As much as we like to admit it or not, there comes a time in our lives when we are faced with a dilemma; should we help out someone that we do not like or not?  We could ask ourselves, “does he deserve my help after what he did to me?”, “I don’t like her anymore so why should I bother?”, “they humiliated me in front of my friends, so I have no reason to help” etc etc.

We at Western Muslim UK feel that the Muslim Ummah truly need to learn how to swallow their pride and truly embrace the act of forgiveness, as well as helping one another out.  Let us tackle these three areas one by one.

Pride:

It is very clearly stated by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) that: “Never can the person who possesses a speck of kibr (pride) inside his/her heart enter Janat.”  Why should we act superior or arrogant against one another, when it may risk us being purified in the Hell fire?  This World is all but an illusion and feeling arrogant because we aced an exam or have a new Parker pen, is really not worth it in the grand scheme of things.

Also, the origins of pride come from a place of feeling as if we are better than someone else.  Firstly, this quality is not something that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) encouraged, as he saw everyone as equal and secondly, it is not a quality that Allah (SWT) likes.  In fact, Imam Ja’fer As-Sadiq (A.S) is reported to have said: “Whenever he/she has kibr (is proud), an angel says – ‘Be humble, lest Allah (SWT) should disgrace you’.” Ask yourself, is feeling arrogant because we went to a good school or University really worth the wrath of Allah (SWT)?

The most effective cure to remove kibr is to remember death as often as possible.

Forgiveness:

One of the best qualities that a person can have in the eyes of Allah (SWT) is forgiveness.

There are countless verses from the Quran that we can quote about how beneficial forgiving one another is (e.g. Surah 5 Verse 13, Surah 3 Verse 134, Surah 41 Verses 34-35 etc), however we feel that a story from Prophet Muhammad (SAW) really illustrates this point.

One day Prophet Muhammad (SAW) was gathered with his Sahabah and said that “a man of Paradise is coming.” The man that appeared seemed very ordinary. One of the Sahabi was very curious to know what was so special about this man, so went to stay with him for three days.  After this time, the Sahabi could not work out what was so special about this man and asked him directly.  The man pondered for a while and said: “There might be one thing — before going to sleep every night I forgive everyone and sleep with a clean heart.”

For more information on this story and for strategies on how to get Allah’s (SWT) forgiveness, watch the video below:

Togetherness:

We feel that Surah Al-Asr defines this concept perfectly! We could write a whole article on the teachings of Surah Al-Asr alone, but in summary it talks about how time is running out and how we should use our time wisely in order to do everything that we can to ensure we get into Paradise InshAllah.  Ask yourself, “are you really utilising every hour in the day to learn more about the Deen, or are you wasting time on the new Grand Theft Auto game?”

Surah Al-Asr talks about four key attributes, that all need to be encompassed together:

1. Believe in Allah (SWT)

2. Do good things

3. Encourage others to do good things

4. Be patient

It is number three that we wanted to focus on, as it is very easy for us to be self centered, however Islam teaches us to help one another, as ultimately we are all tied together.  So do not let someone suffer alone without helping them, for example with exam revision, as you never know, you could be the one in need of help next!

The above concept is perfectly summarised in the Nouman Ali video below:

Finally, we have come across a lot of people who exhibit qualities, which demonstrate the polar opposite of togetherness; that of being envious/jealous of our brothers and sisters.  For example, hating someone for being popular or for getting a promotion at work.  This is strictly not allowed.  In fact, The Prophet (SAW) warned against the ill consequences of envy upon the envier, saying: “Beware of envy, for indeed envy consumes one’s good deeds like fire consumes wood.” [Sunan Abî Dâwûd]

Conclusion:

We at Western Muslim UK feel that the Muslim community really do need to remove the negative character traits from ourselves (such as jealousy, pride, hatred etc) and replace it with positive character traits (such as patience, forgiveness, unity etc) and hopefully this will help us on our journey of attaining Paradise InshAllah.

We would like to close with a verse from Anas ibn Malik (RA), where he explains that Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said that: “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself” [Sahîh al-Bukhârî and Sahîh Muslim]. A hard place to get to, granted, but one which is so beneficial.