Friday, July 31, 2009

this is what we mean by LOVE

Once, i've read my friends' book, fourty hadith. And yet,the book was tempting me to read it.. And so, again, i opened that collections of hadiths'
book, and here what i was sticked at;

Abu Hamzah Anas bin Malik, radiyallahu 'anhu, who was the servant of the Messenger of Allah, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, reported that the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said:
"None of you truly believes (in Allah and in His religion) until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself"

[Al-Bukhari & Muslim]

I believe that many of u, have already heard this enough.. These hadith give us meanings that is to love for other Muslims what one loves for oneself. They lay down a very significant principle of behaviour of Muslims with each other. A true Islamic community is when it is built upon love and compassion for its members. Every member should care for and help one another. They should treat others in ways they want to be treated.
It is a community with no barriers among the races, colour, mazhab or group or ranks in implementing this Islamic concept of brotherhood and love. All these barriers must be removed for this concept to be realized. Other barriers to be removed include jealousy, selfishness and envy.
Loving goodness for others is part of loving them. We love good things for them as much as we love those things for ourselves. We treat them the way we want them to treat us. And this is what we supposed to have.

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. There are many possibilities or ways for us to excuse others who have committed mistakes, and hence enabling us to live peacefully and avoid confrontations.
When we deal with other Muslims in the community, we should deal in the best manner. We should choose the best words in our conversation. The Qur'an says:
"O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allah and fear Him, and speak always the right word"[Surah Al-Ahzab (33) : ayat 70]
"And tell My servants that they should always say those words that are the best. Satan verily, sows a state of conflict and disagreements among them."[Surah Al-Isra' (17) : ayat 53]
Good words can minimize quarreling and confrontations among the members of the society.
Mercy and compassion should exist in our treatment of others. It does not only mean protection, but it also encompasses love, care and help. Therefore, in relation to the hadith, Muslims must also love and care about other Muslims.
Another important issue is not to be arrogant. This comes in many forms (as mentioned by the scholars) such as belittling others, looking down on others, looking at oneself as being more superior or better than others, etc. The Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, said:
"He who has in his heart the weight of a mustard seed of pride shall not enter Paradise." A person (amongst his hearers) said: "Verily, a person loves that his dress should be fine, and his shoes should be fine." He (the Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam) remarked: "Verily, Allah is Graceful and He loves Grace. Pride is disdaining the truth (out of self-conceit) and contempt for the people."[Sahih Muslim: Book 001, Number 0164]
Therefore we need to be humble and show mercy to others. Part of loving goodness for others is to practice mutual consultation, enjoining goodness and forbidding evil. The advice is to be done in a good way, based on loving them and not for seeking personal interest. The Prophet, sallallahu 'alayhi wasallam, also used to show his love of others when giving advice to them. It may also be good to explicitly tell the listeners that the reason we are advising them is because we love them and we care for them. If an advice is specific for a person, then it should be done in private to avoid offending the person.
Fudhayl ibn Iyad (i've heard this name,he's form four is it? naah, but he's not him!Ok, continue..) went one step higher in putting this hadith into practice. He mentioned that we should not only wish others to be like us but also to wish them to be better than us. However, he said that this is not obligatory (wajib).

Ibn Rajab said that we should wish other Muslims to be better than us in worshipping (ibadah) and manners (akhlaq), but at the same time we should wish for ourselves to be better than what we are now. It is not good enough to just wish for something good for other Muslims but at the same time we are deficient and not striving to be better Muslims ourselves. It is from the goodness that we have attained that we also love for other Muslims to have. It is not fair to them that we wish for them to attain the same deficiency that we have in ourselves. Therefore, it is a matter of continuous competition among us to attain the goodness.

A related contemporary issue is about the brotherhood in Islam. What criterion should be used in deciding who are the brothers in Islam that they deserve our support? There are many Muslims in the world today, but many of them are weak in iman and violating some principles of Islam. Plus, in world today, many people didnt realize, that actually Influenza Of Hedonisme had infected us much more seriously than Influenza A aka H1N1 that i was sure enough, are what most of us afraid of. This kinda of desease (Hedonisme) are one of the tactics made by Americans, to attack and rotten our iman throughout our mind. And yet,this influenza can be infected easily by us in myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube and so on. In the past, these people were dissociated by the scholars because they were the minority.

However, today it is less appropriate to apply this same principle of disassociation and therefore people with the minimum level of Islam should be considered brothers in Islam. Hence we should care for them and love for them what we love for ourselves. For example, if they commit a sin then we love for them that they leave the sinful act. Yet, only those who have the intention to stand up for ummah will read this. And yet, I appreciate you guys for reading this thousand of letter I have wrote (and yes, some are copied from others). And again, we should advise them out of our love for them. Yes, I do love them, and this is it.

Fullstop.

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