In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate
Assalaamu alaykum
Dear Friends
I pray that you are well.
When we look at a fellow Muslim, we should look to him/her with eyes that have been removed of any wax, any dirt and any filth, and there is nothing but pure regard and pure wanting the best for the person--not envy, jealousy, hatred, disrespect, looking down, suspicion, selfishness, merciless, prejudice or bias.
What we have to work on is that our heart has a deep concern, not absent from Allah and His Messenger (Allah bless him and grant him peace), for the Muslims (the elite or the common folks, the young or the old, etc) expressed in appropriate way of these two ways--obligatory and supererogatory.
Somebody who is satisfied with his prayers, his zakah and charity, his fasting and his hajj but have no concern for those around him, is surely in loss, as in the words of Qur'an in Surah Al 'Asr,
وَالْعَصْرِ ﴿١﴾ إِنَّ الْإِنسَانَ لَفِي خُسْرٍ ﴿٢﴾ إِلَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالْحَقِّ وَتَوَاصَوْا بِالصَّبْرِ ﴿٣[Qur'an Al 'Asr 103]
By time, man is surely in loss except for those who believe and exhort each other to the truth and exhort of each other to patience.
People who have no concern for those around them will not exhort them and so they are in loss.
The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said,
'Religion is naseehah (sincere well wishing.)' We said 'To whom?' He, Allah bless him and grant him peace, said 'To Allah and His Book, and His Messenger, and to the leaders of the Muslims and their common folk.'(related by Muslim)
Naseeha is an act of worship which frames one's attitude to everything. It is very weighty in situation when one is not able to physically do anything.
Naseeha to Allah is correct belief in the Oneness of Allah and sincere intention in worshiping Him. Obligatory naseeha to Allah is extreme concern from the person to follow the love of Allah in performing what Allah obliged and avoiding what He forbade. Supererogatory naseeha is preferring love for Allah over love for oneself. This is hallmark of this naseeha. The attention you give to Allah is greater than attention you give to yourself.
Naseeha to Allah's Book is believing in it and practicing what is in it. It is extreme love of the Book and veneration of its rank as it is the Speech of the Creator, extreme desire in understanding it, extreme care in contemplating it, pausing when reciting it in search of meanings of what his Master wishes for him to understand from it. It's just not reciting the Book, but it is loving the Book. It's not just studying the Book but having a concern and desire to contemplate and learn the meanings of the Book from it.
Naseeha to the Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, is confirming the Prophethood and completely obeying him in what he ordered and forbade. Naseeha to the Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, is helping him in both in his life and after his death, following and spreading his Sunnah, searching for his character and manners, venerating his matters, anger and turning away from those who seek religion other than his Sunnah, anger of those who squander it out of preferring this life, love for those who have relation with him (through marriage, hijrah, support or companionship), deep concern to have everything that has to do with him.
Naseeha to the common folks is guiding them to what is in their best interests, guiding them towards that which will correct their affairs of both this life and the next, and helping them in that, protecting them from harm, to love for them what one loves for himself, to hate for them what one hates for himself, compassionate to them, show mercy to their youngsters, venerate their elders, feel sadness for their sadness, and joy for their joy.
Naseeha to the Imam of the Muslims--the rulers and the scholars, is by loving their righteousness, praying for their righteousness, and loving the Ummah to be gathered under them.
If people who are learned are not shown respect by the people, no good can ever come to those people. The scholars should be shown respect--listen to the scholars and encourage Muslims to listen to the scholars. Another aspect is reminding these scholars of their responsibility and reminding them of taqwa (Godfearingness) and not to sell the religion of Allah for a paltry price.
Our attitude to the rulers is not the attitude of competition. Some Muslims have this idea whoever is ruling is necessarily evil and their mission is to unearth all of the ruler's faults, to spite them, to pray against them and many other things. What is useful for the Muslims is to pray for them that Allah makes them firm on the truth and to want the best for them because if the rulers are rightly guided their affairs are rightly guided. The rulers are in need of our naseeha because through them is the betterment of our position because Allah put them in the powerful position. Too much negative talk and not much positive action is not going to get us anywhere. Muslims should unite and do something positive instead of constant discord in everything.
The way we should look at rulers is not any different than we look at other people. In Islam we don't just care about social justice but we also care about orderliness.
When we go on a trip, we have a leader so we can keep on track and get to do all that was planned--hajj for example. In marriage, we have a leader and Allah put the man as the leader. He might not the best husband. In a masjid, we have the imam, Parents are leaders for their children. This is the order of life. There has to be orderliness to avoid chaos because progress does not happen in chaos.
How do we react when the leader is not the best or up to par? We show deference and respect to these people out of obedience to Allah, not because they are worthy or because they are not worthy. This is how we achieve our reward and ranks with Allah. We have own accounting to do with Allah in the end.
In a household, the wife maybe intelligent and the husband may be the opposite. This is a test for the man and the woman. Orderliness entails that the woman achieves her means not through insulting the husband and if there is a difference, which is strong, that she gives deference at the end of the day to what the husband has chosen. Otherwise there is chaos in the household. Power struggles do not bring good with them. If the husband is wrong or bad but the wife fulfills her obligations to him out of subservient to Allah and His Messenger, Allah bless him and grant him peace, the wife wins the pleasure of Allah for being patient with this man. Remember the wife of one of the most evil and wicked human being on the face of the earth (Fir'aun) and her rank with Allah.
Sometimes Allah tests us with people over us who are not worthy to be over us. As Muslims we live in this world for the next world. The orderliness of Islam has given us roles and we are to fulfill those roles no matter how difficult they are for the sake of Allah. This is our means to serve Allah to make it to the next life safe.
Sometimes it is the other way around--the leader is leading a useless bunch. They don't understand orderliness. They constantly fight and bicker and making his role extremely difficult. His test is to put up with that and to steer the ship despite the fact that the crew is useless.
All of us are tests for each other. A man with a bad wife and a woman with a bad husband. Parents with bad children and children with bad parents. Our road to Allah is by observing the orderliness that Allah has ordained. In the family--by wife respecting the husband whatever or whoever he might be, children respecting the parents, congregation respecting the Imam, the country respecting the ruler. The opposite of this is chaos, strife and civil war. We interact with Allah through interacting with these people and our means to draw close to Him.
May Allah guide us and draw us closer to Him. Ameen. Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakallahu khairan.
And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam
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