FRIDAY
LEARNING
8TH Dhul-Qa’dah 1427 AH /
“Indeed the
faithful are brothers (to each other). Therefore make peace between your
brothers and be wary of Allah, so that you may receive His mercy”.
(49:10)
The second thing, which
destroys Brotherhood, is: faultfinding. Allah (SWT) says: “Do not defame one another…” There is another
meaning to it as well.
Ayatullah Shaykh
Ja’ffar Subhani in his Tafseer of Surah al-Hujuraat states that it also means:
“Do not find faults of one another”.
(49:11)
Some
people, who suffer from inferiority complex, have the tendency of picking faults
of others and spreading them in the society. They think, by doing so, they will
be able to make a status for themselves. In reality, they do not know, that by
such behaviour they are actually exhibiting their own weaknesses. A person who
is God-fearing and has a sound mind will always look at his own faults first
before picking up that of others!
Imam
Ali bin Abi Talib (as) has said, “It is a must for
every man of intelligence to look at his own weaknesses in: His following of
religion; His thoughts; His etiquette and his interaction with other people. He
should either record these in his heart OR write them down and then he should
strive to remove all these (bad traits) from himself”. (Ghurar
al-Hikam)
He
(as) has also said, “The
person who busies himself looking into the faults of others should begin by
looking into the faults of his own self (first)”. (Ghurar
al-Hikam)
Imam
Muhammad al-Baqir (as) has said, “Sufficient is a
person’s own defect (in himself) that he tries to pick and look for faults in
other people when he himself has those same faults (and does not recognize
them)”.
(Al-Kaafi)
There
are two very important points, which we ought to remember:
Firstly,
The people who engage themselves in faultfinding of others and have formed this
habit in themselves – Islam is telling us to disassociate with them. Such people
are spiritually ill and no body can be safe from their harm. When they are good
to you, they are very good to you BUT when they are bad to you, you will be
distressed by their behaviour.
Imam
Ali bin Abi Talib (as) has cautioned us against befriending and socializing with
such people. He (as) says: “I warn
you about keeping relations with people who look for faults in others, since
surely there is not a single person who will be safe from such people”.
(Ghurar
al-Hikam)
Therefore
distant yourselves from such people; do not ever make the mistake to even
entertain them and do not be in the same social circle as they are
in.
Secondly,
we must also strive to keep away from this act of faultfinding in others. The
way to do this is to look at good and bright side of others. It is narrated
that:
Once
the companions of Prophet ‘Issa (as) saw a dog, which was very ugly and
horrible. They expressed their hatred towards that dog. Prophet ‘Issa (as) said
to them, “Why do you not look
at its fangs, how nice they are? Allah, the Almighty put them in the mouth of a
dog. How strong they are? They can crush hard bones with them!”.
If
this were how we were thinking of each other’s behaviour, there would be no one
among us engaging in faultfinding!