we would like to be honoured and respected. Think about it: if you were to be rude and impolite to a peer of yours, can you expect them to respond to that with kindness and courtesy? For the average person, the answer would be no. Hence, the way we deal with others should be the way we want to be dealt with, in order that others may deal with us in the same way.
Part of good treatment of others are excusing them and giving them fair chances. For example, if a person commits a mistake, then we should find excuses for them and not jump to conclusions. E.g. you see a person sneakily take something lying on the table. Before you jump to the conclusion that he stole, think of excuses for him. Think of reasons for as to why what he did may have not been stealing. Give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, if you were the one who sneakily took that object of the table though you were in fact not stealing – you weren't in the wrong –, would you like it if someone accused you of stealing – doing something you didn't do? There are many possibilities or ways for us to excuse others who have committed mistakes. And this is from the good treatment of others.
Now, the concept of loving for your brother what you love for yourself may seem simple, but many diseases of the heart can get in the way, the most common one being ḥasad (envy). Ḥasad is when you see something good in someone, and not only do you want it, but you want the other person to lose it. And this goes opposite to what the ḥadīth we have mentioned teaches. So if we feel like we want someone else to lose the good that they have, that’s actually the sign of a serious problem with our īmān, and in the way that we look at our brother or our sister.
We should remember that an important concept in Islam is the fact that everything we have of worldly possessions comes from Allāh. Allāh gives to whomever He wills and withholds from whomever He wills. Whatever another person may have that you really like was given to him by Allāh. So it is not your right to seek that he loses what Allāh has granted him; rather you should be happy for him and want for him that which is good, the same way you would want good for yourself.
Ḥasad is a very serious matter we should be wary of, to the point where we are encouraged to take refuge in Allāh from it after every prayer and before sleep when we recite Sūrat al-Falaq.
"...and [I take refuge] from the evil of an envier when he acts out his envy." (Qur’ān 113:5)
Now, it's one thing to feel ḥasad inside you, and and it's another thing to act that ḥasad out. Now, notice that the ayah doesn't say in ḥasada (if he acts out his envy) but rather idhā ḥasada (when he acts out his envy). Thus, it is inevitable that the one with ḥasad in his heart will eventually manifest that envy; it's inevitable that he will act that out one way or another. So we should take care not to carry feelings of ḥasad in our hearts in the first place before the disastrous effects of it manifest themselves. As the proverb goes, prevention is better than cure.
To proceed:
Anas ibn Mālik (radiya -Llāhu ʿanhu) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said: "None of you truly believe until he loves for his brother that which he loves for himself." (Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim)
This ḥadīth is the basis of how we should interact with our fellow Muslims. We should want good for others the same way we want good for ourselves. We treat them the way we want them to treat us. We talk to them the way we would like them to talk to us.We honour and respect them the way we would like to be honoured and respected. Think about it: if you were to be rude and impolite to a peer of yours, can you expect them to respond to that with kindness and courtesy? For the average person, the answer would be no. Hence, the way we deal with others should be the way we want to be dealt with, in order that others may deal with us in the same way.
Part of good treatment of others are excusing them and giving them fair chances. For example, if a person commits a mistake, then we should find excuses for them and not jump to conclusions. E.g. you see a person sneakily take something lying on the table. Before you jump to the conclusion that he stole, think of excuses for him. Think of reasons for as to why what he did may have not been stealing. Give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, if you were the one who sneakily took that object of the table though you were in fact not stealing – you weren't in the wrong –, would you like it if someone accused you of stealing – doing something you didn't do? There are many possibilities or ways for us to excuse others who have committed mistakes. And this is from the good treatment of others.
Now, the concept of loving for your brother what you love for yourself may seem simple, but many diseases of the heart can get in the way, the most common one being ḥasad (envy). Ḥasad is when you see something good in someone, and not only do you want it, but you want the other person to lose it. And this goes opposite to what the ḥadīth we have mentioned teaches. So if we feel like we want someone else to lose the good that they have, that’s actually the sign of a serious problem with our īmān, and in the way that we look at our brother or our sister.
We should remember that an important concept in Islam is the fact that everything we have of worldly possessions comes from Allāh. Allāh gives to whomever He wills and withholds from whomever He wills. Whatever another person may have that you really like was given to him by Allāh. So it is not your right to seek that he loses what Allāh has granted him; rather you should be happy for him and want for him that which is good, the same way you would want good for yourself.
Ḥasad is a very serious matter we should be wary of, to the point where we are encouraged to take refuge in Allāh from it after every prayer and before sleep when we recite Sūrat al-Falaq.
وَمِن شَرِّ حَاسِدٍ إِذَا حَسَدَ
Now, it's one thing to feel ḥasad inside you, and and it's another thing to act that ḥasad out. Now, notice that the ayah doesn't say in ḥasada (if he acts out his envy) but rather idhā ḥasada (when he acts out his envy). Thus, it is inevitable that the one with ḥasad in his heart will eventually manifest that envy; it's inevitable that he will act that out one way or another. So we should take care not to carry feelings of ḥasad in our hearts in the first place before the disastrous effects of it manifest themselves. As the proverb goes, prevention is better than cure.
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