A. Kindness, Forbearance and Magnanimity:
The Sunnah advocates treating people in a kind rather than an aggressive
way. It advocates generosity and leniency rather than harshness and vulgarity.
It urges the Muslim to control his anger and subdue his rebellious self.
Further- more, it encourages him to forgive and forget as much as possible
and to be patient at the time of extreme anger. Allah, the Exalted, states
some of these virtues saying: "Hold to forgiveness;
command what is right; but turn away from the ignorant." (7:199)
Allah also describes the servants of Allah saying:
"And
the servants of (Allah) Most
gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant
address them, they say, "Peace." (25:63)
Allah, the Exalted and Almighty, describes the pious for whom He prepared
a garden which spans the heavens and the earth saying:
"Those who spend (freely), whether in prosperity,
or in adversity; who restrain anger, and pardon (all)
men; for Allah loves those who do good." (3:134)
Both the verbal Hadiths and practical life of the Prophet (Peace be upon
him) portray for us a detailed way of life and they show an example which
comes alive.
For instance, Jabir reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:
"May
Allah's Mercy be on him who shows tolerance in his buying, selling, and
paying or demanding back his money." [Note:
Reported
by Al- Bukhari and lbn Majah on the authority of Jabir, Sahih Al- Jami' AI-Saghir, No.3495, also by Muslim in the book of
Al-Bir, No.2593] `Aishah reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: "Allah,
the Almighty is Merciful and loves mercifulness. He rewards mercifulness
more than harshness or any other thing". [Note:
Reported by Muslim, No.2594, and
Abu Dawud, No.4808]
This means that Allah rewards those who are gentle by making their course
easy in this life and by rewarding them in the Hereafter.
In another hadith, `Aishah reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him)
said: "Mercifulness is recommended in everything,
for anything that is void of mercifulness is faulty". [Note:
Reported by Muslim in the book
of Al-Bir, No.2594]
This hadith is narrated to an occasion when `Aishah mounted stubborn horse
in which she spurred several times until the Prophet said
"Be gentle ... etc.
Abi Al-Darda' reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: "Whoever
is bestowed with the blessing of mercifulness has his share of goodness
and whoever is deprived of it, is deprived of his share of goodness". [Note:
Reported by AI-Tinmidhi, No.2014, and he said that it is a Good Sound
hadith] Jurair Ibn Abdullah reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said:"Whoever
is deprived of mecifulness is deprived of all goodness." [Note:
Reported by Abu Dawud, No.4809,
and Muslim, No.2592]
Is there, then, any sensible man who would jeopardize his chance to win
all goodness.
Abu Hurairah narrated
that "A Bedoum once urinated in the mosque. The people
caught him but the Prophet ordered them saying: "Leave him and pour a bucket
of water over the area he had passed urine, for you have been sent to make
things easy and not to make them difficult. " [Note:
Reported by Al-Bukhari, Al-Tirmidhi
and AI-Nasa'i]
The Prophet's point of view was that the treatment of this kind of vulgar
behavior and vulgar man was easy, so why should one make things difficult?
Ibn `Abbas reported that the Prophet said to Al-'Ashaj, a man of `Abd Al-Qays'
delegation, "You have two qualities which Allah loves
and they are meekness and patience." [Note:
Reported by Muslim and AI-Tinmidhi,
Sahih Al-Jami' AI-Saghir, No. 2136]
Anas reported that: "Once I was walking with the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him)
whilst he was wearing a Najrani cloak with a thick margin and a Bedouin
followed him and pulled his cloak so violently that I noticed the shoulder
of Allah's Prophet affected by the margin of the cloak because he tugged
so hard. Then, the Bedouin said: "O Muhammad! Give me some of Allah's wealth
which is with you." Allah's Prophet (Peace be upon him)
turned and looked at him, then he smiled and ordered that he be given something."
[Note: Agreed upon, AI-lu' wal
Marjan, No.629]
This privilege of discernment strikes a difference between the civilized
and the uncivilized person. The civilized man should excuse vulgar actions
which are stimulated and motivated by his Bedouinism, his environment and
the way he was brought up. He must defuse his ignorance with meekness,
his harshness with gentleness, his vulgarity with good-naturedness and
his ill-treatment with good treatment!
Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud reported that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) favored
some people in the distribution of the booty and excluded others; he gave
Al-'Aqra' Ibn Habis one hundred camels and gave `Uyainah Ibn Husain the
same amount, and also gave to some of the eminent Arabs and gave preference
to them. Then a person came and said: "By Allah in this distribution justice
has not been observed, nor has Allah's Pleasure been the aim." I said to
him "By Allah I will inform the Prophet of what you have said. And when
I informed him he said:"If Allah and His Prophet did not act justly, who
else would act justly, may Allah bestow mercy upon Moses, for he was harmed
with more than this, yet he remained patient." [Note:
Agreed upon, Al-lu'lu Wal Marjan,
No.637]
Obviously, this rude man could not appreciate the higher interests considered
by the Prophet (Peace be upon him) on distributing the war booty. The Prophet
wanted to join the hearts of the people who had newly embraced Islam in
case that Islam had not firmly entered their hearts yet. He, evidently,
bought their loyalty to Islam, to its message and to its leader with transient
worldly things. Allah gave him permission to give them a share of the alms
when he said: "For those whose hearts have been (recently)
reconciled
(to
Truth)" (9:60)
From that, they should be given a share of war booty. The Prophet's attitude
towards those who are inclined to give hastily judgements and are prejudiced,
was one of sincere forgiveness, meekness and patience. He followed in the
footsteps of his brothers the Prophets and the Messengers of firm will (Ulu Al-'Azm).
[Note: Those
are the prophets, Noah, Ibrahim, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. Those prophets
were faced by a great torture and persecution from their people in communicating
Allah's Message to them. But they remained too forbearing and patient and
proceeded further in preaching their people. Thus the Prophet Muhammad
was instructed to be patient and follow in their footsteps]
He ignored the unruly enthusiasm of some of his Companions to punish them
severely to make an example of them.
In a similar case to that of Ibn Mas'ud in which the Prophet was distributing
gold from Yemen amongst four persons of those whose hearts are newly inclined
to Islam, a man stood up and said: "We
are more deserving of this gold than these persons.!" When heard this the
Prophet (Peace be upon him)
said, "Don't you trust me even though I am the trustee of what is in the
heaven, and I receive the news of heaven (i.e.
Divine Inspiration) both in the morning and
in the evening". Then a man rose with sunken eyes, raised cbeek bones,
a shaven head and a waist sheet that was tucked up, and he said: "O, Allah's
Prophet! Be afraid of Allah." The Prophet said: "`Woe to you! Am I not
of all the people in the earth the most entitled to fear Allah." Then the
man went away. Khalid Ibn Al-Walid said: "Let me cut his throat." The Prophet
said: "No, for he may offer Prayers." Khalid Ibn Al-Walid said: "Numerous
are those who offer Prayers and say by their tongues what is not in their
hearts." Allah's Prophet said: "I have not been ordered to search the hearts
of the people or cut open their bellies." [Note:
Reported by Muslim in the book
of Zakah, No.144, and Ahmad, vol. 3, p. 4]
This hadith highlights someone who was a pioneer in narrow-mindedness.
He was not able to perceive the higher aims of the Messenger of Allah.
He said what he said out of rudeness and superficial judgment. To him,
religion was nothing more than a thick beard, shaved head, and a tucked
up waist sheet! In spite of this, the Prophet refused Khalid's suggestion
and refused `Umar's suggestion in many other similar situations. He decided
to treat this man and others like him as Muslims not with standingly.
The Prophet's attitude towards those people was that of forgiveness and
pardon and he did not surrender to an emergent anger or deepened envy of
any person. In conquest of Mecca, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said
to the Meccan polytheists, in spite of all such harm and persecution he
had received at their hands, "O, people of Quraish!
what do expect me to do with you?" They replied: "Peace, a gracious brother
and a son of a gracious brother! the Prophet said: "I will say to you what
Joseph said to his brothers before: "This day let no reproach be upon you!
Go you are free." [Note: See, Sirat Ibn
Hisham, vol.2, p.274]
Thus, he forgave them completely and open anew leaf with them. Furthermore,
he taught his Companions how to vanquish hatred and resentment.
Abu Hurairah reported that a man said to the Prophet (Peace be upon him)
"Advise
me! The Prophet said: "Do not get angry." The man asked the same again
and again, and the Prophet said in each case, "Do not get angry." [Note:
Reported
by AI-Bukhari in the book of AI-Adab, see Sahih Al Bukhari and Fath Al-Bari,
No.6116]
In another version the Prophet said: "The strong
is not the one who overcomes the people by his strength. The strong is
the one who controls himself whilst in anger." [Note:
Agreed upon on the authority of
Abu Hurairah, Al-Lu `lu' Wal Marjan', No.1676]
Furthermore, "The strong man is not the one who knocks
people down. The strong man is the one who overcomes himself ".
[Note: Reported by Ibn Hibban in his Sahih,
AI-Ihsan, No.717]
The strong man is the one who has a strong body and who can knock people
down, but this hadith teaches Muslims that true strength lies in the strength
of the soul rather than the strength of the body. However, this does not
mean that one should not wish to have a strong body, on the contrary, the
believer must prepare himself physically to achieve his message in life.
Most importantly, but preparing himself spiritually take precedence. In
other words, he must have inner strength to control his desires and whims
before any attempt to control others.
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