Monday 6 October 2008


Shaykh ‘Abdullah ‘Azzam
“…and because of this, the Prophet exposed for us those who please us with their tongues, when he said: “Throw dirt in their faces,” meaning, the faces of those who praise people to their faces. Likewise, he said to the one who praised his brother to his face: “You have broken your brother’s back.” So, praising your brother to his face is disliked - if not forbidden - except in the case that you are trying to point out some of his faults. In such a situation, there is no problem in you mentioning some of his praiseworthy traits, such as saying to him: ‘Brother, you are very intelligent, and you are a man who is loved by the people, and you are a person who is considered a leader. However, I see in you such-and-such a fault, so, is it possible for you to correct these faults?’ And if the person that you wish to advise has a position of authority over you, is older than you, or is your parent, then there is no problem in sending him a message, for example.

Hasan al-Banna - may Allah have Mercy upon him - said: “We used to follow this way of commanding the good and forbidding the evil. We had a shaykh who used to teach us and guide us, so, one day, I saw him praying between the pillars of the mosque. So, I wanted to advise him that praying between the pillars of the mosque is disliked (makruh). So, I wrote him a letter, and addressed it on behalf of ‘A Doer of Good,’ saying: “O Shaykh, I saw you praying between the pillars of the mosque, and this is disliked, as the Prophet said.” I then signed it ‘A Doer of Good,’ and sent it to him by mail. He got the letter and read it, then he said: “O youth! I have received a letter from a man who advised me not to pray between the pillars of the mosque, and I did not previously know that this is disliked, so, don’t do it.”"

Hasan al-Banna added: “I was amongst the youth that he was addressing. So, we were able to fulfill a good action without causing any insult or offense to our teacher….”

Therefore, commanding the good and forbidding the evil requires a person who loves the people; a person who looks at the bigger picture; a person with a gentle tongue. Do not come to one and say: ‘I hate you for the sake of Allah because you do this or that.’ Are you not able to say, instead: ‘I love you for the sake of Allah, my brother! However, I saw a simple and small mistake from you.’

By Allah, a brother described to me the following: “Someone came up to me and said: “I hate you for the Sake of Allah.”

So, I said to him: “Why? Why do you hate me for the Sake of Allah?”

He replied: “Because your father is from the Ikhwan al-Muslimin.”"

There is no might nor power except with Allah. What Islam is this? I hate him for the Sake of Allah - for what? Because his father is from the Ikhwan al-Muslimin. Sufficient is Allah as the Disposer of our affairs, and this person considers this to be commanding the good and forbidding the evil and a proclamation of the truth, and he thinks that he will have some reward as a result of this, as a result of his putting off the Muslims…”

['Fi Dhilal Surat at-Tawbah'; p. 75]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

May Allah reward you for sharing this. How often do we point out positive things in a person before the negative?
I am reading 'The complete secrets of happy children' by steve and sharon Biddulph. A similar technique should be used when diciplining children. Mention positive traits and remind them that you love them while correcting them.

Anonymous said...

Sister, are you married?

aej said...

Greetings!

I hope this finds you well. My name is Alison Jarrett and I am currently a post-graduate student at the London School of Economics and Political Science, studying Global Media and Communications. I found your blog through a maze of links in the blogosphere. :)

At the moment I am beginning the empirical research for my dissertation which seeks to identify motivations among young British Muslims who create and maintain their own blogs and websites. I am looking primarily at motivations originating from Islamic identity, British identity and online youth culture identity. I am interested in learning about why they keep religious blogs, what sorts of things they write about, and the kinds of responses they get from readers.

I am looking for young Muslims, age 18-35, who keep a religious blog or website, and was wondering if you fit the profile or know someone who does. I have a short survey if you'd like to contribute and enrich my research, which I'm including at the bottom of the email.Or if you find answering online surveys too tedious, let me know the best way to contact you and we can have a chat instead!

I am corresponding with your fellow-blogger Umm at the moment as well. Are you joint contributors or do you both just comment on each others' blogs?

I would greatly appreciate any help or advice, and please don’t hesitate to ask questions if you want more clarification on my work. The finished report is due to be released around November, and I will happily share my research and findings.

Best regards,
Alison Jarrett
MSc Global Media and Communications
London School of economics and Political Science
a.e.jarrett@lse.ac.uk
(0)781-415-7749

Survey Questions

General Questions

1. In which country were you born?
2. Can you briefly describe the community you grew up in?
3. What [or who] first inspired you to create a site?
4. What are three main topic areas of your site and why are they so important?
5. How much time do you commit to maintaining your blog or site?
a. Do you think it’s too much? Not enough? Why?

Practicing Islam

6. Where/who are the top three sources you go to for religious guidance?
7. What do your parents/family members think of you keeping a religious blog/site?
8. Is there anyone you would not want to read your blog/site?
9. What things are you careful about when writing?
10. How has having a blog/site influenced your beliefs? Have they been strengthened? Weakened?
11. In what ways does your blog/site represent you as a person?

Being British

12. Imagine a young, British non-believer visits your site. What is his/her impression of your content?
a. What do you want him/her to think?
13. If a non-believer misinterprets your content, what, in your opinion, is the cause of the misunderstanding?
14. How important is it to have meaningful dialogue with people of other faiths?

And finally, some technical questions

15. Where did you first learn to create web pages?
16. Would you consider yourself part of a blogging community?
a. If so, how do you know it’s a community?
17. How does your blog/site compare to others technically?
18. What kind of feedback do you get on your site?
a. Who do you get it from?
19. Do you ever get criticisms, and if so, what does that feel like?
20. How often do you write about other online content (i.e. articles, videos, forums)?
a. Do other sites mention your content?
21. How has having a blog/site changed the way you read online content?
22. Do you think it’s a good thing that anyone can produce content?
23. If you weren’t blogging, what would you spend the extra time on?
24. And one last question: What has surprised you most about having a blog/site?

Thank you for your time and have a beautiful day!

Anonymous said...

[url=http://www.23planet.com]casino[/url], also known as first-class casinos or Internet casinos, are online versions of rare ("buddy and mortar") casinos. Online casinos approve gamblers to fling and wager on casino games with the return the Internet.
Online casinos unspecifically volunteer odds and payback percentages that are comparable to land-based casinos. Some online casinos insist on higher payback percentages in the resort to of terrible automobile games, and some make known payout piece audits on their websites. Assuming that the online casino is using an correctly programmed unsystematic myriad generator, suit illusory to games like blackjack enthral bear an established restrain edge. The payout patch recovering as a replacement pro these games are established gone and forgotten the rules of the game.
Uncountable online casinos sublease in dishonour or control their software from companies like Microgaming, Realtime Gaming, Playtech, Wide-ranging Devices Technology and CryptoLogic Inc.