Everyone has two Muezzins, one calling them to God, the other calling them to evil.
Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya
"The hypocrite looks for faults; the believer looks for excuses." --- Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (Image: an Ottoman, 16th century gem-set box, created by Persian jewelers, thought to hold scales for jewelry making).
"Sins are like chains and locks preventing their perpetrator from roaming the vast garden of tawheed and reaping the fruits of righteous actions." --- Ibn Taymiyyah [d. 728H/1328CE]
"Iblis (satan) said, “If I win three things from the son of Adam, I will have earned what I wanted from him: if he forgets his sins, thinks high of his actions, and becomes fond of his opinion." --- Dirar b. Murrah (Sifatus-Safwah vol. 3, p. 116)
Ramadan - Food for Thought
"Taqwā means godliness, devoutness or piety. Crucially, […] fasting is not merely about physical abstinence or exertion. […] The Prophet Muhammad (s) said, “All that some people get from their fasting is hunger and thirst.” (Ibn Mājah) […] Taqwā is not an automatic by-product of fasting. In understanding this, it is worth considering that Imam Al-Ghazzāli wrote that there are three degrees of fasting. Firstly, the fast of ‘the ordinary person’ – consisting of abstinence of the appetite, sexual intercourse, noise, arguing, etc. Next, there is the fast of ‘the select few’, who keep the ears, eyes, tongue, hands and feet together with all the other senses free from sin. Finally, there is the fast of ‘the elite’, which is the fast of the heart from bad thoughts, worldly worries and anything else that may divert from anything but thoughts of Allāh (swt)" --- Toobaa: Ramadan - Food for Thought
People tend to think love is good, and hate is evil, patience is a virtue, and anger is dangerously impetuous. To be confrontational is harsh, and to tolerate is virtuous.
But what if someone loves self-interest and those who do evil? And would it be wrong to hate oppressors and mass murderers? Should one be patient to injustice and suffering if it is preventable? And is anger against wrongs done to the weak, misplaced? Should falsehood not be confronted? And should the corrupting influences of oppressors, hypocrites and the unjust be tolerated?
God gave us the capacity to experience and exhibit all those things. Love, patience and tolerance are not inherently good, nor is hate, anger and being confrontational, inherently bad either. Goodness comes from using all these approaches at the right time, in the right place, to the right people, in the right way, for the right reasons.
Evil comes from using all these approaches at the wrong time, in the wrong place, to the wrong people, in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons, or from abstaining from using them when one should be doing so.
It is the misapplication of these faculties, that leads people to love oppressors, hate those who fight for justice, get angry at those who call for real change, confront people for being different, and tolerate those who promote the ideas of the unjust status quo.
Being wise is not to use only some of these faculties, but rather, wisdom is using all these faculties in their appropriate place.
Abdullah al Andalusi
toobaa reblogged
If one night you see someone committing a sin, tomorrow do not look at him as a sinner. He may have repented during the night and you did not know.
Ali ibn Abi Talib (ra)
Is Hell Just? --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
@bliss-in-poison: Hi, the purpose of the debate is to address these questions from both an Islamic and an Agnostic or Atheist perspective. You're most welcome to attend :) For your interest as to how MDI conducts its debates, the last debate (on the topic of Salvation in Christianity and Islam) is available to watch online >here< :) @seanrickard/jedphelym: Yes, I am a Muslim. If the event is accessible for you, you are very welcome to attend and, no doubt, make a valuable contribution during the Q&A session :)
[...] wrong doing and sin are really maladies of the heart, just as fever and pain are maladies of the body. When someone who has been ill recovers, he regains his [previous] strength and [...] others actually become healthier, stronger and more vigorous than before, for the remedy is [so] strong and overpowering, and it so completely overcomes the causes of the weakness and illness, that sickness becomes their way to health. Or as the poet said: "Perchance a reprimand from You is healing And perchance a body is strengthened through illness." --- Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, The Invocation of God
"There are, however, more profound reasons for protecting the 'nakedness' of others and for concealing our own. [...] For a man to try to cover and inhibit those elements within himself which he would like to overcome and to bring forward those which he would like to see triumphant is not 'hypocrisy'. If he would like to be better than he is, then he deserves to be encouraged in this aim, and there is something very peculiar about the contemporary tendency to regard a person's worst qualities as representing his 'true' self, although it goes hand in hand with the common belief that ugliness is in some strange way more 'real' than beauty and that to discover a shameful secret is to discover the truth." Gai Eaton, ‘Islam and the Destiny of Man’, 1994
Source: penguin-commando.deviantart.com
The Cult of Honesty
"The cult of 'honesty' has now gone so far that many people believe that nothing they do matters so long as they are honest and open about it and never pretend to be better than they are; moreover, to conceal what one has done suggests that one is ashamed of oneself, and how could this be in an age in which the 'self' is a god - possibly the only god there is? [...] at a deeper level, however paradoxical this may seem, the passion for self-exposure betrays a desire for reassurance and for social approval. For the Muslim, every infringement of the Law, every sin, has two quite separate aspects. In the first place, it relates to the individual's situation vis-a-vis his Creator, whom he knows to be ever ready to forgive, provided the sinner repents and resolves to do better, if he can, in the future. Secondly, if this sin is made public, it is an encouragement to others to do likewise; and this, from the point of view of the community - the rightly guided community - is the more serious aspect of the matter." Gai Eaton, 'Islam and the Destiny of Man', 1994