Bringing Out the Good in People

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
In the Name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most Compassionate

Assalaamu alaykum

Dear Friends

I pray that you are well.

Most of us want to bring out the best in people, whether that’s at work or in life. Some of us have had the pleasure of knowing and working with people who we feel bring out the best in us.

Bringing out the good in people requires us to be good first.

يا معشر القراء يا ملحَ البلد - من يُصلح الملحَ إذا الملحُ فسد
O company of readers O salt of the earth - who will purify the salt if the salt is contaminated
Let other people thrive. If we can set aside our own desire to look good and instead work on being good, we’ll challenge and encourage other people to contribute and maximize all that talent to achieve the best outcome.

Demonstrate what it means to be good. "Do what I say and not what I do" is not a strategy which brings out the best in people very often.

Praise where praise is due even during a dispute. Once two of the Prophet's (Allah bless him and grant him peace) wives had a confrontation with each other in his presence. Zainab bint Jahsh (may Allah be pleased with her) started to say some harsh things to Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her). Aisha kept quiet at first as Zainab went on. Aisha spoke some words in response to Zainab, until Zainab was silenced. She mentions many of Zainab’s good qualities and praises her righteousness, “I have never seen a woman more advanced in religious piety than Zainab; more God-conscious, more truthful, more alive to the ties of blood, more generous and having more sense of self-sacrifice in practical life, and having more charitable disposition, and thus more close to God, the Exalted. She, however, lost her temper very soon, but was soon calm.” This is very important lesson because we often tend to completely overlook, ignore and undermine the positive traits of those with whom we have disagreements.

What will you do this week to both be good and to bring out the good in people?

May Allah make us of those who unlock good and lock evil. Ameen.

Please don't forget us in your night prayers. Jazakum Allahu khairan.

And Allah knows best.
Wassalaam